Eat your cyberpumping hearts out, YouTubers. Starting today you can get a peek at the latest bit of inexplicable online cross-marketing from our favorite plastic shoe purveyors. Yes, that's right, www.CitiesbyFoot.com, which Crocs is billing as a "unique travel guide" plugging various shops and restaurants in six U.S. cities, is now live!

Well, sort of.

Saturday's Fashion Market featured original work by over 25 local designers. The looks were fun, fabulous and most definitely fresh. If your spring wardrobe needs a breath of fresh air, check out this slide show, featuring accessories and runway fashion from the market.

- Aubrey Shoe

But in the meantime, this costume party offers bargains galore!

Today's weather is absolutely beautiful, but I can barely enjoy it since all I can think about is the sad state of my closet. I want flirty skirts and kitten heels in the freshest colors and styles for spring, yet my warm wool trousers and cashmere sweaters are still taking up prime real estate in my closet.

You better believe that after tomorrow's FRESH fashion market, I'll be singing a happier tune. Fashion Denver's FRESH Spring fashion market features over 25 local designers showing off their warm-weather clothing and, lucky us, also happens to be taking place the day before Mother's Day. You can check out the hot styles from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at The Oriental Theater, 4335 W. 44th Ave. Fashion shows will be at 3 and 6 p.m., with Denver musicians and DJs performing throughout the day. Admission is $5 at the door, and benefits Dress for Success Denver. For more information, visit www.fashiondenver.com.

So, before heading outside to soak up the spring weather, head inside to FRESH so you can really enjoy the season in style!

- Aubrey Shoe

Madonna called. She wants her boots back.

Lotus Entertainment’s marketing director, Paulina Szafranski, dropped by the office, channeling Madonna’s Vanity Fair cover (and maybe a little bit of Julia in Pretty Woman) in a pair of crazy-fierce, over-the-knee boots.

You want a pair?

Too bad.

They will, eventually, be available at Nine West, but not for a while. These particular boots are part of a limited edition collection, found exclusively in New York’s Nine West stores until this fall. Ms. Szafranski bought them hot off the runway from a fashion model friend of hers in NYC.

Sorry ladies. You’ll just have to wait.

Dress – Diane von Furstenberg

Bag – Marc Jacobs

Boots – So Not Everywhere Yet

- Steven J. Burge

- Aubrey Shoe

Slide Show

Since the company could use some good news, here's a Crocs fan's response to the piece Alan Prendergast wrote about the biggest invention to ever come out of Niwot.

Student designers were asked to incorporate scrap material leftover from the construction of CSU's new Computer Science building. The idea was conceived as a way to help recycle materials and support the university's plans to create a greener campus.

The fashion show, titled "Caution Couture: Where Green is the New Black" takes place at 6:30 p.m. tonight, May 2, at the Hilton Hotel, 425 W. Prospect Road in Fort Collins.

In addition to the couture show, students were asked to create a "dress for less" look using clothing from ARC and Goodwill thrift stores.

Tickets to the event are $4 for students and $6 for non-students and will be sold at the door starting at 6 p.m.

- Aubrey Shoe

When Japan’s traditional Tango-no-Sekku (otherwise known as Boys' Festival) falls each year on May 5, families hang out koi-nobori (carp banners) to symbolize longevity and perseverance, both desirable traits in sons. They also bring out the heirlooms – swords and elaborate, armored samurai dolls – and display them in their houses.

It’s quite possible that Boy’s Day will get a whole different approach, however, when Gimme Gimme Pillow Toast, Belmar’s premier Japanese kitsch emporium (here’s what we said about it in this year’s Best of Denver issue), hosts its own celebration, tonight, Friday May 2, from 6 to 9 p.m. Boy-specific items will be on sale, and the celebration will also benefit Youth in Action, a Japanese language and culture program for youth, as a fundraiser to send a group of kids to Japan for a month this summer (meet some of them tonight as they serve unique refreshments and graciously accept your donations). And, too, the party will extend up and down the Block 7 area at Belmar, where Flash Gallery/Working With Artists will debut a juried group photography show and Ink Lounge Gallery will host an opening reception for Lead Heads, the 18th Annual Colorado Alliance of Illustrators Members Show, which showcases local illustrators.

