Players in the fashion and beauty world love collaborating to bring you the freshest accessories and chicest clothing. Check out these noteworthy collaborations that have the style world abuzz.

Polyvore and Cover Girl: Polyvore Live

Two big names in the fashion / beauty world — Polyvore, an online fashion community, and CoverGirl Cosmetics — have come together to create a fashion show at this year’s Mercedez Bens Fashion Week.

The February 13 show takes place at La. Venue and will feature prominent fashion bloggers as the models. As for what the Polyvore Live models will be wearing, get ready for some emerging — and very talented — designers. Four FIT alumni who submitted their designs to the Polyvore community have been chosen and they include: Dana-Maxx Pomerantz, Luaren Balgiore, Sergio Guadarrama and Vengsarkar “Ven” Budhu.

For those unable to go to Fashion Week, watch the models strut their stuff in real time on the Polyvore Live catwalk at Polyvore.com.

Read more about Polyvore Live at WWD.com.

Closet Groupie

Here’s a commandment any fashion-forward femme can get behind: Thou shalt covet thy stylish neighbor’s closet. Thanks to Closet Groupie, a website launched late in 2011, that should now be an easy thing to do. The website is essentially a buying/selling platform with a focus on high fashion duds and accessories. Women can sell their gently used, vintage — or even new — garments and accessories for others to buy. And, of course, they can buy other womens’ items, as well.

“Some of the best clothes in the world are hanging in your closets, not in stores,” says the website. “Closet Groupie is going to change the way we live by letting us shop in closets we love, and sell what’s in our closets to people who love our style.”

Check it out at ClosetGroupie.com.

Pamela Love and Shopstyle

Jewelry designer Pamela Love and online shopping mega-store ShopStyle have partnered up to bring shoppers an exclusive collection of funky jewelry. The three piece, limited edition jewelry collection has very tribal-meets-edgy-meets-modern. Pieces include a rose-gold plated tribal spike necklace, a red resin tribal spike cuff and silver plated diamond pendant necklace. Prices range between $175 and $225 a pop.

Check out the jewelry yourself and learn more about the designers in this WWD article.

Beauty Bar and Allure Magazine: Sample Society

Love trying samples before you invest in the full size product? Meet Sample Society, a beauty sampling program brought to you by two beauty household names: Beauty Bar and Allure Magazine.

This sampling program is different from other sample subscriptions sites (such as Beauty Fix, Birchbox and Test Tube) in that it’s reserved for Sample Society’s elite members. It delivers five “carefully curated, deluxe-sized samples” to its members on a monthly basis along with a monthly issue of Allure magazine for $15 per box. Members also receive a special code for $15 off any $50 purchase on their Beauty Bar website.

Learn more about Sample Society here.

By Wendy Rose Gould

By this point in the 21st century, it’s safe to assume that most people are already aboard the social media bandwagon. Still, many men and women find themselves unskilled when it comes to dating in this fast paced world of interactive media. From Facebook friendships to Foursquare check-ins to Twitter play-by-plays, it’s time to wise up to what’s acceptable — and what’s not. A recent post by Mashable detailed 10 essential tips for dating in the social media age. We’ve highlighted five of them below.

1. Don’t “Like” or Comment on Everything

Comment on discussions, statuses or links that intrigue you, but avoid commenting or “liking” for the sake of making your presence known. In other words, only contribute if you have something valuable to offer.

2. Facebook Stalking

Just don’t do it. If it’s an ex, you’ll just get sad. If it’s a current interest, you’ll find it’s much nicer to ask about his day instead of reading about it.

3. Friending His Pals

This is also a social media faux pas, as is adding his family.

4. Twittering Etiquette

Do not, I repeat, do not, Twitter about your date while you’re on a date with him. If you must, Twitter about things after you’ve parted. And leave out the steamy details.

5. Breaking Up

It’s no secret that our lives are much more public today than they were in the past. If you’ve called it quits with your ex-beau, try to be the first to change the relationship status and then make it private or delete the activity. If you see a friend’s recently split, be kind and refrain from commenting on the activity.

Discover the remaining five dating tips at Mashable.com.

