ralph lauren

In response to numerous heavy-duty opinions posted here, I realized that some of these prices are considered too high. So I’ve started to search for items that are even less — but just as fabulous! — than what we’ve promoted so far.

Leggings, jeans or even a pencil skirt gives it a great, edgy look.

PRODUCT DETAILS
The Distressed Motorcycle Jacket features a distressed faux leather, fold over collar with buckled strap, asymmetrical zipper closure, buttoned tabs at the shoulders, two front zipper pockets, zippered long sleeve cuffs, and an interior lining.

Buy it here.

Having said that, we found a super cute motorcycle jacket that’s inexpensive — it’s only $39.99 — and looks really chic. The distressed jacket is available in charcoal and sized small to large.

On Sunday, relatives heard from a sister of Jimenez that he had called that day, Jazmin Carrera told the AP.

Ford said Jimenez was previously arrested for domestic violence in another city in a case that did not involve Carrera. Police don’t know what Jimenez does for a living, although he was last known to be driving a black 2006 Maserati, an expensive car.

Family members became concerned when Estrella Carrera failed to pick up her two children Saturday as she’d arranged. They were unable to reach Carrera or Jimenez by cellphone, so they asked police to check on her well-being at her apartment in the Chicago suburb of Burbank. That’s when Carrera’s body was found in a bathtub, still clothed in the dress she wore at the wedding reception. Police said she may have worn that dress at the marriage as well.

As a manhunt is under way for Jimenez, who is charged with first-degree murder in Carrera’s slaying, the new bride’s family is searching for answers to what happened to the 26-year-old mother of two in the hours after she secretly got married at Chicago’s City Hall.

“We do not believe Jimenez is a danger to others, but we certainly do not know his mind frame at the present time,” Ford told the AP.

Police are pleading with Jimenez to turn himself in “for the sake of his family and especially his children,” Capt. Joseph Ford of the Burbank Police Department told the AP. “I am sure they are very concerned for his well-being.”

“The emotions are just on and off,” Jazmin Carrera said. “It’s unbelievable one minute, and then it hits you and becomes real.”

“She said that he was crying and he was really nervous,” she said. “He said they had a really bad fight and he had left her bleeding.”

The victim’s sister said she is taking things “a day at a time.”

Since the killing likely took place mere hours after the couple went to Carrera’s apartment, the suspect had a day to flee the metropolitan area or even the state, Ford said. More than 30 law enforcement agencies and the FBI are hunting for him, he said.

Most of Carrera’s family disapproved of her relationship with Jimenez, even though he was the father of her 2-year-old son.

CHICAGO (AP) — Hours after police found Estrella Carrera stabbed to death in her bathtub, still clad in the silver sequined cocktail dress she wore to celebrate her wedding to her on-and-off boyfriend, her family received a haunting phone call from the groom’s family.

Arnoldo Jimenez had called his sister and tearfully told her he had left his bride bleeding after a “bad fight,” Carrera’s sister said Wednesday.

The phone call is the first detail to shed light on what evidence investigators may have given a judge to obtain the warrant. Police in Burbank said they are aware of the account and are looking into it.

She got a text message from her sister Friday, inviting her to join them and their friends at a Mexican restaurant and a nightclub to celebrate the nuptials. She didn’t join the festivities.

Jimenez had hit and bruised Carrera in the past, according to an older sister, Jazmin Carrera, who talked to The Associated Press. Police also said family members reported incidents of violence while the couple was dating.

Jazmin Carrera described 6-foot, 220-pound Jimenez as “very possessive” and jealous. She said she doesn’t understand why her sister married the 30-year-old Jimenez in what seemed like a rushed ceremony — or why she married him at all.

“That’s the question everyone’s asking themselves,” Jazmin Carrera said.

“It was just all of a sudden,” Jazmin Carrera said. “She didn’t give us enough notice.”

Jimenez hung up on his sister and wouldn’t pick up when she called him back, Carrera said.

Deborah Weinswig of Citi Investment Research said in a client note that the operating margins of Kohl’s Corp., Macy’s Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. have all been hurt by increasing online sales, as higher costs from free shipping are pressuring gross margins. Investments being made to support growing online sales are also boosting selling, general and administrative expenses, she added.

NEW YORK (AP) — An analyst reduced her first-quarter earnings estimates for J.C. Penney Co. and Saks Inc. on Monday, citing disappointing gross margins from other retailers that have already reported their quarterly results.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect first-quarter earnings of 1 cent per share for J.C. Penney.

