Fashion Designers Expo Florida benefiting Susan G. Komen For the Cure Miami|FTL will be having their first official casting on Saturday, July 25th, 2009 from 10am-3pm at Kitchen 305 inside of the Newport Beachside Resort & Hotel. www.newportbeachsideresort.com

The lowdown: Anyone from a toddler to a grandma can get lost in this ultimate girly-girl wonderland, where it's impossible not to find your inner child.The 'hood: Open for six years, Brenda Weninger's charming shop is located in a quiet corridor behind Akashi in Coconut Grove, just a couple blocks down from Johnny Rocket's. Metered parking is available on the street, but you're probably better off paying to park in the CocoWalk garage.The vibe: Perfect for playtime. The boutique lures you in with bright colors and alluring scents from its Trapp candles. The tiny space is filled with playful items such as pink boas and tutus dangling from the ceiling, glittered leggings, candles and costume jewelry including drop necklaces, oversize rings and beaded earrings lining the far walls.

Young women who rock bikinis for a living are about to get busy.Swimsuit-clad models will hit runways through Sunday at the Raleigh Hotel as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim returns for its fifth year -- and with its biggest lineup yet.he five-day, invite-only production draws glossy magazine editors, department store buyers and boutique owners, most of whom are already in town to attend the massive, annual trade show by the Swimwear Association of Florida at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Miss Jess sez, "The Design Piracy Prohibition Act is very, very scary to all of us in the apparel industry. There are millions of jobs at stake if this legislation passes, and this act is simply being pushed by a handful of wealthy celebrity designers who continually pirate the 'little guys' designs anyway. Basically, this act will kill my business along with thousands upon THOUSANDS of other small, medium and large design and manufacturing businesses around the US and the world if it is passed. It's a big deal! Under this legislation, however, designers will need to consult with a lawyer throughout the design process to ensure that every new design created could not subjectively be found at a later date to be "closely and substantially similar" to one protected in the Copyright registry... Further, young, up-and-coming designers would be susceptible to legal intimidation from designing anything new at all, as they would likely not have the resources to fight a legal challenge in court... While the bill purports to keep all fashion designs that have existed in the past free and open for all to use, the legislation would allow the ability to copyright non-original design elements in the public domain if arranged in an original way. Moreover, since there is no test for originality, the registry will begin to be populated with designs that from the public domain. Thus, a designer who draws upon inspiration from the public domain, can easily find himself/herself stuck in costly litigation.