Kate Spade

Are Howard County customers willing to spend $193 for Kate Spade sunglasses, $85 for a cream-colored elbow-length Henley-style T-shirt from Theory, $389 for a sleeveless, V-necked, yellow-flowered Rebecca Taylor dress? Lindsay Buscher, owner of Urban Chic clothing boutiques in Georgetown and Fulton, has bet her career that the answer is yes. Buscher seemed on course for a career in the public sector, majoring in political science at Salisbury University and earning a master's degree in public administration from the University of Baltimore.

If little girls in and around Baltimore want a doll that looks like Mommy, they're in luck, no matter if she shops all day at Cross Keys, gets lost on Columbia cul-de-sacs, works a street corner in the 'hood or lives with another mommy in Mount Vernon. "Mattel recently announced the release of limited-edition Barbie Dolls for Greater Baltimore market," reads the e-mail that came to me the other day. The "Baltimore Barbies" line - a spoof created by some anonymous Internet yukster - boasts 11 imaginary models, enough to offend every imaginable demographic.

I come from a close family with two older brothers who have played jokes on me all my life. They are domineering and pig-headed, and monitor everything I do and wear.This spring, I bought a pretty transparent dress, which I wore to a party with my boyfriend. When they saw how sheer it was, they tore it apart and left it in shreds on my bed. I refused to speak to them until they apologized. They now say they are sorry and promise to replace the dress. I want to make them pay for what they've done.

Fire at repair facility destroys six buses retired from BWI Six out-of-service shuttle buses were destroyed in a fire yesterday afternoon at a repair facility near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. Firefighters responded at 3:47 p.m. to the report of a bus on fire at Main Avenue and Andover Road, said Division Chief John M. Scholz, a spokesman for the fire department. It took 31 firefighters to get the blaze under control at 4:25 p.m. No one was injured, Scholz said.

Shopping at C-Mart, the local discounter known for designer deals on the cheap, is famously hit-or-miss. An hour's rummage may turn up a fabulously high-end handbag, slightly irregular, or a beautiful couture dress with the labels removed. And that's considered a good day. But starting tomorrow, and rolling out over the next several weeks until Thanksgiving, C-Mart promises to be no misses and all hits - and not really all that cheap. Break out the credit cards, people. The mother lode of discount retail shopping has come to Joppatowne.

There are two kinds of shoppers who have rarely intermingled: those who love fashion and those who love gadgets. Lately, however, a hybrid group has emerged. It's prom queen loves computer club president, supermodel meets Star Wars addict. Apparently, a growing number of shoppers like their fashion gadget-y and their gadgets fashionable. For them, toting a plain gray laptop is deadly dull and having MP3 player wires hanging haphazardly from a Juicy Couture jacket is a sin of epic proportions.

Tired of that boring white iPod? How about that bottom-of-the-line phone you got with your wireless plan? Maybe you should put some bling on that thing. You know, ice it with a little python skin or dress it up with a Christtian Dior antenna trinket. "Pimped," "iced," "blinged out." Whatever you want to call them, decked-out gadgets -- as well as couture and luxury models -- are reaching ever-escalating heights of outrageousness. From Gucci iPod cases to emerald-laden Treos, they've gone far beyond the Swarovski crystal-encrusted cells made famous by status-obsessed starlets such as Paris Hilton.

Button your Burberry topcoats and cover your Kate Spade bags, lobbyists of Annapolis: Your privileged, rapid access to state government buildings is about to end. The entrance line forms outside the State House door. And take care: It can get chilly and wet out there. In the name of greater security, Maryland officials are starting a new identification system for the state office complex in Annapolis that will make it more selective. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his staff are getting new badges, as are members of the General Assembly and state employees who use the Lowe House Office Building, the Miller Senate Office Building and other facilities.

On the cusp of each new year, trend-setters usher in a hue that's expected to be the "color of the year. " For 2011, Pantone – the world-renowned authority on color — announced it had selected "honeysuckle. " The announcement was made a few weeks ago, but I don't go in much for fads, so I tried to ignore the news. Still, as a self-appointed arbiter of all things monumentally important — like trendy colors, for instance — I couldn't resist weighing in. Pantone, probably best known for creating a system to accurately identify and match color, more recently has taken on the task of trending colors for fashion and home, and each year presents the next "hot new color.

Liz Claiborne, who was one of the first designers to dress the American working woman and built a vast business using her name as a recognizable brand, died Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital from cancer. She was 78. Her personal assistant, Gwen Satterfield, reported her death yesterday. Ms. Claiborne, who began her career in New York in 1950, was one of the most recognizable names in fashion in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly among women who wanted quality, career-appropriate clothing and style, too. Ms. Claiborne and her husband, Arthur Ortenberg, founded Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976.