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.

J Crew & Polo Ralph Lauren Sales, Preppy vs. Pirate

Before we get to the ‘Preppy vs. Pirate’ debate, a couple of ‘breaking sale updates’ for everyone. J. Crew is doing the oh-so-wonderful “take an additional 25” off both online and at the brick and mortar stores as well.

Not far behind are the bright minds at Polo Ralph Lauren with a little invite to stop by their Sale with “Savings up to 60%” now. How can you resist when it’s something like these Polo Ralph Lauren Madras Shorts for Boys 2-7?

Or this Tory Burch Chain Print Sleeveless dress at Neiman Marcus where amazingly, it is also ‘Take an additional 25% off’ most sale merchandise.

Or the goodies at the twice a year Hanna Andersson sale!

Moving on now, as many are no doubt aware, one of the biggest tennis tourneys of the year kicked off yesterday. If you’re not sure which one, think about about the most storied stop on the Grand Slam tour. Here’s a visual aid…

Still pondering…? It’s time for tennis at Wimbledon across the pond in the UK! You know, the one with all the Ralph Lauren uniforms?

And today’s little post involves the contrast in styles between über Swiss star Roger Federer and superstar Spaniard Rafael Nadal. We must confess that in all our travels, there is nothing quite so fun as being in the UK and loading up on the British tabs (tabloid newspapers), then settling in to read up on current events. And other things. You absolutely have to love their creativity in covering the same story year in and year out; some of this year’s recent headlines include: “Style Wars on Centre Court” and “Preppy vs Pirate” to name a few. Just to give you an idea:

Now that’s what we like to see! Let’s make that news interesting! (The journalist in us forces us to say we use the word ‘news’ in the broadest of ways here.) Many of you may be familiar with the verbiage oft used in coverage of these two talented players; Mr. Nadal is frequently referred to as the “swashbuckling Spaniard” while the descriptor ‘preppy’ is mentioned in association with Mr. Federer. And it would seem the two live up to those appellations. The single most popular photo as of this writing on the official Wimbledon website is Roger Federer in the cashmere cardigan seen below as he walked onto the court yesterday for his first round match.

Below, Mr. Nadal’s style as he entered the venue for his first round match today:

Both men won their opening matches, moving on to the second round. If you are wondering about the so-called pirate shorts, the Nike marketing minds deserve credit for creating them, a brilliant step in forming Mr. Nadal’s image. As far as Mr. Federer’s image and style goes, they are now as carefully cultivated as a hybrid Hydrangea. And you might be surprised at the fashionable mind who was instrumental in drastically changing forming them: Vogue Editrix Anna Wintour! And (this is the real shocker in our most humble opinion), as part of the makeover, Ms. Wintour not only took the time to watch Mr. Federer’s matches at the US Open in the middle of Fashion Week, she actually looked… happy.

Le Dour Wintour looking huh-huh-happy? Happy? We need to locate one of the fainting couches here at the Prepatorium and attempt to wrap our minds around that concept whilst gazing at the photographic evidence. Above, a photo of the Vogue Editor at last year’s US Open. Smiling. Keep in mind, this is the woman who actually wore Prada to The Devil Wears Prada premiere. As always, we show photos, you decide.

Now The Princess has also learned that Anna Wintour’s time and dedication to Mr. Federer have been quite the hot topic in certain circles – oh my! Not only is she suspected of nudging Men’s Vogue to throw a dinner in his honor last year, but she also procured an additional ticket when none (n-o-n-e) were available and escorted him to the Oscar de la Renta show.

Below, a few photos from a spread featuring Mr. Federer in Men’s Vogue, including a few with longtime girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec.

Now both the Roger Federer line and the Rafael Nadal items at Nike’s online store should you be interested in having some for your very own tennis matches. As if this conversation were not enough, a London paper has dubbed the BBC’s Wimbledon Commentator ‘preppy.’ The Telegraph has a delightful profile of Tim Henman, a former tennis player turned television presenter.

His shoulders, neck, face – everything – make him look more like a rangy adolescent than a 34-year-old man. With a fine, beige V-neck sweater over a white shirt and with that thick mop of dark hair, he has a very preppy look.

We’ll have the Serena Williams trenchcoat and Maria Sharapova’s tuxedo separates in our next post. Promise.

Toodles.