PopSugar

Milly Fall 2012

Chi Diem Chau — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:54:16 PST

Michelle Smith showed a fun collection brimming with color and cool techno fabrics for Milly's Fall line. The results? A prim and polished collection injected with modern fabrics and a bit of edge. Tweed dresses were given a shiny finish thanks to a high-tech laminated finish, while full leather skirts lend a feminine feel. A wide array of cocktail-ready dresses were the main focus, ranging from scalloped hemlines to strapless neon and lace confections. Standout pieces included a brilliant metallic purple skirt paired with a textured dotted jacket and a red patent leather funnel neck coat. More details from Milly's ladylike cool collection below.

Trends: Techo fabrics, embellished collars, full skirts.
Colors: Cobalt, green, black, hot pink, chartreuse, purple, red.
Key Piece: The laminated tweed dresses were simultaneously fresh and feminine.
Accessories: Shearling clutches, satchel bags, opera gloves.
Who Would Wear It: In addition to front row attendees Tinsley Mortimer and Kristin Chenoweth, we can also envision Upper East side personalities, like Blair Waldorf, wearing some of these pieces.

Natalie Portman and Dakota Fanning Team Up For a Fashion Week Front Row

Lauren Turner — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:17:19 PST

Natalie Portman and Dakota Fanning posed together before taking their front-row seats at Rodarte's NY Fashion Week presentation this afternoon. Also on hand to see Rodarte's 2012 collection were Maria Sharapova and George Lucas. Natalie's back home on the East Coast after a stint in LA, where she attended the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes. Last year, Natalie was a big award season winner for Black Swan, and she's finally lining up her first post-Oscar projects. Apparently, Natalie's involved in two Terrence Malick movies, Knight of the Cups and Lawless, which will film this Summer and Fall.

5 Aphrodisiacs to Set the Mood Right Tonight

Susannah Chen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:09:21 PST

If it's really true that 70 percent of women and men expect to get hot and heavy tonight, then dinner should have one mission: to make the two of you swoon. We've offered the lowdown on healthy foods that'll stimulate sex drives - but what foods do chefs put on the menu to help you get in the mood?

To find out, we turned to David Bazirgan, who's no stranger to sexy meals. As the executive chef at San Francisco's Fifth Floor Restaurant, he helps to set the standard for the city's relaxed fine dining atmosphere. To check out some of the ingredients that he elects to use on his Valentine's Day menus - and to hear what he calls the most "underrated" aphrodisiac, read more.

Top OMG Moments From Gossip Girl "Crazy, Cupid, Love"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:43:54 PST

This week's episode of Gossip Girl is a tangled web of Valentine's Day love and loss. Blair tries to play Cupid to bring Serena and Dan together, Nate hosts a high school-themed party to hang out with Lola, and Ivy returns to the Upper East Side to speak with Lily - only she ends up speaking to Lola instead. Let's recap the Charlie Rhodes drama, who kisses who, and all of this week's top OMG moments.

Photos courtesy of The CW

Watch Zac Posen's Body-Conscious Fall 2012 Collection Featuring Coco Rocha

FabSugar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:43:40 PST

Zac Posen's body-conscious Fall 2012 collection drew inspiration from the Far East. Complete with trumpet skirts, mermaid gowns, floral prints, and Asian-inspired accents, Zac made sure his designs had women feeling - and looking - like sirens in their own skin. Check out his entire runway show here, featuring Coco Rocha.

Zac Posen Fall 2012

FabSugar — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:51:11 PST

Zac Posen drew influence from the Far East for Fall '12, showing off gorgeous dresses and gowns punctuated with Asian-inspired details. Specifically, it was about Chinoiserie and Japanese influences; fitted sheaths, gowns, and skirt suits were embellished with origami pleating, kimono sleeves, and obi sashes. Meanwhile, Chinese-inspired heavy silk floral patterns were used to create fitted sheath dresses and evening jackets. The main attraction of the evening was Zac's red carpet-worthy evening dresses. There were dramatic fitted mermaid gowns with seamed details and more pared down renditions, made in dove gray and light blush hues featuring intricate origami detailing on the back. The only question that remains is which red-carpet beauty will pick up one of Posen's creations for the Oscars?

