Freeze!

"I'm a last-minute kind of girl," admits Leah McSweeney, the designer behind the streetwear label Married to the Mob. But then, a little eleventh-hour chaos can be the stuff that spring ad campaigns are made of. Earlier this month, McSweeney capitalized on the presence of French singing sensation Uffie in New York and persuaded the 20-year-old performer to pose for a few portraits. "She's an It girl who embodies Mob hotness," explains McSweeney of her impromptu casting. The designer also staked her claim on another visitor to NYC—she asked L.A.-based photo blogger the Cobrasnake to photograph the singer in and around the streets of Tribeca. "I felt really bad having Uffie run around the city in a T-shirt—she was freezing," said the shutterbug, who will be shooting on streets of a different kind this week: He's in Paris, getting ready to host a yard sale in the garden of the fashion hangout Hotel Amour that gets under way tomorrow.

Source: Style.com (Stylefiles)

Pearls, and pearls again

Necklaces

Like skirt hems, necklaces come in several different lengths. There are six standard strand measurements, ranging from 12 to 45-plus inches ( or 30,5 to about 114,3 centimeters). Each falls at a different part of the body: A collar sits at the throat, a choker at the base of the neck, princess pearls at the top of the chest, a matinee of pearls above the breasts, and opera-length at the breastbone. Anything longer is know as a rope.

Coco Chanel

" A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls" said Coco Chanel, who was known to toss as many as seven strands around her neck for everything from heading to the office to hopping on a horse. Though hers were real, she teamed up with jeweler Fulco di Verdura to produce costume pieces featuring glass pearls, so women wouldn't have to shell out to step ou in style.

Tiffany & Co.

In an early example of the power of product placement, the jewelry business received a major boost from the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's the Audrey Hepburn vehicle based on Truman Capote's best selling novella. Although the grand-looking five-strand necklace that Hepburn's Holly Golightly wears as she peers longingly into the Fifth Avenue jeweler's windows is an obvious fake, it still suggests a glamour that graces Tiffany & Co.'s image this day. One of the most elegant and surprising discover of summer 08, Chavernet Paris launched a special serie of limited edition dresses directly inspired by the movie who joins pearls on the neck. The illusion is so...perfect!