Lucas Jackson/Landov

We’re all for a little style experimentation, but when we spotted beauty mavens Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen at MoMA’s Film Benefit honoring Tim Burton this week in New York we were more than a little perplexed. We’d gotten used to Mary-Kate being the style risk-taker and her twin Ashley taking a more conservative approach. But the duo played with our expectations, with Ashley adding rainbow stripes to her hair and her sister going as bold as ever with the deepest red lips around. Tell us: What do you think of the sisters changing it up? What’s the boldest look you’ve tried in the name of beauty?

CW

When Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen first launched their mens collection for Elizabeth and James, we knew it was only a matter of time before Hollywood’s sexiest guys caught on. And it didn’t take long! Elizabeth and James for Men has been popping up all over Gossip Girl. Just this week, Dan Humphrey (played by Penn Badgley) wore the Elizabeth and James Easy V Cashmere Sweater during his now infamous threesome scene. And that wasn’t the first time Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s designs landed in the steamy television show. Dan wore two Elizabeth and James designs the week before the threesome, and last month Chuck Bass (played by Ed Westwick) sported an Elizabeth and James suit. Looks like Gossip Girl’s heartthrobs have found a brand they can depend on!

Read all the latest Gossip Girl news in PEOPLE.COM’s TV WATCH!

Courtesy of JCPenny

After just adding sunglasses to their high-end line, The Row,Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are already announcing the next addition to their fashion empire: a juniors collection for JCPenney! Olsenboye will be a line of casual sportswear and accessories inspired by teen trends from cities around the world with each new collection highlighting a different city and providing customers with fun, spirited and edgy styles that will constantly change. “Ashley and I felt strongly about creating a unique experience to reach the teen customer,” Mary-Kate said in a statement. Ashley adds, “Olsenboye is an extension of the Dualstar brand delivering trend-based fashion at affordable prices.” And affordable, Olsenboye certainly is. The collection, that will include denim, bottoms, tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, jackets ranging in size from 0-15, plus handbags and shoes, will retail from just $20-$50! A preview collection will be available for a limited time at select JCPenney stores and jcp.com starting November 6, followed by the full launch in February 2010. So far, we like what we see! Tell us: What do you think of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s line for JCPenney? Will you buy it?

Ace Pictures

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have made oversize shades a signature part of their style, so it’s no wonder that the superstar designers have chosen to add vintage-inspired shades to their luxury label The Row. And though The Row’s sunglass collection won’t be hitting stores until spring, Mary-Kate is already showing it off. The designer secretly debuted an oversized square frame — one of four styles that make up the collection — at the Burberry runway show during London Fashion Week. The other three styles include a classic metal aviator, vintage-inspired brow-line and a pair of round shades taken from the ’60s, according to WWD. “We’re testing the market first and obviously these are four very different silhouettes, so we’re seeing what people are responding to and we’ll open up a couple more silhouettes for fall,” Ashley tells WWD of the collaboration with Linda Farrow Eyewear, who is already responsible for Bernard Wilhelm, Dries Van Noten and Jeremy Scott’s edgy eyewear. Mary-Kate and Ashley have already made a mark in the accessories market with jewelry and shoes for their contemporary label, Elizabeth and James, but adding sunglasses proved to be a new challenge for the designers. “Designing eyewear was definitely more complicated than we thought, and of course, we wanted to be extremely hands-on,” Mary-Kate tells WWD. Sunglasses for The Row are expected to hit high-end department stores for spring with prices ranging from $325- $390. So far, we love what we see! Tell us: Will you buy sunglasses from The Row?

David X. Prutting/Patrick McMullan/Sipa

New York City’s much anticipated Fashion’s Night Out lived up to the hype, especially for the screaming fans and shoppers who made their way up to famed department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue to catch a glimpse of Victoria Beckham, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Lines to get into the luxury store stretched around the block and inside was just as packed. Victoria, clad in thigh-high Gucci boots and a neon mini dress, arrived around 7:30 PM to pose for pictures and sign Fashion’s Night Out T-shirts, telling PEOPLE on her way out, “It was great. It was really great.” Meanwhile, Mary-Kate and Ashley took a break from designing successful lines Elizabeth and James and The Row to work as bartenders on the 7th floor. Marli Milask, a lucky shopper who got an Olsen-mixed martini, tells PEOPLE, “It’s not that strong, but it’s good. We waited an hour to get inside and just see them for ten minutes, but it was worth it. They were very nice, just pouring drinks and handing them out.” And though the scene at Bergdorf’s was mayhem, one of the bartenders who worked beside the Olsens tells PEOPLE that the famous designers weren’t phased. “It was very relaxed. We were making a vodka and pomegranate drink. We mixed a couple of hundred drinks together. They’re very hard workers. Very nice.” Click here to check out where the other stars spent Fashion’s Night Out, and be sure to follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/StyleWatchMag for all the latest Tweets from the Fashion Week! Tell us: Where were you on Fashion’s Night Out?– reporting by Jeffrey Slonim

SEE ALL THE STARS OUT AT FASHION’S NIGHT OUT HERE!

