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"Today in fashion news from around the world wide web: What&amp;#x27;s the It-shoe of winter 2011-2012? You might be surprised at the answer. Marc Jacobs takes his Hermes Birkin bag to the beach. A list of 2011&amp;#x27;s most bizarre advice from fashion insiders (seriously, we&amp;#x27;d never tell you to do these things, promise). How to identify really good cashmere. Last-minute affordable New Year&amp;#x27;s Eve outfit ideas from Carson Kressley. And more! All the gory details after the jump.BRUNSWICK, MAINE&amp;amp;#8212; This winter&amp;#x27;s unexpected It-shoe doesn&amp;#x27;t come from the Paris studios of Christian Louboutin or the mind of Manolo Blahnik&amp;amp;#8212;no, it comes from Brunswick, Maine, where the folks at L.L. Bean have seen demand for its iconic duck boot skyrocket nearly 300% over the past four years. The under-$200 weatherproof classic has seen an surge in popularity&amp;amp;#8212;thanks in part to the interest among the style-conscious in heritage and made-in-America products. &amp;amp;#8220;It&amp;amp;#8217;s sort of like the Coca-Cola bottle or the sleek silver lines of Apple,&amp;quot; retail analyst Candace Corlett told the Washington Post. &amp;quot;It&amp;amp;#8217;s iconic. And when you have that kind of icon, you leverage it. The good news is that L.L. Bean&amp;amp;#8217;s icon from decades ago is striking an emotional chord with people who&amp;amp;#8217;re yearning for the good old days.&amp;amp;#8221; Have you ever owned duck boots? Back when I was in college (that&amp;#x27;s pre-UGG days&amp;amp;#8212;man, I&amp;#x27;m old), everyone had them. Kinda makes me want to order some now. Hm. EVERYWHERE&amp;amp;#8212; Ever think that fashion insiders give, like, the worst advice (not us, though, right? You love everything Glamour editors suggest, right? Ha ha.)? Well, check out this hilarious round-up of &amp;quot;Bad advice from fashion insiders&amp;quot; from the past year. Including the Daphne Guinness gem: &amp;quot;Use nail polish as lipstick.&amp;quot; (Please. Don&amp;#x27;t. Just don&amp;#x27;t.) EVERYWHERE&amp;amp;#8212; Do you ever wonder why some cashmere sweaters cost $70 and some cost $700? If you love cashmere, then definitely check out my buddy Darrell&amp;#x27;s story in the Wall Street Journal about how to shop for the best cashmere. Darrell explains where the best cashmere comes from, how it&amp;#x27;s treated (and why the softest cashmere isn&amp;#x27;t always the best quality). The Cliffs&amp;#x27; Notes version?Although most shoppers will probably never become experts on the matter, they can examine sweaters for bubbles or so-called &amp;quot;chicken feet,&amp;quot; ripples and wrinkles in a weave that appear when factories knit too fast. Or, follow Mr. Turk&amp;#x27;s advice that particularly in cashmere, established brands have the edge, if only because customers have put their product&amp;#x27;s durability to the test for decades. Cashmere, after all, should be soft but rugged, have real weight but feel light as air. And by no means must it have origins in Kashmir, the mountainous region from which it takes its name. In other words, it should discreetly defy logic. LANCASTER, PA&amp;amp;#8212; From the age of 11 until I was 15, I spent three weeks every summer at what I now refer to as &amp;quot;nerd camp&amp;quot;&amp;amp;#8212;an academic summer program for kids&amp;amp;#8212;at Franklin &amp;amp; Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It&amp;#x27;s a pretty idyllic campus in the middle of Amish country&amp;amp;#8212;there&amp;#x27;s all the normal college stuff, and a Turkey Hill down the road. Anyway, if you&amp;#x27;ve been to Europe or Asia anytime in the last five years, you&amp;#x27;ll also know Franklin &amp;amp; Marshall is a massively popular sportswear brand&amp;amp;#8212;to the tune of $61 million in sales last year alone. Today&amp;#x27;s Daily Mail has a fascinating story about how this one small liberal arts school in the middle of Pennsylvania became this huge fashion force&amp;amp;#8212;it started with two Italian designers thrift-store shopping in London and finding a F&amp;amp;M college sweatshirt. They decided to start a whole collection based on the name. Check out the collection here&amp;amp;#8212;what do you think? Pretty cool, huh? EVERYWHERE&amp;amp;#8212; Did you miss Carson Kressley&amp;#x27;s new year&amp;#x27;s eve outfit ideas segment on Good Morning America? Check it out, here. It&amp;#x27;s full of super-affordable celebrity-inspired looks that you can shop and wear tomorrow night! ST. BARTS&amp;amp;#8212; The Telegraph has a slew of photographs from Marc Jacobs&amp;#x27; holiday vacation in St. Barts&amp;amp;#8212;where he&amp;#x27;s hanging with his ex Lorenzo Martone and stylist Rachel Zoe (who lost her luggage, poor thing!). These fashion stars know how to vacay&amp;amp;#8212;check out their Vuitton beach towels, Hermes Birkin reappropriated as a beach bag, and super-cute swimwear! Ooh, and can you guess what they&amp;#x27;ve picked for a beach read? Jim Carroll&amp;#x27;s The Petting Zoo. NEW YORK&amp;amp;#8212; The New York Times&amp;#x27; fashion critic Cathy Horyn does her annual end-of-year fashion moments countdown. Check it out here. It includes: the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kate Middleton Prince William royal wedding, the John Galliano trial, the Missoni for Target epic brouhaha, and the Elizabeth Taylor auction. How many 2011 fashion moments do you remember?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/dressed/2011/12/this-winters-it-shoe-comes-fro>