*Editor’s note after the jump.

We hear that Stila has gone bankrupt.

The story goes like this: The beauty brand, which is a favorite with beauty editors but is a little bit of a harder sell with girls that like bright colors on their faces, was sold by Estee Lauder to Sun Capital Partners in 2006, which means the products are only really available at Ulta and Bloomingdale’s besides beauty mecca Sephora.

We hear employees were given little advance notice, and arrived to offices that were shut yesterday morning.

Several attempts to contact Stila via e-mail and phone calls went unanswered.

And the Stila site says it’s down due to “routine maintenance” and that orders placed between March 23 and March 24 “may be canceled”.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Stila finally just got back to us, and they say that they’re “not going bankrupt” but “refinancing”. We asked what that means, and they said it means that they’re “reassessing their funds”…

If you’re in New York City this weekend and looking to drop some cash in anticipation of your tax return, there are some pretty good options:

- There’s Mixona, right next door to us on Mott Street, who’s offering a buy-one-get-one-half-off on any pieces of lingerie from Cosabella, Wolford and Eberjey, starting tomorrow.

- But if you’re looking to get shopping today, there’s the extended Scoop sale, the last day of the Hayden-Harnett sale (which we hear gets new stock today), and the Alejandro Ingelmo sale which started today at 10am on Mercer Street.

So get going.

For more sales, see here.

In 2008, Christian Siriano won Project Runway Season 4. Since then, he’s showed a couple collections, gotten his designs on celebrities like Tori Spelling, designed a line of shoes for Payless, and last week, Saks announced that they picked up his entire Fall collection.

This week, Victoria’s Secret says the petite designer’s created a limited-edition line of Very Sexy makeup to appear alongside Heidi’s.

The line will consist of eye shadow, eyeliner, lip gloss, a bronzer/highlighter trio, and a brush and bag, with each item priced a few dollars more than VS’s regular line of makeup.

Incredibly, no hair products are in the works, but more pressing, would you buy makeup from Christian Siriano/Victoria’s Secret?

“So to stir up crowds for the opening, Mr. Green dispatched promoters around the city, offering Topshop totes and gift cards redeemable for up to $500 to anyone who looked vaguely cool.

Thus the crowd at the store smacked of hipster central casting: men wearing skinny jeans and asymmetric haircuts, and wayward Gossip Girl types whose studied dishevelment suggested they were on the walk of shame.” - Guy Trebay, in the Times.

The rumors have finally been replaced with an actual date: On May 28, 2010, Sex and the City 2 hits the silver screen, though we bet there won’t be a silver hair in sight on screen.

The entire quartet is signed on, as is writer/director Michael Patrick King, but there is one name curiously missing from the list: Patricia Field.

Could the truly over-the-top ensembles of the first edition have nixed Pat from the sequel’s wardrobe planning? If so, we must admit, adding a little mystery to the movie’s costume department might be the rejuvenation they need to get people talking about this…

Fact: When pieces are borrowed for a photo shoot, they are usually just that - borrowed, unpaid for, and are meant to be returned as soon as the shoot is over (unless someone on set has sticky fingers).

Fact: Many of these items, if returned, come back to their showrooms damaged.

Fact: So, designers are forced to consider the value of having their dress lent to a shoot for, say, ELLE against the loss of the garment itself (plus, just because something is shot doesn’t mean it’s actually going to make it into the pages of the magazine).

So James Perse is now making editors pre-pay for any borrowed items, minus a 10% discount, which they can only refund (minus the 20% restocking fee) once the items are sent safely back, no later than ten days after they’re borrowed.

WWD seems to think this is a bad idea (they posted this under the heading “Good Luck with That”). But here’s another fact: Back in the day when we used to assist on shoots, we saw many, many James Perse items shot on many starlets, later to be credited as part of the basics collection of designers that actually advertise.

So yeah. We don’t think James Perse is losing much on this one.

You know the scene:

You emerge from the subway, it’s 9:17, and you get stuck on a narrow sidewalk behind someone trying to walk in heels when they so clearly cannot. You can’t go around them left or right, because they’re walking smack in the middle of the pedestrian lane for balance, fun - who knows what.

Next time, you should walk right up behind her and say, “Hey, have you seen those videos from Anastassia Khozissova on Modelinia? You might want check them out.” Because they teach women how to walk in heels - ok, they’re really more for fun, but perhaps should be required viewing as part of Phys Ed.

Tune in to see the full clip tomorrow at 9am, on Modelinia.

Lily Cole’s ads for Rimmel, which were announced almost a year ago, have finally hit Rimmel.com.

She poses with her mouth just parted, her hair in the wind, and each and every one of her freckles airbrushed out of existence.

As much as we love a great NSFW editorial with Ms. Cole, this beauty bot shot doesn’t sit quite right.

PS Does anyone else think freckles are completely adorable?!