The divine, $3,200.00 carnelian and citrine necklace above comes from designer dream team Badgley/Sneed. Their gorgeous, richly creative, intricate pieces ooze sophistication and style. See the gallery below for some more of our favorite Badgley/Sneed designs!

The Badgley/Sneed team is comprised of Jan Sneed and Lynne Murphy Badgley, two longtime friends. Combining class with semi-precious stones, their work is exquisite, yet attainable.

We hear there's a new line coming--and in our gallery, you'll see Lynne Badgley wearing an item from said line. Though it is currently untitled, we understand the line is inspired by Gossip Girl.

It's no coincidence Lynne Badgley is Penn Badgley's mother! Penn and Blake Lively have been seen promoting Badgley Sneed designs together. Fun fact: Jan Sneed is Penn Badgley's godmother.

Keep an eye on this pair, they've got beautiful designs and celebrity connections. You can't buy luck like that!

When Vivienne Tam posed with Miss USA during New York Fashion Week she had an interesting accessory tucked under her arm. That peony-printed clutch that matched her dress was no purse, it was the new mini notebook from Hewlett Packard. HP collaborated with Tam on the fashion notebook which also appeared on the runway with Tam's clothing. The "digital clutch" has a 10-inch screen. No details on specs or pricing have been released yet but it is supposed be available in early 2009. Laptop Magazine has a great gallery of close-up shots of the new gadget.

A few days ago I had the privilege of being a guest of American Express at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2008 in NYC. Aside from agonizing over what to wear (and realizing that of course no one was looking at me), it was a fun experience, and one I'd likely never get to have without this invite. As an AmEx guest, I got to go to a special "Skybox" to view the DKNY Spring 2009 show along with about 20 AmEx Platinum Card members, who were there (at the cool price of $700 each) to enjoy the day's events and luxuriate in special amenities as part of AmEx's "By Invitation Only" program. Also on hand were staffers from various companies associated with AmEx, who made sure the guests were comfortable and enjoying themselves. I chatted with one guest, who took advantage of the complimentary hair and makeup services that morning. She did have excellent hair. The room was too dim for me to see her makeup, but I'm sure it was lovely.

AmEx, a major Fashion Week sponsor for the second consecutive year, has long associated itself with fashion icons. On display in the tent's main lobby, front and center, was an AmEx booth that featured three iconic photos, used as part of AmEx's "I'm a Card Member" ads: Sammy Davis Jr., Diane Von Furstenburg and Venus Williams. Word is the photos changed throughout the show. Other sponsors also had booths in the main lobby, from the usual suspects, such as Judith Ripka and the Italian Trade Commission, to unexpected companies, such as Office Max and M&M's.

Fashion favorite Miguel Adrover is returning to New York Fashion Week with a show that you don't have to beg for a ticket to get into. Adrover, who took a four-year hiatus from Fashon Week is back, now at the helm of hessnatur, an organic German fashion company making its U.S. debut this year. The 32-year-old company recently earned the 2008 Public Eye Award at the World Economic forum for improving the social conditions of workers.

Adrover's mixed format show will be at the Matthew Marks Gallery and will be opening to the public during the day on September 8 2008. It showcases organic and natural fabrics playing with textures and design in a comfortable yet innovative way.

The always charming Blake Lively from the hit series Gossip Girl had her work cut out for her at a recent Vanity Fair photo shoot. Her day included prancing around in a 33-pound Christian Dior gown! The yellow satin gown dazzled with Swarovski crystals detailing, 6,000 sequins (I counted), and detailed hand stitching. Lively, always a star, rose to the occasion and truly owned the dress, the photos are effortless and pretty. I wonder how much a gown like that would cost, any guesses?

At London's Fashion Week something other than new clothing designs were making an impression: the jewelry and accessories by designer Azza Fahmy were not only noticed but they were loved as well.

Formerly a "British Designer of the Year" and always an Egyptian native, Azza Fahmy has been working diligently with her two daughters to market her unique jewelry designs far from home in Western markets (due to Middle Eastern tastes leaning more towards karat weights and grams of gold than art and creative design). Western shoppers are eating up the beautiful jewelry, no matter the expensive prices ($250 and up), and Fahmy hopes that popularity in the West will lead to better business in the East.

There's always a balance to be had, of course, but I have to say I'm happy to be part of a culture that values art and design over cold hard cash value. She's got some really beautiful pieces, especially the necklace above!