Trends: Chinese and Japanese-inspired details.
Colors: Forest green, dove gray, red, black, light blush, pale yellow.
Key Piece: Satin ankle-strap sandals, jeweled clutches, rhinestone earrings, necklaces, and bracelets..
Who Would Wear It: Red-carpet beauties like Debra Messing, Anne Hathaway, and Eva Mendes.

Jen Kao Fall 2012

Chi Diem Chau — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:10:50 PST

The East and West collided together at Jen Kao's Fall showing, resulting in an unapologetic mashup of sexy fringe, baseball caps, and ombré lace dresses. While it might sound a little disjointed, Kao managed to pull it all together creating a carefree attitude with her mixed bag of offerings. Printed floral dresses were decorated with fringe, pleated leather and silk maxi dresses were styled with baseball caps, and crochet dresses were layered over silk printed tops. The results? A rebellious kind of beauty any cool girl - like front-row attendee Zoe Kravitz - would love to wear on any given day.

Trends: Fringe, Asian-inspired floral prints, lace, pleats, brocade.
Colors: Blue, black, brown, gray.
Key Piece: We love how Jen Kao added a cool ombré effect to her lace shift dresses.
Accessories: Patent loafers, low-heel ankle boots, sporty caps.
Who Would Wear It: Girls who crave a unique, edgy touch like front-row attendee Zoe Kravitz.

The Muppets' Music Man Bret McKenzie on His Oscar Nod and Taking a Silly Job Seriously

Lindsay Miller — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:50:41 PST

Bret McKenzie is up for an exceedingly rare honor this year, with his ballad "Man or Muppet" earning one of just two nominations in the Oscars' best song category. I caught up with The Muppets' musical supervisor today at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank to chat about the awards attention and the unique experience of penning music for Kermit and company. The New Zealand native talked about fighting the temptation to use the word "motherfrogger" in his songwriting and the roundabout way he came on board The Muppets project in the first place. Bret - who previously was best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords - also shared his hopes of bringing FOC to the big screen. Check out our conversation below:

PopSugar: It's got to be an honor to be nominated for an Oscar, but also in a year when the Academy only bothered to nominate two songs.
Bret McKenzie: They barely nominated anyone! When I found out, it sounded like there'd been a mistake, and yeah, it's a huge honor. It's great and it's really exciting, and I'm not complaining that there's only two nominees the year I'm nominated. I mean, this is the best chance I'll have of winning an Oscar, ever. It couldn't have been better, unless there was just one nomination, and then it would be a very dull ceremony . . . There's a lot of legendary musicians - tunesmiths - in that list of possible nominations. So it's all very surreal to think that I got in ahead of Elton John.

PS: And Madonna. Those two had a little rivalry going on.
BM: I know. I got nervous about what Elton John's husband was going to say about me. It's crazy, and it's great for The Muppets film, because we're all really proud of the film and it wasn't ever really going to get a best actor. Hey, Jason's good, that's not what I mean, but Kermit, Miss Piggy - they can't win these awards - and comedies don't generally get recognized at these awards ceremonies, so it's kind of cool. It's almost like the film as a whole is being recognized with this category.

For more from our chat with Bret, including what he says about his plans for a Flight of the Conchords film, coaching Jason Segel, and the pressure he felt on the project, just

