SAY HELLO: Juicy Couture, Tory Burch, Nordstrom SAY GOODBYE: Harold’s, ‘O at Home,’ Club Libby Lu, Men’s Vogue

Well if it isn’t the economy, then it’s the economy!

Yawn. (Please have the houseman send two Excedrin. STAT.)

Before we do all the dreary-dreary, let’s start with some fun news, like Tory Burch opening her Palm Beach store today!

Conveniently located right on Worth Avenue, this is the designer’s 16th store; next month her 17th opens in New York’s meatpacking district.  This reminds us, has everyone seen the new Reva in suede?

Another designer landing nearby on Worth? Michael Kors, with a new boutique he has planned for a long time, according to a story in the Palm Beach Daily News:

“In America, the warm-weather place to be is Palm Beach,” he said. “Palm Beach has always been on my radar.”

Also, Nordstrom *finally* opened their new store in Naples last Friday. At last!  And the Juicy Couture flagship on Fifth is now open, following Thursday night’s big do. Below, co-founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor.

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Juicy Couture

From the halls of popular prep school drama Gossip Girl star Blake Lively was on hand for the Juicy festivities.

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Juicy Couture

Co-star and real life significant other(?) Penn Badgley was on hand along with Jessica Szohr…

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Juicy Couture

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Many readers are probably familiar with most of these dreary headlines, but just in case anyone missed them along the way…we start with Saks announcing last week that it is closing the Club Libby Lu stores; that is almost 100 shops in total.

The company expects to have all closed by the end of their first-quarter in 2009.

Then we had surprising news today about perennial Wall Street favorite J. Crew, according to an AP story via CNBC:

“Shares of J. Crew Group Inc. fell to an all-time low Monday after an analyst said she expects weaker results from the apparel and accessories retailer…”

And now we are ever-so-glad the Queen Mother wasn’t planning to purchase the new flat-screen at Circuit City, with their bankruptcy announcement today.

But here is the loss that really hurts, hitting too close to home for our sensitivities. Harold’s.

Courtesy Harold's

During our years doing tv in Oklahoma City we frequently found ourselves at the Harold’s at Penn Place if shopping in town. Our favorite out-of-town Harold’s haunts were at River Oaks, The Galleria in Dallas and on Lover’s Lane; we would also pop into the store at Tyson’s when visiting that part of the galaxy.  Even TSU (The Spousal Unit) went nuclear upon hearing the news.

The liquidation sales started last Friday; the company expects it will take approximately four months to finish selling the merchandise.  Sniff.  Tissue please.

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The word came last week that “O at Home,” the quarterly spun off from “O: The Oprah Magazine,‘ will cease publishing with the Winter issue.  Any future issues will be part of O.

The Princess Consort was concerned when he learned that Men’s Vogue will essentially cease publishing, although technically it is being ‘absorbed’ by Vogue, and hopes to publish twice a year.  (Okay… truth be told, the Consort won’t miss this one iota, it is I who enjoyed flipping through the pages.)

And here is one that rapidly became one of our more enjoyable business reads, Conde Nast’s Portfolio. It is dropping from twelve to ten issues a year.

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We are in peril of becoming completely distraught, so rather than going off the deep end we shall mention the Great Preppy Giveaway here at  Preppy Princess Intergalactic Headquarters, where it is *always* pink and green.

You can win an outstanding Bungalow Scout Tote, simply by leaving a comment mentioning something about America you are thankful for… that’s it!  Just fill in the blank: “I am thankful __________” and leave a comment and you are entered!  Plus, if you mention the Giveaway on your blog and you win, you receive a fabulous set of oh-so-preppy Madras Photocards as a second gift that we’ll send to anyone of your choosing! And we pay the postage on all of this!

It is our way of saying ‘Thank You’ to all of our faithful customers and blogging friends! This contest closes at midnight Wednesday night, and the next one begins early Thursday, so have some fun…you just might be the lucky winner! For more information, click here to read detailed specifics and background!

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For today’s Pretty in Pink item we honor Club Libby Lu (not that TP has ever set foot in one, but we have heard about them…does that almost count?!) with the Pop Sugar Polka Dot Cupcake PJ Set in pink.

Club Libby Lu

Until later… grins and giggles.

