BlackBook Magazine

Just a gentle reminder to register for BlackBook (it's free & brief) to enter our Tilda Swinton 'Burn After Reading' contest. You can win a bag o' Tilda DVDs and swag from the movie. Deadline is September 18. Sign up now, then go have a pleasant weekend.

In this digital age, lookbooks are largely archaic -- now it's all about the short-film lookbook. It's now often customary for hip designers to assemble their celebrity pals for a fashion-cum-performance art piece. Wren designer Melissa Coker is carrying the torch this season. She has her pals model Karen Elson, Sarah Sophie Flicker (of the Citizen's Band), and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld (daughter of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld) showing off her Spring 2009 collection. Coker and her filmmaker pal Alia Raza combined dialogue from Robert Altman's 3 Women and Woody Allen's Another Woman to create a short called "Another 3 Woman." Raza explains, "It's less about the literalness of what is occurring on screen and more about what remains in our minds and influences us after we've seen a film or a work of art."

Of course, it's not like the LA weather's about to get chilly.

1. Griddle Café - Starlets, pancakes and a buzzy atmosphere.
2. James Beach - Grilled peaches and seaside breezes
3. Dusty’s - Crepes, champagne and hazy drunken afternoons

Cookies might be the enemy for waify models, but rumor has it that Erin Fetherston and LU Biscuits will collaborate on ... something. Fetherston burst onto the fashion scene a few years ago and is known for her whimsical, otherworldly couture dresses. Recently she branched out to ready-to-wear and will present in Bryant Park four days before the collaboration will be announced. She recently gave a one-word description of her upcoming collection: "Sunset." So what the designer and the chocolate-biscuit company could be making together is anyone's guess.

Do those Down Easters at L.L. Bean know something we don't? In a stormy economy with a recession looming on the horizon, the prep-wear outfitter is building stores from New York to Denver. Perhaps they insidiously tapped into our secret lust for barn jackets and Bean boots. According to sources, Bean is breaking ground this year in Rochester, New York, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Skokie, and South Barrington, Illinois. And in 2009, the company is eying Yonkers, New York, and Deadham, Massachusetts, with talk of opening retail outlets in Bridgewater and Paramus, New Jersey. Past 2010, they're looking west to Denver and beyond. And as if that wasn't enough Bean sprouting, the company is venturing into television projects, and recently inked a 13-episode deal with the Outdoors Channel for L.L. Bean's Guide to the Outdoors.

Mercedes Helnwein's childhood reads a bit like an avant-garde take on a Jane Austen novel. At a young age, she flouted the company of her father's high-profile friends -- including personalities like Andy Warhol -- seeking refuge in literature instead. She spent many of her formative years in a Northanger Abbey of her own -- in a secluded Viennese castle. Last November, BlackBook demystified the artist-writer and found that apart from her exotic backstory, Helnwein was just a creative mind attempting to make sense of the world around her through what she does best.

End of season, East Coast style.

1. Dos Caminos - Wash down your guacamole with tumblers of tequila.
2. Jane - Martini’s and benedicts ... Jane makes everything plain good.
3. Turkish Kitchen - Baklava and Turkish coffee; huge buffet brunches on Sunday.

Belt-tightening be damned! While most retail sucks wind, one company seems to have gotten it right. Philly-based Urban Outfitters (and Anthropologie and Free People) are enjoying a numbers boom. In the second quarter, they've seen a 79% jump in sales. I know! Crazy, right? They don't even have sale prices. So, how do they do it? According to the Wall Street Journal, they've "been attracting shoppers with an eclectic mix of full-price clothing and home goods in stores where employees create their own displays." And instead of flooding the market (are you listening, Starbucks?), they plan to cap the number of stores at 250. "Big is the enemy of cool," says the company's founder.

New York legend Elaine Kaufman of Elaine’s gets inside a writer’s mind, grabs lunch with the New Yorker boys, and throws a bash for a Swedish dance troupe.

Point of Origin: I'm a New Yorker, born and bred. I was a frisky kid, you know? I was always game, always interested, you know, curious. Curiosity, that was it. I didn't like school. I thought it was dumb. Of course, I had a lot of cousins and all that stuff who were teachers and I had older brothers and sisters who were always involved in the literary world. My parents worked and used to drop me off at the library, so I was always brought up around a lot of books, and it fit in, because it was a part my particular character. I couldn't ask for better education. Books. I understood what they were talking about, and I was compassionate. It was more fun at the library than school. It was intelligence -- this person talked about this subject; the other person talked about that, and I put people together who were interested in the same things. Even as a child, I was gregarious, so it was a fit.

Rise above the riff raff below and survey your tropical kingdom.

1. Smith & Wollensky - Where you can sip stiff drinks by the Deco Bar and watch the sun set while cruise ships steam by.
2. Level 25 - Miami has the sexiest city lights. Overlook them while you schmooze, 250 feet above ocean level, on the 25th floor of the chic Conrad hotel.
3. Mandarin Oriental - All rooms have balconies overlooking the bay or skyline. But the stars you'll see in the lobby -- celebs dig it.