It's a bit of a joke that straight guys are into "hot girl-on-girl action," but what's new is the burgeoning industry of "M/M romances," erotic novels about gay men written by and for straight women. What's that about?

• When you first heard the Olsen twins were breaking into fashion, you had a good laugh, didn't you? Well, it's been a few years since then and now "their success in a field as competitive as fashion is impossible to deny," says an enthusiastic Cathy Horyn today. Of course, it hasn't hurt that they're super-famous…

Clark Hoyt — de facto ballbuster and Public Editor of the New York Times — took the Styles section to task today. Hoyt finally went after Cintra Wilson's hysterically size-ist, Middle America tone-deaf, awesome assessment of NYC's new JC Penney's.

Efforts to turn Vogue into Vogue: Proletariat continue at full speed. They're now making serious attempts to cater to the fatties and unfamous. Their latest? How to get Normals into awesome exclusive restaurants they otherwise wouldn't normally get into.

• Polo Ralph Lauren has been hit with a lawsuit for stamping the word "lifeguard" on clothing without permission. Another company is claiming it trademarked the word years ago. [NYP]
• As expected, Escada filed for bankruptcy protection in a German court today. [Bloomberg]
• Is Bravo renewing The Fashion Show for a…

• Cintra Wilson is not impressed with the NYC's very first JCPenney: "Why would this perennially square department store bother to reanimate itself in Manhattan—in the sleekest, scariest fashion city in America—during a hair-raising economic downturn, without taking the opportunity to vigorously rebrand itself?"…

♦ The Marc Jacobs bribery scandal has finally been resolved. Earlier this year, it was alleged that an employee of the Armory was paid off so that Jacobs' company could secure the venue for runway shows. Now the company has paid $1 million to settle the matter. In happier news, Jacobs says he's eager to make an…

♦ Isaac Mizrahi went on Leonard Lopate's radio show yesterday to offer advice on how to be stylish during a recession. His counter-intuitive tips? Go to expensive hairdressers, buy expensive shoes, and "never buy anything that's on sale." [The Moment, WNYC]
♦ Suri Cruise has a pair of one-off, custom-made red…

♦ Designer/actress/Parisian it-girl Lou Doillon talks to WWD about her more intellectual projects, like her stage debut tonight in Samuel Beckett's The Image at the Alliance Française. [WWD]
♦ Can this week get any more catastrophic? Top Shop's opening is now pushed back till March. [WWD]
♦ Mary Kate and Ashley…

In the future, Andy Warhol once said, "All department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores." This has already happened: see the Prada store on Broadway, the former location of the Guggenheim Museum's SoHo branch. It's also occurred at Christian Louboutin, the French purveyor of…

New York Times Critical Shopper stand-in Cintra Wilson takes a look at Phi, the Soho clothier that "showcases the artistry of the meticulously trained Norwegian designer Andreas Melbostad." Then it gets less penetrable: A reader dared us to translate the piece's most harrowing paragraph.