Analysts expect earnings of 18 cents per share for Saks.

But Weinswig does foresee better gross margin for the current quarter due to soft online sales and fewer promotions in the period.

For Saks, Weinswig expects first-quarter earnings of 17 cents per share. She previously predicted earnings of 20 cents per share for the New York retailer. Aside from higher costs tied to free shipping, Weinswig believes that increased promotions and markdowns of women’s designer clothing could pressure gross margin.

Weinswig now anticipates a first-quarter loss of 3 cents per share for J.C. Penney, compared with a prior forecast for a profit of 5 cents per share. The analyst believes the Plano, Texas, company has had a difficult time compared with a year ago, when aggressive promotions were used to drive traffic.

“I have enough money from state appropriations to take care of debt retirement and financial aid. Everything else is on tuition dollars,” Haas said.

“In Michigan this fiscal year, we will dedicate 76 percent more general fund dollars to our prisons than we will to our public universities,” Domino’s President and CEO J. Patrick Doyle told a Business Leaders for Michigan summit on higher education at the Lansing Center. “In North Carolina, they will spend almost twice as much on universities as they will on prisons.”

According to the State Higher Education Executive Officers, Michigan had the third-highest decline in state support for higher education between 2005 and 2010. In the current budget year, university funding was slashed by 15 percent. That pushed up Michigan colleges’ tuition and fees, resulting in an average cost of $38,215 for a four-year degree versus $18,877 in North Carolina, Doyle said. As a result, fewer Michigan residents get degrees.

But declining state funds also have forced Grand Valley State to raise tuition.

___

Doyle said he’d like to see universities increase research and development efforts and partner with businesses more often. He’d also like to see Michigan follow North Dakota’s example. It increased revenue by attracting more out-of-state students who pay higher tuition without decreasing access for in-state students.

“The decline in state support for our public universities over the last decade has shifted the cost of earning a college degree from the state to students and their families,” he said. “To help make college more affordable for hundreds of thousands of Michigan young people, we need a long-term commitment from the state to make higher education a … priority.”

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan needs to invest more in higher education to better compete with states like North Carolina, where a four-year education costs $20,000 less, the head of Domino’s Pizza said Monday.

Doyle said the two states are similar in population, personal income, joblessness, the size of their state budgets and the number of people they have in prison or college. But while Michigan spends $1.1 billion annually on higher education, North Carolina spends $2.5 billion.

Follow Kathy Barks Hoffman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kathybhoffman

Grand Valley State University President Thomas Haas said his university is getting $2,365 per student in state funding this year, while the University of North Carolina system gets $11,000 per student. He supports asking universities to be accountable for making sure students are getting a good value, and said his Allendale-based university has cut the cost for obtaining a degree by 14 percent.

Most of Michigan’s 15 public universities expect to see an increase in state funding of around 1.5 percent to 3 percent in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, but still will be able to count on state payments for only about a third of their operating budgets, compared to close to 80 percent in the 1960s.

Haas said he’d reduce tuition at his school if the state increased its support and he could count on the funding remaining stable.

But, he said, the main goal must be to better support universities with state dollars.

“Our state cannot afford to continue to continue its recent trend of declining investment in the talent pool of tomorrow,” Doyle said. “Michigan faces a very real shortage (by 2025) of nearly 1 million workers with a two-year degree or better, so we need to think about educating and developing our workforce.”

Asked if the tuition increase has left some students unable to afford college, he replied: “Absolutely.”

Top: Nicki Minaj in Fall ‘07 Givenchy Haute Couture at the 2011 Grammy Awards; Ciara in Fall ‘10 Givenchy Haute Couture at the 2011 Video Music Awards.

Middle: Björk in Fall ‘08 Givenchy Haute Couture at the closing party for Marina Abramovic’s The Artist Is Present at the Museum of Modern Art; Carine Roitfeld in Spring ‘11 Givenchy Haute Couture at the amfAR benefit in 2011; Naomi Campbell in Fall ‘08 Givenchy Haute Couture at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Bottom: Zoe Saldana in Spring ‘10 Haute Couture at the 2010 Academy Awards.

The eagle-eyed Catherine Kallon at Red Carpet Fashion Awards performed one of her usual acts of fashion divination today: From a blurry, cell phone pic of Beyoncé shooting a new music video in the Mojave Desert, she’s managed to identify a Spring ‘11 Givenchy Couture gown. (Time will tell if she’s right, but looks likely to us.)

But Queen B is only the latest diva to strap on one of the house’s showstopping couture creations. In the spirit of celebration, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite high-drama ladies in Riccardo Tisci’s couture.