Bill Davila/Startraks

Junko Kimura/Getty

Hollywood stormed Tokyo this weekend for a see-and-be-seen party at cutting-edge fashion boutique Opening Ceremony. The shop’s co-founders, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, were on hand to greet their stylish guests, which included actress Kirsten Dunst, designer Alexander Wang and Greek shipping heir (and former flame of Paris Hilton) Stavros Niachros. Designing sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were hard to miss at the event in their tulle animal ears — mouse for Ashley and rabbit for Mary-Kate — while they signed garments from their own label The Row. Even SNL star Andy Samberg was there, and joked to WWD, “I come to Tokyo once a week. I have a lot of stocks out here…I’m mainly just here on business.” Contented guests sipped sake from wooden cups while taking in the collections. The night ended on a fashionable high-note with revelers heading to an after-party at the Liquid Room, where The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas gave an exclusive preview of his first solo album.

Jeffrey Mayer/Wireimage

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen may have achieved childhood superstardom by acting, but the 23-year-old twins are now making headlines for their fashion business — specifically in an in-depth article in the New York Times about the success of their Elizabeth and James and The Row clothing lines. “I decided at 18 that I don’t really want to do this anymore,” Ashley told the New York Times of acting. ” I wanted to explore other things, and with that came The Row.” A high-end line of basics, The Row is described in the article as “perfect” by both Julie Gilhart of Barneys and Jim Gold of Bergdorf Goodman. “I think the way to think about The Row is that it offers the perfect blank — the perfect schoolboy blazer, the perfect leather leggings, the perfect peacoat,” enthuses Gold. And it’s not selling based on the star’s names. Ashley admits, “The customer who buys the clothes almost never knows we’re involved.” But both Ashley and Mary-Kate are very hands-on with the lines, with Ashley explaining, “for us this experience in fashion has been amazing.” Read more on Mary-Kate and Ashley’s budding fashion at nytimes.com.

With the Fashion’s Night Out only a few weeks away, it was only a matter of time before the most famous names in the industry got involved. With the help of MAC Cosmetics and Estee Lauder, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashley Olsen, Diddy, Zac Posen, Alexander Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and more joined forces in this promotional video aimed to help put the fun back in shopping! On September 10, Vogue, the CFDA, NYC & Company, and N.Y.C itself are all encouraging people to go shopping in all five of New York City’s boroughs with extended store hours (participating stores are staying open until 11 PM!), in-store appearances by designers and celebrities — some of whom are featured in this video — plus food, music, drinks, gifts-with-purchases, fashion shows, beauty treatments and more. We can’t wait! Even if you can’t make it to any of Fashion’s Night Out events, you can still support the cause with a specially designed T-shirt, $30, at neimanmarcus.com — 40% of the proceeds for each shirt will be donated to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Get more information on Fashion’s Night Out events at FashionsNightOut.com and Vogue.com.

Courtesy Marie Claire

Ashley Olsen has moved seamlessly from child star to star designer, with successful lines Elizabeth and James and The Row under her petite belt, but the way she sees it, she dodged a bullet. Speaking to Marie Claire of her tightly-regimented childhood, she muses, “That’s why I look at Britney, and I’m surprised I didn’t end up like her.” Her saving grace may have been her love of fashion and innate taste level. “I think you’re either born with a sense of style or you’re not,” she tells Marie Claire, which is on newstands August 11. “Either you care or you don’t.” Ashley and her twin, Mary-Kate, “love fashion,” she says. “When we were going to NYU, I think that was the first time we were aware of the power of our personal style. Not the power of it, but the result of it.” The endless press coverage of their every outfit was a surprise at the beginning. “Between the big sunglasses and Starbucks cup and the big sweaters, the hobo-chic thing, we were more shocked than anything,” she says. For the twins, it’s just a natural choice. “Mary-Kate and I are very aware of trends and style, but at the end of the day, we don’t even think twice about it,” she says. “It’s just, ‘What do I feel like wearing today, and how do I want to put it together.’” And for both sisters, they are always willing to take a risk, even if it means destroying a designer piece. “The amount of beautiful things we’ve ruined — not having the patience for a tailor and cutting everything ourselves … My sister once took an Alaïa dress of mine and just cut the whole thing, and then she was like, ‘I cut it too short.’” Ashley has to laugh. “Mary-Kate and I don’t think about fashion as these clean, beautiful objects. We just kind of wear it and live in it.”

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE ASHLEY’S COVER!

