Step into City Opera’s Thrift Store on the lower East Side and you’ll find yourself humming Va Pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco every brisk step of the way. Twice a year, the Vintage Event is a not-to-be-missed hallmark for thrifty shoppers in the Big Apple. Amazing reruns at beyond believable prices are available to those fashion divas who care to show up early (trust me, they’ll be scooped up faster than you can say Andrea Bocelli).

Check out our podcast below. Jay Thompson describes some of the designer goodies you can expect to see if you visit (Dior, Pucci, Valentino and more!). The store is open starting today -oui mes amies- for about two weeks (or until the merchandise vanishes – which, by the looks of it, will be quicker than lightning). Anyone touches that Guy Laroche before I get there, I breakka you arm (as they say in the old country!).

All proceeds will benefit City Opera, and the thrift store is the only one of its kind in New York that benefits the Arts. Here’s the address:

222 East 23rd Avenue (between 2nd and 3rd)
P: 212 684 5344

Not in a mood to shop? Then donate your vintage clothing! Call the same line above to make a fashion chick really happy. Plus there are also some great home decorations in the upper level, but stay tuned for information on the Vintage Home event, which will be held in a few months.

Saks Adam & Eve dress from Saks.com

I am feeling O-so Jackie O this spring! Pourquoi, mon amie? Well, in case you haven’t laid eyes on the lovely array of shifts peppering NYC’s window displays this season, the dress is back! Even better, baby dolls, the baby doll is back. Floaty and feminine, this seasons frocks are not only absolutely darling, but they’re also comfy (mon dieu!).

Anthropologie dress

I happened to be trying on an adorable cobalt tunic at Barneys CO-PO last week when my mind wandered back to the days of body suits (I was certain that I had blocked that out) and the nightmares that they evoke. Sure, I’ll work a pair of stiletto like nobody’s business or low-carb it for skinny jeans, but no gal should ever again be a slave to a fashion that included crotch snaps and spandex. Anyhoo, I slipped the roomy dress over my head and paired it with wedges-voila! In an instant, I am rendered super-cute without having to snap, stretch or suck in. The roomy dress showed no visible evidence that I had Grey’s Papaya for lunch and instantly made my legs look slimmer. Bless the hearts of the fashion Gods for this!

Urban Outfitters dress

Working this season’s chicest trend is not without a few simple guidelines, so take note. First and most important is the length of your fabulous frock. Dare to bare, peaches, this is the time to show off those gams, and since your outfit is innocent enough in style, sex it up with a little leg. Anything too long conjures up memories of your grandmother’s mumu.

Adrian Rosen had a ball on Saturday picking out her freebie outfit at Purdy Girl (www.purdygirlnyc.com).

Starting on March 30 and running through May the Forbes Galleries (60 Fifth Ave) presents an exhibit called Silver of the Stars. The theme is ‘drink with a friend’ and famous names have coupled with silversmiths to create signature mugs and jugs. Check out, among others, Ewan McGregor’s goblet.

Beginning March 31 and continuing through the 8th of April, Grand Central Terminal treats visitors to a vibrant display of Scottish Culture with their Scottish Village. I wonder if they’ll show us what’s really under the kilts?

Project Runway ain’t no joke for those of us who can’t thread a needle. So when BeautyNews heard about Bacardi Limon’s “Express Your Style Competition” which was held last Thursday — where five dressmakers competed to make gowns in front of a Bacardi-infused live audience — we just had to check it out.

Holly Dunlap, Creative Director, HOLLYWOULD, Jayne Chase and Jennifer Goodkind, A Fashionable Life, Hillary Townsend, Marketing Manager, 24Seven, Inc., Tanya Jensen-Hawver, Fashion Editor, The DAILY, Patricia Samaniego, Express Your Style Fashion Design Competition Winner, Louis Sarmiento, The DAILY, Vanessa Minnillo, MTV VJ and Entertainment Tonight Correspondent and Natalia Iglesias, Marketing Manager, Bacardi Flavored Rums

I know it’s not genteel to admit, but it’s fun to see other people sweat. All that desperate cutting, sewing and reaching for the needle to see if the dress they make will turn into an evening gown or a sock is exhilarating. Will your favorite contestant win? Will the creative genius come from a future John Galliano or Zandra Rhodes? Can you tell a good pintuck from a bad one? These are all important questions and the correct answers can score you brownie points in cocktail party conversations.

The five contestants were picked from around the country. The designers were told incorporate some element of the “Bacardi Limon” lemon in their gowns. Unfortunately for them, drinking it while sewing didn’t count. Fortunately for me, that element was included in the ‘watching’ portion of the competition.

Hector Jean in Aspen White by James Jeans at Searle and www.oliveandbettes.com are made for women, by women. Eco friendly, all patterns are made by hand and only organic treatments are used to process the various washes (cured in the sun, actually..what’s more natural than that!?!). For more on James Jeans go to www.jamesjeans.us.

You’ve been waiting all winter, eyeing your favourite white jeans, neatly folded and calling your name. Now that Spring is here, what are the rules? Do you follow the age old: no white before Easter or after Labor Day? Or do you break all the rules and suit yourself up like a blinding supernova as soon as the crocuses peek thru the earth? We have tips from our fashion insiders:

Ways to work white:

• White jeans with a darker top

Michael Kors at www.NeimanMarcus.com

• White man-tailored shirt with beige pants or chocolate brown-think Katherine Hepburn

Great Kate in her signature white man’s-style shirt

The Original IT girl, and today’s IT girl

Some are born with it, some buy it – most try to fake it. What the hell is it? IT. You know, that “je ne sais quoi“, that certain “something”, that “DAMN!” that someone has that makes you either want to possess them or kill them (out of jealousy of course!). What makes for IT? Of course beauty, brains, charm, (money, drugs, a pied a terre in Monte Carlo) all generate points in the appeal department but IT is different. IT precipi-tates a kind of sick fascination – sort of like watching an accident unfold. I am sure you’re above such petty bourgeois leanings as to fall for such shallow judgement of a person. But to be perfectly honest there are people who hold my interest for no ex-plainable reason, (for instance a celebrity in the tabloids who I am not really interested in yet I buy every magazine with her picture on it and google her weekly) IT at work.