The global rounds of fashion week have brought us a wide variety of styles that range from boring to out of this world. One fashion house that always manages to blast off is Dolce & Gabbana. The Italian duo takes a space voyage with its winter 2008 menswear collection. With loads of metallic silvers, bronzes, and gold, the collection has a very space program theme to it. Coats and and pants reminiscent of spacesuits are blended with sleek sweaters and form fitting leather. Dark suits with metallic ties lend a secret agent feel to the collection all the while continuing the not-so-subtle celestial theme. The item that I feel is the hotspot of the offering is the tight biker jacket in a variety of materials. I'm thinking I'll be needing one.

Nothing makes a big, well-publicized event as exciting as a wardrobe malfunction, but I will admit that it is more exciting at a sporting event than a fashion one. With all the costume changes and models running around backstage, trying to fit into samples of various clothing, it isn’t surprising that, from time to time, there will be a malfunction. In India, a recent show seemed plagued with malfunctions and, given the conservative nature of the media and guests in attendance, it created quite a stir.

Personally, I was much more interested in the clothes that were being shown than the media uproar that followed. Indian Fashion Week mega-show featured Indian designers, like Anupama Dayal and Shahzad Kalim and was full of silken, flowing skirts, vibrant colors, corset tops and lots of accessories, including embroidery and lace on the clothing. Dayal’s designs in particular were gorgeous and I have heard that some will be exported to parts of Europe and the US in the coming months. Anyone have any leads on a store, yet?

[Image Reuters]

I headed back to Mercedes Benz fashion week yesterday to check out the designs of Valeria Marini. Where the last show I saw presented a re-imagined vintage Hollywood glamor, Marini's show was pure Italian sauciness attended by a Continental crowd. From my vantage point behind Paula Abdul's shoulder (she attended with her new man, the tall and handsome Tony Schiena) I checked out the designs. Marini, a blonde Italian bombshell herself, designs for the bedroom as much as the nightclub. The clothes are confections of lace and skintight satin with sparkling rhinestones. Not for the PETA-prone, this show featured a flurry of fur used in wraps, hats, and bouncing along on the end of satin ties. The show presented sexy in just about every way possible, from long flowing dressing gowns cinched in at the waist and worn over tiny jeweled bikinis, to clingy dresses that recalled the glory days of 1980s Lycra, and tight pencil skirts with bits of lace worn with tight sweaters that were almost but not quite demure. Marini designs in her own image, the show wasn't quite as eye-poppingly outrageous as the Agent Provocateur show but it was definitely a close second. You can check out all the vampwear as captured by the lenses of Getty Images here.

As part of Los Angeles fashion week, one aspiring designer will be awarded a $20,000 one-year scholarship to attend FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising this fall and to work with fashion designer Kevan Hall. The scholarship will be partially funded through an upcoming auction of one-of-a-kind Fender guitars decorated by guitarist Slash, supermodel Carolyn Murphy, pop star Mya and skater Tony Hawk.  The guitars are on display during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios and will be auctioned this spring. The saucy guitar in the center which bears plenty of pictures of women in lingerie and the words "whip me" up one side is bound to be a hot seller.

I'd always wanted to attend a fashion show, just once. Consider it research in a fabulousness I will never attain. Yesterday afternoon, I attended the Elsie Katz Couture show as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Donna Baxter, the designer, is famed for gowns with a vintage feel.

If you are part of the ordinary people, at a show you sign in, get your seat assignment on a little card and then cue up until they let you in to the show area. There were plenty of famous people there even though this show, Elsie Katz Couture was one of the afternoon shows. I didn't recognize that many by name but I did see Jane Seymour who is taller than you would think and just gorgeous. Janice Dickinson teetered by on high heels. Looks exactly like she does on TV except louder, so much louder.

You sit, you hold your program, the lights go down, the music swells and the magic begins. The models are as thin as you would imagine and gawky, unwieldy in their flawlessness. This show, Elsie Katz Couture, was all about vintage glamor. Satin gowns hanging off languorous limbs. The looks varied between 20s flapper chic and fur looks that made the models look like tiny Russian dolls. Smoky eye makeup, a cascade of ringleted hair, dark matte lips and even beauty marks completed the look of decadent luxury. All that was missing were cigarette holders and Brylcreemed men in tuxedos dancing attendance. One thing I didn't know about fashion shows was that people often applaud the looks they like. Particularly gorgeous flowing gowns in gold and jewel tones received warm smiles, a couple of looks that seemed sort of woolen and bulky were met with a silence. No fashion show would be complete without a little nip slip, and yes we got one here too (you can see it in the Getty images of the show). Many of the dresses seem red-carpet ready and I am sure we will be seeing some of them at awards shows in the future. Check out the pictures of the show at Getty Images or watch video clips of this and other shows at the IMG Fashion World website.