Listen, I get it. Everyone from Beyonce to Rihanna has been seen sporting Christophe Decarnin's skin-tight mini dresses, broad-shouldered blazers, embellished jeans, and sexy sky-high footwear. And, much like that other fashion house (cough *Balenciaga* cough) whose pricey duds usually spawn a million more affordable knock-offs, Balmain look-a-likes can pretty much be found at every fast fashion hot spot nowadays for little to nothing.

So, imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this bedazzled mini on Bebe's e-store. I don't shop at Bebe but its merchandise can be summed up in one word: over-priced. It's one of those labels who aspires to be like a Max Azira but falls totally short instead. Nonetheless, someone inside their bran trust decided to create a replica of a dress from Balmain's Fall '08 collection.

It doesn't look too bad, but it's definitely not worth its $115 price tag. At all. The polyester just simply isn't cutting it and, well, it just looks kind of awful. This just goes to show that not everything in life that is Balmain inspired, relatively cheap, and accessible is good for your wardrobe or skin because I know this piece has to be very itchy. Here's to just hoping Balmain decides to bless us semi-broke fools with a limited edition capsule collection that won't scare my wallet.

If Karl Lagerfeld, Rodarte, and Stella McCartney can, why can't you Mr. Decarnin? Please! Le sigh.

Anyways, there were still a few pairs hanging on the racks when we got there. Even better though, the fit was perfect (mother approved!) and all 1969 denim was being sold with $20 knocked-off its original sale price. So again, awesome.

Indeed, everything was going good until my mother saw the $49.99 sale price pop up on the monitor. No, she wasn't expecting them to be cheaper or felt it was too much. In fact, the price in and of itself wasn't the issue. What she couldn't wrap her mind around and what would later baffle my lovable but non fashion curious father was the notion that anyone -- rich, poor, young, old -- would actually pay for someone to rip their jeans for them. And since there weren't that many holes in the jeans, it made my purchase of them ever more bizarre to my mom.

I say this because upon leaving the store she spent the next fifteen minutes lamenting on her ripped jean days -- a time when the only way to get that perfectly tattered slit above the knee was to find a pair of really sharp scissors and go to work. No paying anyone to customize your shit. No Gap 1969 premium "destroyed" jeans. No Shopbop model to sew lace on one of your pant legs. It was all you -- no guts, no glory.

Unless I hit the lottery like, say, tomorrow, the liklihood that i'll be sporting ripped denim pants that cost over $100 is very, very low because, like my mother, I have my limits, too. But for reasonably pieces like those from the Gap, well, I don't see what's wrong with indulging yourself a little bit.

So, I want to throw to you dear reader: How much is too much for ripped denim?

Although I'm no longer taking the aforementioned introductory biology course, I'm still on campus everyday because of my new job (more on that later). And as the weather continues to reach temperatures of over a 100 degrees everyday, I'm noticing more and more students toting umbrellas to shield themselves from the blistering Texas sun.

Here's my problem with the umbrella: it might shield you from the sun, but it doesn't help to keep you cool by any means. Especially, when the humidity is as high as 76% on any give day and the temp is nearing the 110s. (Editor's Note: It really, really sucks to be a Texan right now. Although, it did get pretty bad when our governor declared the state should succeed from the rest of the union a couple of months ago.) And when you're walking long distances, it becomes more of a nuciance than anything else -- only making the load you're currently packing that much heavier when those arms start to give in.

Plus, who wants to walk around with an umbrella all day?

On the other hand, not protecting your bare skin will most likely result in sunburns that will keep you indoors for the rest of summer. So, what to do? Wear a floppy hat? A visor? Slab on copious amounts of sunscreen and call it a day? Let me know what you think in the comment section!

Yesterday, the Times Talks discussion with the likes of Marc Jacobs, Tyra Banks, Narciso Rodriguez, just to name a few, took place. When asked about his relationship with Brazilian businessman Lorenzo Martone, Jacobs couldn't stop himself from gushing. "My boyfriend/fiancé Lorenzo and I are buying a house together and we would like to have children and all this." Not to be outdone in regards of best quote of the night though, Tyra Banks lamented on her awkward appearance as a teen model. “
I used to kind of look like one 
of those antelopes you see with one eye on each side of its face.”

It's uncertain if Emma Watson will attend Yale next fall, but the UK "it" girl has most certainly said 'yes' to M/M over at Interview. The actress graces the May issue of the financially strapped magazine. Surrounded by kisses and lace, Emma's cover was shot by none other than Nick Knight.

Honestly, I like the new look of the magazine. What ever direction the new art directors are taking the tome, one thing is for certain: it's decidedly more youth-oriented (Zac Efron graced the April issue). Or at least it is at the moment. However, that may have more to do with the recession and wanting to sell mags than Mathais and Michael being obsessed with all things Disney (Hello, Glamour!).

Meanwhile, Emma graces Interview because she's promoting her new flick Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is set to roll into American theaters on July 15th. Check out the trailer under the hood. Warning: the clip has very creepy moments, namely when the little brown-haired girl flies into the air a la Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

{Continue Reading} Trailer: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince