If you were starting to fret that Paris Hilton was out with the boom times, you can relax. Tinkerbell’s mama is the major inspiration of the new extreme fashion trend in Japan called hime gyaru, or princess girl. Characterized by a disturbingly American Girl-like sense of beauty, the look, according to The Wall Street Journal, is for working women doing dress-up in their off-hours. As anti-feminist as hime gyaru seems to be, it makes me nostalgic for “Please Kill Me”-era East Village, when the streets were clogged with similarly enthusiastic freaks.

Stephanie Seymour is such a naughty widow! A dead husband and two stallions — what a lady-stud!

[See the full Loewe Fall/Winter 2008-2009 ad campagin on The Fashion Time.]

Do the Mommy Wars even exist? I have to confess, I barely knew what Diane Clehane was referring to in her Vanity Fair web post, “Can Michelle Obama End the Mommy Wars?” (They are about the supposed enmity between working and stay-at-home moms.) In any event, Clehane’s prescription of a White House summit on motherhood sounds like a leaky band-aid. What we really need Michelle Obama to do is lobby for true maternity leave, affordable day care and flex time. Because only when every mom can choose a work situation that is both financially and emotionally healthy for herself and for her family will we end the Mommy Wars. If Michelle Obama does that, she will be able to consider her decision to “stay home” during her husband’s presidency a boon to women everywhere. Then she should go on the lecture circuit, wearing a new discount-retailer dress at every occasion, and make gazillions!