Courtesy Marie Claire

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Ever left your home and then realized you dressed totally wrong for the weather? Well, it looks like Mary-Kate Olsen had one of those days on Friday. Midway through the day, the petite star ditched her black pants to just rock her long tunic with her sexy sky-high heels. Thanks to her great legs, we think she looked great with and without the pants — and who can blame her for shedding the heavy trousers in that California heat! Tell us: Which version of the outfit do you like better on Mary-Kate? With pants or without? – Janet Mock

Photos by Roderick Angle

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen bring the journey of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys to life in their Fall ‘09 collection for Elizabeth and James. Starting with the “proper” London life and then giving way to the savage gardens of Neverland, expect to see schoolboy and Victorian detailing followed by raw-edged foliage pieces, prints and silhouettes. This collection marks the addition of a men’s collection and footwear to the already popular line. Stars like Nicole Richie, Lauren Conrad, Heidi Klum, Vanessa Hudgens and more already love the line, and with the addition of menswear, we think it is only a matter time before stylish guys like Zac Efron start wearing Elizabeth and James too. Tell us: What do you think of Elizabeth and James’s fall collection?

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE ANOTHER IMAGE FROM THE LOOK BOOK!

Courtesy Elizabeth and James

Courtesy of VMAN Magazine

Bye-bye blonde! Ashley Olsen, 22, who typically sports blonde tresses, got in touch with her dark side and dons a dark brown wig for a pictorial in VMAN magazine’s upcoming summer issue, of which PEOPLE.com has an exclusive preview. While Ashley appears serious and sultry in the photos, which were shot by Sebastian Faena, off-camera, she tells the magazine, “I’m definitely a hippie girl.” On the career front, Ashley says fashion is in her future, not acting. “I’ve been transitioning from acting as a kid to doing something that I’m choosing for myself-to be part of the fashion industry,” says Ashley, who helms The Row, a luxury women’s fashion collection expanding into men’s wear in the fall. Adds Ashley of her plans to conquer Seventh Avenue: “That’s what I want for my future. It has nothing to do with my past, nothing to do with anyone else’s agenda. And I followed my heart the whole way. But the outside perception is very different because you do have celebrity brands, people like Jessica Simpson and Kimora Lee Simmons, and those are celebrity brands because they have their names on it.” Although she and her twin Mary-Kate may appear to be cut from the same cloth, that’s not the case in terms of their ambitions. “The Row is really something that I’m doing while my sister still wants to focus on acting. She’s my partner in The Row, but she trusts me with the everyday. I mean, I see her like ten times a day.” –David Caplan

Chad Buchanan/Getty, Carlos Vila/Gardiner Anderson

Mary-Kate Olsen always marches to the beat of her own fashion drummer, but could she be listening to the siren call of Ozzy Osbourne’s style? While out biking in N.Y.C. with her boyfriend Nate Lowman this weekend, the petite star paired her flowing wavy locks and layered necklaces with round blue specs that call to mind Ozzy’s classic bespectacled look. But of course, biting off someone’s style is always an easier move than biting the head off a bat. Tell us: What do you think of Mary-Kate’s look?

Courtesy L’Koral Industries; Dave M. Benett/Getty (inset)

Just a few weeks after announcing a men’s collection for their high-end line The Row, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are gearing up to launch menswear under their Elizabeth and James line for fall! “We knew eventually there would be a guy, James,” Ashley tells WWD. While the contemporary womenswear line already teeters on the feminine-masculine line, the menswear collection, says Ashley is “about balancing uptown and downtown.” But, continues Mary-Kate, “That’s not literal, it’s just a reference to fabrics and risks that people are willing to take in the way they dress.” The designing duo took inspiration from Oliver Twist and Peter Pan’s Lost Boys for their first Elizabeth and James men’s collection, which will launch at Barneys this fall with prices leaning higher than the womenswear line. With shoes launching around the same time, and jewelry already on the shelves, we wonder what’s next for the Olsen design team. Handbags? Please!

Andrew H. Walker/Getty

Mary-Kate Olsen might have taken a front row seat at Proenza Schouler to check out the designing duo’s fall ‘09 line, but the star was also showing off something new of her and sister Ashley’s own design: Elizabeth and James shoes! The pint-size designer coordinated her turquoise dress and white Elizabeth and James blazer with a pair of black suede wedge heels from the new Elizabeth and James shoe line due out this spring. Mary-Kate’s pair are actually a prototype directly from the factory and is the line’s take on an ankle bootie, but with a sexy cut-out to show more skin. Wonder what fellow front row-er Nicole Richie thought of Mary-Kate’s design? Tell us: What do you think of Mary-Kate’s heels?

Get all of PEOPLE.com’s coverage of the stars and styles at Fashion Week by clicking here!