Gimme Gimme Pillow Toast is at 445 S. Saulsbury Street, Space E, in Belmar; go to www.gimmegimmepillowtoast.com, or call 303-872-7706.

- Susan Froyd

DIY fashionistas, rev up your bobbins: Wesco Fabrics, supplier to the design trade here and across the nation, is unloading a mind-boggling 25,000 yards of drapery and upholstery sample fabrics, all at a standard $3 per yard. There are jackets and handbags just waiting to be sewn from these classy fabrics, which originally sold for as much as $80 a yard, so grab the biggest shopping tote you can find and hurry over: The sale is on as we speak, today (Friday, May 2) until 4:30 p.m. and tomorrow (Saturday, May 3) from 8 to 1 at the Wesco warehouse, 4001 Forest Street. Visit www.wescofabrics.com for information.

- Susan Froyd

Though fall colors are normally laid to rest when spring has sprung, sometimes Mother Nature comes down with a touch of schizophrenia and makes it snow on May 1st. When this happens, one is faced with a dilemma: Stay warm and wear fall clothes and autumn hues for unexpected weather? Or throw caution to the unseasonable wind and freeze to death in a crocus-colored springtime frock?

Hmm. What to do… What to do…

Here’s a sassy little candid of our Sales Sweetheart, Rayann, making a mad dash for the front door in the more practical of the two ensemble options.
“This is cashmere! It’s bad enough I’m wearing brown on May Day! Does it have to snow on my brown cashmere on May Day?!”

Good question, Rayann. But a better question might be, “Where is your coat, dear?”

“It’s spring, Steve!” she snaps, giving a little snowflake-shunning shimmy when she’s safely inside. “I don’t need a coat. Now, go get me some hot chocolate. I’ll be in the bathroom blow-drying my hair under that hand-drier thingy. Brrr!!!”

Anything for you, love. And happy May Day.

Cashmere Blouse from Saks Fifth Avenue
Trousers from Nordstrom
Shoes from Charlotte Russe
Beads from Pandora’s Box

- Steven J. Burge

Hey all you fans of modern furniture -- while you still can't shop conveniently at an IKEA (sadly, the closest one to Denver is in Draper, Utah which is over 400 miles away) -- there are a few great sales going on right now on high-end modern designs.

Beginning tomorrow, May 2, One Home is having their annual sale on all of their Knoll Studio pieces. Everything in the collection -- which features famed designers Harry Bertoia, Warren Platner and Eero Saarinen -- is 10 percent off through Sunday, May 11. One Home, located at 2445 East Third Avenue, is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. They will also be open on Sunday, May 11 from noon-4 p.m. For more information, visit www.onehomedesign.com.

Bova Furniture, 2121 S. Colorado Blvd, is in the midst of a going out of business sale, so you'll need to hurry to scoop up the bargains before they're all gone. A quick visit on Sunday revealed that most of their pieces are marked down 50 percent or more. The store, which features modern Scandinavian design, was founded in Copenhagen and opened in Denver in 1981. Their new, shortened sale hours are Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday noon-6 p.m. They currently aren't answering their phone, but you might try visiting www.bovafurniture.com for more information.

- Aubrey Shoe

Slide Show!

The fashion show featured tons of Euro style with looks by Ducati, Vespa, Triumph and ReVit, and got off with a bang when a model climbed atop a motorcycle above the runway and revved away-- capturing the attention of everyone and eliciting concerns of potential carbon monoxide poisoning from a few. Once the fumes cleared away, though, it was all fabulous fashion.

Check out this slide show with photos by Jim Narcy for a play by play of the evening's festivities.

-- Aubrey Shoe