Around the Web in Fashion + News You Can Use

There are a number of cool things in fashion and contest land for The Recessionista’s readers to take advantage of this week. First up, the free stuff! The venerable Women’s Wear Daily is offering their readers the chance to vote on who you think the CFDA best designer is for 2009. Those who vote will be entered into a contest to win a trip to New York Fashion week this September. Click here to read the details and to cast your vote. After all, it doesn’t hurt to take a chance. Plus, I find it fun to look at the fashions from the various designers. Nothing like a little free escapism into the world of fashion. It’s a good respite from stressful news in the world. This is what I call “mind candy.” I also like the idea of a People’s Choice Award for fashion. This is a good chance to let the fashion industry know what works and what doesn’t. It’s an important reality check for the designers. So it you have a moment, you might want to check it out.

Next up, the New Gap CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Khaki Collection is about to hit stores on June 16th featuring designs from Vena Cave, Alexander Wang, and Albertus Swanepoel. Below is a little picture preview of some of the pieces. I’m anxious to see the sleeveless 1920’s inspired looking khaki dress in stores. I was a big fan of the first Gap White Shirt collection featuring Rodarte and Thakoon. I didn’t really fall in love with last year’s shirts. So, I’ll be interested to see how the Khaki collection really looks.

Pictured: The New Vena Cave Khaki Collection from Gap for Summer

There’s actually a video on YouTube premiering the entire collection. Warning, the video is a snoozer, so don’t watch it and try to operate heavy machinery 🙂 However, you will hear and see the designs right off the rack. Click here to watch the Gap CFDA Khaki collection’s scintillating preview. Bring a good strong cup of coffee or tea along to view 🙂

In answer to reader’s requests, I’m letting you know that the new Norma Kamali Summer collection of dresses in now in most stores and on Walmart.com for order. Fellow fashion blogger The Budget Babe also loved NK’s summer collection. All the dresses are $20.00.

And finally, only in California the first self-proclaimed Recession Survival Seminar is about to launch Sunday, June 28 in San Diego, CA. It’s called …. wait for it ” Recession Survival Resources and Solutions, including Housing, Food and Work.” A long name and a rather large claim.

Pictured: A New type of Trade Show: The Recession Help Expo coming June 28 in San Diego, CA

I don’t know if this type of seminar will be helpful, but some of the links on their website might be useful, so I am posting it here. Here in California, I am becoming keenly aware of how hard hit our state is and that state budget cuts of a drastic kind seem to be on the way. So, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to offer something like this. I am adding these to my Google alerts tracker to see if other Recession Survival conferences pop up on my radar. Is this the new convention/trade show now? Maybe it needs to be. What do you think readers?