Photos: Getty Images

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The “Avengers” director took time to celebrate Equality Now and spoke with THR about the lunacy of misogyny, writing dark comedy and his very busy schedule.

The rumors are true. Joss Whedon was scrambling. He was working through the night to rewrite scenes and dramatic monologues, manage the hectic schedules of award-winning actors and prepare public remarks for a very important event. The past 20 years of his life, after all, had led up to this moment.

Christopher Bailey’s new collection for Burberry was dubbed “Burberry Weather Boys.” “A coat for all seasons,” the designer explained. And, yes, there was plenty of hardy outerwear, from the blanket check wool toppers that opened, to a variety of felted parkas (reminiscent of the felted suits shown earlier in the day at Jil Sander), and wools subjected to a wide variety of texturizing and weather-proofing treatments: they were laminated, resinated, bonded, backed onto vinyl, doubled, and so on. The implication, lest it should escape you was, rain happens, and you’d better be prepared. And rain it did: After the troupe had marched out to a Dusty Springfield and Cliff Richard soundtrack, the heavens opened—or at least the rafters above the audience’s heads—and the water came rushing down. Don’t worry too much about the catwalkers or their outfits. For their final exit, each came out with an added protective layer: a transparent rain poncho over his look. There’s no predicting the weather, as the adage goes, except perhaps at Burberry, where it can be marshalled to remind the audience, boy, I could really use a good, rain-proof coat. And lo and behold: Those shown on Burberry’s runway are available for pre-order right now on Burberry.com.

Photos: Nick Sadler / Startraks Photo (Perry and Cyrus); Lorenvu / SIPA Press (Rihanna); Chris Ashford / Camera Press / Retna Ltd. (Longoria)

This weekend, the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards took place in Madrid, and a few of pop’s bigger stars (and their stylists) worked overtime to get their Spring ‘11 dresses ready. Among those representing the U.S. of A. in Spain were Rihanna, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and hostess Eva Longoria Parker, who cycled through a variety of costume changes throughout the evening.

The MTV awards are no Oscars, so the stars took the opportunity to have a little fun. Perry showed a little leg in a jokey but undeniably glam Spring ‘11 Jeremy Scott ticket-stub dress with electric blue Sergio Rossi heels. Rihanna and Cyrus, on the other hand, both went long: RiRi in a one-shoulder tulle gown from Marchesa Spring ‘11, Miley in a tiered, tied-with-a-bow D&G. For her part, Longoria Parker worked Emilio Pucci, Gianfranco Ferré, and Georges Hobeika at various points, but her most indelible look was her mock homage to the host country’s culinary tradition: a giant Serrano ham. Not the lady’s best look, but give her points for being a good sport.

Check them out above and let us know—whose look do you like best?

By Sasha Charnin Morrison for UsMagazine.com. To read more of the Recessionista blog, click here.

Wear it with a simple top, pencil skirt, black opaque tights and mid heel pump or high heel bootie.

It’s the perfect piece to get through a grey winter. I like the loose fit, the shortened sleeves (all the more reason to wear long leather gloves) and the $163.78 price tag.

For a more affordable version, I went on a long search for something that was as voluminous and not cropped. Lo and behold, I found this amazing Faux Fur Leopard Coat from Lipsy.

I really love her Funktional Predator Coat. It’s the perfect thing to make you smile. I like the cut, the look and the fit. At $840, it’s an investment piece that will never go out of style.

It’s been hard catching up with always-on-the-go Kourtney Kardashian. But it seems like every time she walks out the door, she wears something I want to emulate.

This must-have coat of the season hits the spot.

By Sasha Charnin Morrison for UsMagazine.com. To read more of the Recessionista blog, click here

Assuming you can’t get your hands on one of the other 80 or so tiaras in the royal collection, I found a simple, yet regal option from Forever21 for under $10. Bonus: Unlike the real deal, this rhinestone-encrusted version is super-lightweight, so you can look like a princess all day (and night!).

PHOTOS: Kate Middleton’s pre-wedding prep

If you’re like me and the estimated 2 billion(!) plus people tuning in to the nuptials between Prince William and Kate Middleton at 4 a.m. on Friday, you’ll want to wear something festive to celebrate the royal wedding. I suggest taking a page from the bride-to-be, who is expected to top off her hairstyle with the $10.5 million Strathmore Rose diamond tiara, which was was last worn by the late Queen Mother. Fancy!

PHOTOS: Princess-worthy beauty finds