read more! PS: What was the biggest unexpected challenge for you writing music for the film? I know you talked about one draft of a song where you referred to a Muppet as a piece of felt and were told you couldn't do that. BM: Yeah. Little piece of felt, and you couldn't say things like motherfrogger, even though it's very tempting. There were lots of hard parts to it. The Muppets can't sing certain notes. They can't sing too high or the voice changes and doesn't sound like the right character. There were so many weird things. I spent hours recording penguins and rats, and what's weird is that it's such a silly job, but you have to take it very seriously. So I would be in the studio for days, maybe a whole day recording penguins, and then I'm like, "I'm not happy with how the penguins are sounding! Where's penguin four?" You know, getting demanding. "We lost penguin track four! I can't hear the penguin!" PS: I was watching the movie again last night and watching Jason Segel's performance of "Man or Muppet." Did you coach him on any of his rockstar moves? Because he pretty much nailed it. BM: He nailed it. That's my favorite moment in the film. When he buckles down in the rain, that was one of my favorite shots. I was so proud of what James [Bobin, the director] and those guys achieved, because I wasn't there on set, I just saw them syncing the video, and I was like, "Wow, guys. You nailed it." What we did do in the studio, as Jason and I had a technique where I would sing a line, and he'd watch me through the window, and then he'd sing it back. So we did this thing where, I was really into the drama of it. So, I was like, "Am I a Muppppettt?" [balling his hands into fists] And he'd be like, OK, record. "Am I a Muppppettt!" So we kind of worked together to get that style. PS: Did it shatter some of your childhood illusions to have the guy that does Miss Piggy's voice come work with you [in the recording studio]? BM: Yeah. Well, it wasn't Frank Oz. The guy Eric, who does it now, yeah. That was strange. And the day that we recorded Kermit the Frog doing "Rainbow Connection" - I was sort of pinching myself, because that was probably one of the real moments for me where I realized that my world had really changed. That I'd come from New Zealand, I'd grown up with Kermit the Frog, and now I was in Hollywood in a studio recording Kermit the Frog. It felt like worlds had collided. PS: Was there pressure knowing there was already this great catalog of Muppet songs? To try to add to that or top it in some way? BM: I knew I wouldn't top "Rainbow Connection," but I was very intimidated, but the way I worked on the job was it actually started with me just writing one song, so I didn't feel the pressure of writing the whole movie. I think it would have been different if I'd been hired from the outset to do all the music. So I wrote one, then another, and gradually wrote more and more, so that helped. PS: What song did you write first? BM: The opening song. That's the one they needed, that's the one James asked me to write first. The script was probably on a second draft, and they were in preproduction, so I came in quite late. And the way they were doing it was, they got 100s of demos submitted from all sorts of songwriters, and surprisingly - even though they got some really great people to do demos - people weren't quite hitting the right tone. The Muppet tone. I'd just come off the Conchords tour and I had some time, and James asked if I was interested in doing that opening song, because he had a kind of specific thing he needed from that song. He needed it to be really Muppet-y, that song, and he had a great idea for the whole town joining in, it starting off small and becoming a big musical number, and that came together really well. PS: Is this experience maybe something you want to bring to a Flight of the Conchords movie? BM: Yeah, exactly. Having done this movie now, we're in a much better place to do a Conchords film, because James is more experienced - well, we're all more experienced. Not specifically, but James Bobin - well, we're all very keen to do another studio musical, because I really enjoyed being able to do comedy musical numbers on such a grand scale, and I think next time, I really think it will just get better and better. Because it's such a fun genre, and we've done like 50 songs for TV now, and now The Muppets movie, and I feel like we've accidentally sort of become musical comedy experts. PS: What do you imagine Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords are up to these days, in their universe? BM: In the Lower East Side? That's a good question. I reckon they probably got a regular gig now. Like, at a Chinese restaurant. Photo courtesy Disney

Gas Prices Are Up! What You Can Do to Save

Emily Co — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:20:33 PST

Unrest in the Middle East and the closing of American refineries have gas prices going up, up, and away for US consumers. Analysts are predicting that the prices may continue to rise.

But don't worry, there are a number of methods to save on refueling your car. Here are some tips:

Spend to Save: Look for deals around you that will help you save on your gas. For example, you can choose to frequent wholesale stores like Costco, which will give you a little bit of cash back on Costco gas. If you're a real gas guzzler, check out this full list of gas rebate cards on CreditCards.com.
Don't Top It Off: Topping off your gas may result in a higher gas bill, because you might be paying for gas that goes back into the station's tanks after your gas tank is full, says the Environmental Protection Agency. You can also ruin your car's vapor recovery system if there is no room for the gas to expand in your tank.
Smooth Trip: Starting and stopping excessively can shorten the life of your engine, transmission, brakes, and tires. Go easy on your braking and accelerating. Remember to also turn off your engine if you know you'll be waiting for a long while. Staying put without moving means you're getting 0 miles per gallon.

For more gas-saving tips, read on.

Link Time: Ever Wondered What the Obamas Eat on Super Bowl Sunday?

Camilla Salem — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:05:52 PST

What the Obamas ate on Super Bowl Sunday - Food Republic
West Coast vs. East Coast brand names - HuffPost Kitchen Daily
The real deal with boxed wines - The Daily Meal
How McDonald's Chicken McBites pissed off pit bull owners - Grub Street Boston
The United States of Chocolate is a place we're proud to live in - FN Dish
Green tea soup? Yep, it's a thing - My Recipes
Your microwave could be the most useful appliance in your kitchen - Real Simple
Rethinking the five-second rule - HuffPost Food