Apparently the fashion industry is being plagued by a diffusion line epidemic: in just under a week the likes of Temperley, Rag & Bone, Grey Ant, and Thom Browne have announced that they'll launch lower-priced lines. Temperley, whose dresses can typically retail for over $1,000, is launching a lower-priced line whose price tags will start at a relative mere $57. Of Rag & Bone's new cheaper offshoot that launches this spring, The Cut says, "the rag & bone/JEAN line will include three styles of jeans in eight colorways while rag & bone/SHIRT will include seven styles, each in three colorways. The new lines wholesale for $70 to $80 while the main line wholesales for $60 to $860."

What better way to use the only sunny day of the week than to make our legion of snobbishly fashionable fashion interns take to the streets in their eight-plus platforms and play fashion detective? Armed with only a camera and an arsenal of questions, the fearsome three -- Lindsay, Laura, and Justine -- did their finest Anne Hathaway impressions and scouted the city's most sartorially delicious in their favorite retail playgrounds. Initially, they aimed to sneak up on their YSL-clad boutique-bag-bearing victims and demand to know what, exactly, they had just splurged on. But considering the current dime crunch, it ended up being an ambush of attitudes, BlackBook style. Take it away, ladies!

Suze Orman is about as likely to tell you to invest in a v-neck sweater as she is to suggest putting money under a mattress. But these days, a Barbour jacket might be a safer investment than say, 100 shares of Google stock. However, with the public and media's increasingly vocal disapproval of conspicuous consumption, it’s best to lay low and stick with the classics (or at least designs that look like them). So go on -- wrap yourself in the certainty of a time-tested brand with a few New York shopping options.

At the Rag & Bone after-party last night, dozens of fashion industry alum and hangers-on gathered atop the Hotel Gansevoort's picturesque roof to indulge in free booze and a refreshing (pre-tropical storm) breeze. Designers Marcus Wainright and David Neville were all smiles as they greeted family and friends in celebration of a New Wave-themed collection that seemed well received by all. Set to a soundtrack of Joy Division and the Buzzcocks, Rag & Bone's show took place before a celeb-studded crowd that included Charlize Theron (who made her sole NY Fashion Week appearance, save for the 15 minutes she spent two nights prior at Benjamin Bixby's party at Barneys), Jamie Burke, Elettra Rossellini Wiedermann, and Kelly Osborne.

The fashion world is responsible for bestowing upon us much good. It’s indirectly (or directly) responsible for the Kate Moss coke tape, the latest cover of V Magazine, and come to think of it, our September issue. Every once in a while, the gliteratti of the fashion world unite for a supremely worthy cause. A jaunt to JustOneFrickinDay.com will reveal just cause in Joey Jalleo and Elettra Wiedemann's (supermodel face of Lancome and daughter of Isabella Rossellini) effort to bring a solar-powered hospital to the African nation of Burundi. The Burundi Solar project aims to raise $450K by gathering six of the fashion industry’s most influential rising stars to design T-shirts for purchase on their website. Chris Benz, Giambattista Valli, Rogan, Rag & Bone, Phillip Lim and House of Diehl have designed the limited edition shirts for $60 each. T-shirts have been on sale since yesterday, so be a pal and help a nation out.