Derek Lam

Fashion often looks to the past for inspiration. This fall, history is in great evidence: surrealist flourishes from the 1940s abound; shoulder pads and neons from 1980s saturate clothing lines at all levels.

Marc Jacobs might not be fashion's most precise designer, but he is its most perceptive, defining the mood of the times, rolling out the plan in New York, and etching it into our desires at Louis Vuitton in Paris three weeks later.

Every season, a fabric or a look that appeared six months previously becomes amplified as designers reinterpret it and take it one step further. Case in point, the sweatshirt.

The Harpers Bazaar spread features a smiling Lopez posing with legendary designers Diane Von Furstenberg and Oscar de la Renta. Making an awkward cameo -- Elmo and Oscar the Grouch.

When I found out I had been invited to the annual Met Ball, I was, well quite frankly, a little shocked.