The Ultimate Preppy Tea Sandwiches, “The Towering World of Jimmy Choo” & Saks Sales

Happy Thursday, ’tis The Princess back again from visiting the Queen and still in a dither about the Princess Consort’s revelations yesterday. Really. I thought we had agreed some things just didn’t need to be made public, lest people think less of The Princess. And then he just goes and tells everyone about his fear of swimming in the ocean, and the time he “…hired a man to swim in the ocean for me”. How embarrassing for everyone to know he hires people to do his swimming for him!

On a side note, all Wall Street reporting aside, one would not know from the number of cars in the Nordstrom parking lot they hadn’t been enjoying a completely stellar year; they were quite busy yesterday. But then again, their sale section seemed really very large, especially when one considers this was not their Anniversary Sale section, but a “regular sale area,” an oxymoron at Nordstrom, for until recently (this year we believe) the only sales were the Anniversary Sale and the Shoe Sale.

We couldn’t resist putting up this image of pink and green sandwiches, the shot was simply too good not to post! It is from flickr, posted almost three years ago. The description follows:

pink and green tea sandwiches: egg with capers and smoked pimentón, turkey with a cranberry-pecan-orange zest cream cheese, smoked salmon with cucumber and an herby cream cheese.

The fillings sound yummy although TP isn’t sure how she would do with the bright and vibrantly-hued bread! Now the next item on our hit parade,

isn’t available until March of next year, but we couldn’t resist at least alerting you to its impending arrival. The Towering World of Jimmy Choo: A Glamorous Story of Power, Profits and Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe comes to us via Bloomsbury Publishing, and is written by Laura Goldstein Crowe, the former (and fab) Fashion Inc. blogger at Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine, and Sagra Maceira de Rosen, an executive specializing in Luxury and Retail investments for Reig Capital.

One of our favorite websites, the Business of Fashion, managed to get an early and exclusive look at the book. As they put it, “The book is sure to cause a frenzy when published…” and we couldn’t agree more. This one sounds like it has all the makings of an outstanding non-fiction book so filled with inside stories it’s better than many a fiction book. Or, as you frequently hear from TP: “…I couldn’t make this stuff up…” on some of the more unbelievable posts.

Continuing with the Jimmy Choo track, Saks has several pair on sale at markdowns that are significant if these are your style. The Elm Water Snake Sandals start us off, with what TP is tempted to describe as “only a 4.5″ heel,” the way things are shaping up. (And up…and up!) These have “…Glamorous water snake metallic wraps at the cut-out ankle.” Indeed. Originally $920, these are now just $367.90.

Additionally Saks offers the Aeon Lizard Sandals, also originally $920, now $551.90.

A few more sale samplings at Saks, including the Burberry Infant’s Stripe Skirted Onesie at $62.90 from $95; it has snaps at the shoulders, tough to see in the photos, we know.

Also available if you’re looking for something a bit subdued for yourself, the Carmen Marc Valvo Polka Dot Dress is light and foofy, originally $330 and now $197.90.

Because we don’t want to show specific items that have limited quantities, here are just a few overview page links to designers at Saks we know you love, so you can just scan all of their sale items rather than seeing one specific item here that has long since sold out.

Their was a fair amount of Lilly Pulitzer left, some Shoshanna bathing suits and cover-ups, a smattering of Tory Burch goodies definitely worth looking at, a good amount of Hugo Boss for him, and a substantial amount of Juicy Couture. There is simply oddles more, this is just after The Princess did a quick graze to satisfy her concerns that these merit your time and attention.

We close with a few image of the plans for what is expected to be the ‘world’s largest fountain,” set to be built in Dubai. Situated next to the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest structure as of July 4th, with an observation deck slated for the 124th Floor when the building is completed sometime in 2009.

As the company’s news release explains:

The fountain on Burj Dubai Lake is more than a visual spectacle that adds to the aesthetics of Downtown Burj Dubai. It is an engineering marvel and will further contribute to Dubai’s rich array of tourist attractions.

The Tower will have one of the first Giorgio Armani hotels in the world, the “Dubai Armani Hotel.” A visit to the Burj Dubai website is an eyeopener; you can also enter a contest to actually name the enormous fountains.

As TP is truly something of a geek inside, she can’t resist sharing this image of “3 Upcoming Architectural Wonders in the UAE,” courtesy of the Hotel Club Travel Blog.