IT is not the same for all people, but the to truly be IT there is usually an agreed con-sensus that someone or something is IT. From the first IT Girl – Clara Bow to our cur-rent list of IT celebutantes find out how to both determine and strive for IT yourself.

The Cooper Union in collaboration with the New Museum is hosting “The IT Factor: What Makes Something Hot” on Wednesday March 28 at 6:30 PM. Through a series of panel discussions with talents scouts, editors, artists and educational elite the elusive ingredient of charisma and “IT-ness” will examined. Tickets are $6.00 at the door and free for New Museum and Cooper Union students, faculty and staff.

Cooper Union is located at 7 East 7th Street at Thirds Avenue. Event takes place in The Great Hall. For Information call 212.353.4195.

Need to recharge your citified self? Is the lack of scenery making you feel nature-hungry? Take a short trip to Olana State Historic Site, a part of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Close to two and a half hours from the center of our Manhattan universe is the home of one of America’s most impor-tant artists, Frederick Edwin Church (who was a major playa of the Hudson River school of landscape painting). This abode offers some great alternatives to an otherwise urban weekend. You can ramble about the landmark house or stroll the grounds that are host to magnificent mountain and river views – all the while soothing your urban soul with the sights and sounds of area birds and wildlife. This ain’t midtown!

On Sunday April 1st at 6PM, Olana begins its Spring Birding Experience. Throughout the month, these free walks will offer various bird-themed nights – Woodcock and the Olana Farm Complex site, Early Birds, Mother Birds, and Nesting Birds. Tour the farms grounds and meadows and keep your eyes to the sky! Visit their website for other excit-ing events to get your nature on!

For information visit www.olana.org or call (518) 828-0135, ext. 305. These events are family friendly and will run rain or shine. Olana is located on Route 9G in Hudson, NY.

The beauty of the Hudson Valley through Church’s eyes

Bet you didn’t know…

Who Frederick Law Olmstead was? A man whose name translates literally to “planter of the Elms” this scenic artist is considered the mack-daddy of American landscape ar-chitecture and the most prolific United States parkland designer. We have this nature magician to thank for our beloved Central Park as well as Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Olmstead was also a distant relative of Olana’s Frederic Edwin Church, and the two also shared a common thread in friend and architect Calvert Vaux, who designed Church’s Olana, and assisted Olmstead in creating New York City’s Central Park.

Biltmore House & Gardens, Asheville, NC

Not content to just bless our fair cities, he also fashioned the Niagara Reservation in Ni-agra Falls, the Emerald Necklace in our brother city Boston and the gardens surround-ing the US Capital Building, the grounds of Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, NC, among many others.

Central Park

It if said that Central Park echos his societal awareness and ideas of equality, utilizing a common green space open to all – a concept not embraced or in practice at the time. Thank you Freddy – you’re the man!

Boston’s Emerald Necklace

Spring is in the air, my lovelies, and I thought it’d be best to celebrate in the sweetest style. I had the privilege of touring Dylan’s Candy Bar with Dana, a real doll who showed me the new spring goodies in this cutsie candy land. I must declare that I was behaving, quite literally like a kiddie in a candy store.

Dylan’s itself is eye candy, tres chicer than any Wonka-esque World or Hershey Land. Could it be the fact that Dylan Lauren (as in Ralph’s daughter) is the owner of the store?

I have to admit, before I stepped foot in this candy land, I had the notion that Dylan’s was a blinged-out Chuck E. Cheese. I was proved wrong, mes amies. Sure, there are plenty of kids running around on a jellybean-induced sugar high, candy bubbles blowing in the air, and music that has a “candy only” theme, but the shop is also a girly-girl heaven. Every item is beautifully packaged; the bath and body treats are good enough to eat, and the music that’s played in the background does not exclude Xtina’s ‘Candy Man’ and 50 Cent’s, ‘Candy Shop.’

And for the more mature audience, Dylan’s even makes an “adult” line. Think you need to replace those Bridget Jones granny panties? Toss those old rags and pick a pair of candy g-strings. There’s no telling what your loved one will be like on a little sugar high of their own, n’est ce que pas?

A date? A new job? These desires could just be a click away. Did any of you guys vow to start off the year by drinking more alcohol? (In my best James Brown impersonation: Can I get a witness?!?) Well, for you fellow vino-bent ladies and germs who also like to rev up your chatter boxes, the Manhattan Wine Group (www.manhattanwinegroup.com) might just be the outlet for you.

To jump-start national wine week, I thought it’d be cool to hang out with these folks and see if it’d be worth your time to check out.

Started by an investment banker who believed knowledge of wine would be a sophisticated way of entertaining clients, the group started out sipping with a few but in a year’s time has guzzled their fermented grape-lovin selves to over 2,200 members to date.

So here are some things you’d probably want to know about the Manhattan Wine Group:

• It’s a free to join.
• You don’t have to be an expert on wine – you just have to have an interest.
• The group usually meets twice a month and holds the events at trendy venues. Cover charge is minimal (about $10 bucks) and is used for light bites and rental space.
• The wine events are theme-centered (the one I went to celebrated South American wines), and the charge per glass is pretty cheapo – $6 bucks a pop.
• The demographics seem to be late 20s to mid-40s. Kind of a yuppified jury-duty crowd.
• The atmosphere is lively and unpretentious.