Our community PurseForum is teaming up with Rebecca Minkoff in a project the likes of which handbag lovers have never seen before. Starting tomorrow, Monday the 10th of October, PurseForum.com will launch a three-week collaboration that will not only have fans vote on design elements to create an exclusive Rebecca Minkoff bag, but also allow the fans to be an integral part of the design process.

Ladies! I’ve missed you! If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you might have noticed that I’ve been MIA since my last recap, and that’s because I’m in the process of moving to New York City. But I couldn’t stay away for too long, because who can resist a new episode of Real Housewives of New York? I can’t.

The Alexander McQueen Iris Skull Clutch is one of those bags that needs to be seen in the largest photo possible at all times; at a distance, you might mistake the detailed embroidery for printed fabric, and that would be a tragedy indeed. A bag like this can look like a hippie craft project without a very careful hand, but Alexander McQueen Spring 2011 took flowers and butterflies and someone manages to make them look beautifully transgressive.

Over dinner a couple of weekends ago, a friend asked me if it ever felt silly to write about fashion in the wake of human and environmental disasters like the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. And, truth be told, it can feel a little bit silly at times, just as I imagine most people who work in non-public service jobs feel when confronted with such a devastating world event.

I have some good news for you ladies: I received confirmation late last night that we only have two episodes left of the debacle known as Real Housewives of Miami. This season seems to be the red-headed stepchild of the Bravo family, and Bravo execs have seen fit to bring it to a quick and merciful ending. I don’t have any details on a reunion, but if there is one, I think we should all agree to pretend that it’s not happening.

Don’t get me wrong – like any member of the fashion industry, I love black and own a great deal of it. But when I think of Project Runway favorite Christian Siriano, somber darkness isn’t necessarily what comes to mind or what I expected to see in his Fall 2011 collection. But more than anything, black is what I found.

I said a lot of not-so-nice things about Cleobella when I first started reviewing the brand’s bags last year (and believe me, the things I thought and then decided to keep to myself were even less nice), but somewhere along the way, the brand managed to makes little tweaks here and there to its boho aesthetic and turn itself into a brand that I almost always like.

I’m not sure I’ve ever recapped a show that has had as unsatisfying an ending as this season of The Rachel Zoe Project, except for perhaps the season of Project Runway where that horrible Irina person won. In this finale, though, there were clearly no winners. Including us.

Despite being promised the glamour and clothes porn that goes along with the Met Ball, all we got were a few Marc Jacobs dresses and 40 minutes of baby chatter and relationship issues.

In case anyone was truly scared, I’ll go ahead and let the cat out of the bag right now: no one went naked to the Oscars on The Rachel Zoe Project last night. No one ever does, but the continued threat that it might actually happen seems to be what literally sustains Rachel and gets her out of bed in the morning.