eBay

• Karl Lagerfeld on Kate Middleton's best features — Vogue UK Daily
• Lindsey Wixson's Jason Wu prom dress — Modelinia
• Win a Kate Spade shopping spree with eBay's charity auction — The Inside Source
• Jessica Szohr loves her hats — InStyle
• Hannah MacGibbon will stay at Chloé for at least one more season — The Cut
• Another way to completely avoid wearing real jeans — Refinery29
• Four questions with J.Crew's Marissa Webb — Lucky
• Alexander Wang, we have a problem — Purse Blog
• How to wear your evening shoes during the day — Vogue Daily

Continuing the cash-for-iPhone trend first introduced by Verizon and then Target, eBay has now launched its own phone trade-in program, starting today and continuing through Feb. 22. While eBay's program covers a number of recently announced smartphones, customers will get the most cash for trading in a gently used AT&T iPhone 4 — a guaranteed $200 to up to $450 based on its condition, which is more than enough to cover the cost of a new Verizon iPhone, and even rivals Verizon's own trade-in program. An iPhone 3GS in good condition can net the user $200, and an HTC EVO 4G could get you as much as $200.

To take advantage of this eBay Instant Sale program, visit ebay.com/iPhone.

"Very rare!" "Unopened." "Brand new." These are words eBay sellers use to describe tampons for sale, but not just any tampons — the beloved O.B. Ultra (the purple box), which Johnson & Johnson discontinued late last year.

Soon all O.B. tampons were reported missing from store shelves, and though they've started to return, many women still can't find them. So, of course, enterprising eBay users are all over this opportunity. O.B. Ultra is going for $50 (seller also has a "cracked" box available for $45) while the same-size box (albeit nondiscontinued absorbencies) sells for under $6 on Soap.com.

The crazy thing is they're probably selling, otherwise so many people wouldn't be offering them. Once women do get their hands on the discontinued tampons they may have an Elaine from Seinfeld-like conundrum (are you sponge-worthy?) on their hands. Is today's flow ultra-worthy or just super?

>> Tory Burch has a full-on editorial section to her website, complete with Tory-approved travel guides; eBay Fashion just hired former Lucky creative director Andrea Linett; and Net-a-Porter's Mr. Porter website is being headed up by Jeremy Langmead, the former editor of British Esquire.

It's safe to say — fashion and luxury brands that used to have to impress editors at the likes of Vogue to garner editorial coverage don't have to anymore. They're bringing the editors in-house, cutting out the magazine middlemen and going straight to consumers with their own editorial content. “Brands, especially those centered around lifestyle interests or luxury, are increasingly becoming media companies,” Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital, a digital communications and consulting firm, noted.

Part of the transition can be chalked up to the fact that brands can now afford to pay for their own editorial credibility — with digital publishing, creating and distributing content is much cheaper. Susan Lyne, former CEO at Martha Stewart Living and currently head of Gilt Groupe, has encouraged more editorial elements on the Gilt website, allowing consumers to read and investigate — something that used to be the province of magazines — as they shop. “We are not in the publishing business; we are in the editing business,” she said. “But if I were in the media business, I would be concerned because it used to be that in order to reach a certain kind of consumer, brands used to have to buy ads in relevant magazines or with a certain kind of television programming. That’s clearly not the case anymore.”

The highly anticipated Hello Kitty Beauty collection will be available at Sephora at the end of the month. To celebrate the launch, Sephora and Sanrio (the makers of Hello Kitty products) are collaborating with eBay for an exclusive auction that includes packages featuring a limited-edition Swarovski brush set, a VIP beauty experience in LA, Honolulu, or NY to meet Hello Kitty designer Yuko Yamaguchi, and more.


Better yet, all proceeds from the auctions will go to Starlight Children's Foundation, an organization that helps children with serious illnesses. The bidding starts Jan. 17, so if you're a Kitty-obsessed auction hunter who wants to do good, mark your calendar.

• Gap channels the '70s with new denim styles — Stylelist
• Andrea Linett is going to make eBay more like Lucky — The Cut
• Holiday travel diaries: part one — Vogue Daily
• Guess who wore these fab accessories to the People's Choice Awards — FabSugar UK
• Sienna Miller flies high in Rock & Republic — Teen Vogue
• LVMH will not be allowed to buy out Hermès — Vogue UK
• This week I want to look like: Sky Ferreira — Lucky
• Karen Walker's limited-edition eyewear capsule collection — Racked
• Nicole Richie on her vintage fashion obsession and flea market finds — People
• The Proenza Schouler PS1 gets a color and material makeover — Purse Blog

>> Andrea Linett, who resigned from her position as Lucky creative director in September after the magazine's editor Kim France was replaced, began a new position this week — as creative director of eBay Fashion. Linett has long been an eBay fan — during her Lucky days, when asked about her favorite online stores, she listed eBay among them: "I spend hours on ebay.com!" In her new position, she plans to enliven the shopping experience of the site with more upscale imagery reminiscent of a magazine: “It is the same kind of shopping experience, except that it’s a marketplace instead of a magazine.” [NY Times]