By Mirela Gluck

Budding fashion designers can now bring their style creations to life — with the possibility of selling said creations — thanks to a new phone application by UnitedStyles. The innovative Facebook Connect-enabled app lets the owner play fashion designer by sketching completely unique designs on their electronic device. The designs can then be previewed and showcased in 3D form.

If that’s not enticing enough already, get this: UnitedStyles, based in Shanghai, also allows app users to buy customized creations for roughly $50 per top and $80 to $100 for a dress. The company also hopes to reach out to the male market in the near future.

Learn more about the UnitedStyles app on TechCrunch.

By Mirela Gluck

The marriage of shopping and technology was a long time coming; they didn’t keep their relationship under wraps, although they tried. Marriage has been a bumpy ride for these two, as they attempted to keep their physical retail counterparts happy and content, while profiting from the “dot com boom.” Now stronger than ever, with new innovations being unveiled daily, shopping and technology go hand and hand, and the only way for the physical store to survive is to accept its solo demise and join in on the established union.

“The Future of Shopping,” a recent article published in the Harvard Business Review, penned by retail consultant Darrell Rigby, details the ups and downs and soaring opportunities for ecommerce. With more than 9% of all retail sales happening online (a 5% increase from last year), he pinpoints that we are far past the “dot com” shopping era, and are now fully involved in “Omnichannel retailing,” which includes websites, stores, kiosks, catalogs, call centers, social media, mobile devises, gamming consoles, televisions, networked appliances, and home services, to name a few (kidding). This Omnichannel binds every shopping counterpart together, causing all to work together to excel the exposure, accessibility, and profit of a given brand or product, under the roof of digital technology, which Rigby defines precisely:

“Digital technology—in the form of tablets, for example—can also give sales associates nearly infinite information about customers, describing the way they like to be treated and creating precise models of their homes or body types that enable perfect choices. It can change pricing and promotions accurately and instantaneously. It can provide customized recommendations. Virtual mirrors accelerate and enliven the dressing room experience by connecting customers with trusted friends. Technology can eliminate checkout lines, capture transaction receipts, file rebate claims, and speed returns. It can give a call center operator full access to a customer’s purchase and complaint history.”

The best advice for all shoppers out there, is to become savvy with apps that offer everything from shopping tips, perks, coupons, and advise. Amazon.com, the leading innovator of online shopping, putting several companies out of business every day, has taken further steps to give themselves an almost unfair advantage. Amazon’s Price Check App will allow you to take cell phone photos of an item you want to purchase inside any physical store, and submit them to receive a 5% discount offer off that very product on their site. Apps such as Amazon’s, can easily demolish the small business in due time.

According to the Harvard Business Review’s calculations, by 2014 every cell phone user will own a smartphone. Because of these truths, displayed urgently during this year’s Holiday shopping splurge, The Vogue City will unveil a ‘Technology’ tab, offering shopper’s insights and suggestions on what application to download, what website to visit, and essentially the latest technology that will benefit your wallet.

Returning to Rigby’s insights, he insists there is hope for the physical store. Shoppers enjoy being able to touch their product prior to purchasing, and like being tended to by salespeople, therefore with the right strategy and integrated technology, the physical store will have no problem surviving.  “As a visually-oriented shopper who also values my freedom to browse, I am one who dislikes the targeted marketing approach (”Here is a deal for YOU!”). However, I do think the concept of “filtering” has merit in shopping:  Present me with options in general that I am likely to enjoy  - similar to browsing a department or style within a store - and I am more likely to buy from a position of ownership and economy,” a commenter on the Harvard Business Review’s website explains.

We’ve come to accept that our planet has been swallowed by technology. Understanding and learning one advancement at a time, is the only way to avoid becoming overwhelmed by your innumerable options. With social media, and the overtaking of the “app,” taking advantage of all the options these modernizations have to offer is the only way to save money, diminish shopping stress, and guarantee securing the best possible product for you. Apps such as Foursquare make it fun to save by “checking in” and racking up points in order to beat your friends in a friendly game. With that, and as brands revamp their stores to become interactive and “an experience,” trying to maintain a balance of physical and electronic, shopping can become more entertaining than you could have ever imagined. Keep on top of things and bookmark The Vogue City’s technology tab to remain omniscient on Omnichannel retailing.

By Caitlin Colford