Courtesy of Interview

Mary-Kate Olsen has been capturing audiences since her Full House days — at first with her adorable smile and now with her unique fashion sense. Interview got the actress on the phone for a surprisingly candid chat. Turns out that Mary-Kate’s love for fashion didn’t come from reading magazines or even shopping, “For me, [fashion] really started by looking at people. When you’re walking down the street, or you’re at a restaurant, someone catches your eye because they have their own look. It goes way beyond what they’re wearing-into their mannerisms, the way they smile, or just the way they hold themselves.” Mary-Kate also credits being a twin to her late-blooming fashion gene. “Until we were 13 or 14, if my sister and I did an appearance, we would be wearing the same outfit,” says MK. But, for as long as she can remember, she and Ashley have had different taste. “Ashley was more into florals and baggier clothes.” Mary-Kate on the other hand, always had the more outrageous taste. “I think my first favorite clothing item was a pair of spandex shorts with fringe on them! Leopard and white spandex.” And thanks to their petite size, they’ve always thought about how clothing fits. “When I was young, clothes were really just about what fit, because Ashley and I were so tiny. So I understood fit before I understood style.” As for their lines The Row and Elizabeth and James, they move through the design process together. “An idea will come, whether it’s from a movie or a person or a character or a place . . . Then we go through color, silhouettes, and fabric. We sort of put it all together, finding the common threads,” says Mary-Kate. Read more of what Mary-Kate has to say about her early days on television and how she handles the rumor mill at Interviewmagazine.com”.

Jeffrey Mayer/Wireimage

For six seasons, Ashley and Mary-Kate’s high-end women’s line The Row has been flying off store shelves. Stars like Katie Holmes, Heidi Klum, Gwyneth Paltrow and more have all been spotted wearing looks from the line. Now, the designing duo is expanding their line into menswear with a 35 piece Fall ‘09 collection. Like The Row’s women’s collection, the men’s line will combine classic tailoring with comfortable American sportswear. From cashmere overcoats and jackets to chunky knits and soft T-shirts, men can now incorporate the Olsen’s coveted designs into their own wardrobes. The collection will range in price from $250 for a t-shirt to $3,200 for an overcoat, and store availability is still to be determined. We think it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing some of Hollywood’s hottest guys in The Row as well.

INF

A celebrity nearly from birth, Ashley Olsen is the last person you’d expect to get stage jitters. But at last night’s Fashion Group International’s 25th annual Night of Stars in N.Y.C., where she was slated to give a speech honoring Calvin Klein’s creative director Francisco Costa, the star admitted to PEOPLE, “I’m nervous,” adding wryly, “There’s a story there.” The actress, clad in a Calvin Klein column dress, arrived on Costa’s arm, and got a head-start praising her friend, saying, “When I first moved to New York, he’s the guy that really captured my eye. I followed [his work].” For his part, Costa was no less effusive about Olsen’s designs for her labels The Row and Elizabeth & James — especially when it came to the perfect fit of The Row’s pants. “They are actually great,” he said. “In fact, I was with Lauren Hutton. And I said, ‘You look so great!’ And she said, ‘It’s The Row.’ I was just so jealous.” So what does he think accounts for Olsen’s style success? “She really understands herself,” he says. “It’s mostly just what she feels comfortable wearing. It’s her eye.” Olsen sees the same in Costa. “I think it is all in the details for him,” she says. “It’s all in his head. Even if it looks like just a simple garment, you can go up to it and see the details that not many people would consider while fitting a garment.” – Jeffrey Slonim

Richard Young/startraks

Fashionistas and fans alike are buzzing about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s new book Influence, filled with photos and essays on the twins. And now, you can not only buy the tome but you can meet the stylish siblings in person by going to one of their book signings. In their blog, Ashley alerts her fans that they’ll be in stores in N.Y.C. and Los Angeles in the next few weeks for in-person signings. So if you are in N.Y.C on Tuesday October 28, swing by the Barnes and Noble at Union Square at 12:30 pm. But if you’re in Los Angeles, you’ll have to wait until November 12 to see Mary-Kate and Ashley at the Borders in Westwood at 7 pm. And if you can’t make it in person, you can still pick up the coffee table book at amazon.com, $24, now.

Richard Young/startraks

With their new jewelry collection just hitting stores now, co-designers already have their sights set on another venture: shoes! Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have joined forces with Steve Madden Ltd. to create a line of footwear to add to their successful sportswear collection Elizabeth and James. “We are excited to partner with Steve Madden to create the new Elizabeth and James footwear line,” Mary-Kate says in a released statement. “With their proven experience in all aspects of design, production and distribution, we intend to take the contemporary shoe market to a new level.” Mary-Kate and Ashley will drive the creative direction of the Elizabeth and James shoe collection towards the sophisticated and chic woman they already cater to. “Mary-Kate and I found Steve Madden to truly understand our design philosophy, and how we want this brand to grow over the coming years,” Ashley told the press. “They have the resources and talent to help execute our vision for the Elizabeth and James brand.” The line is scheduled to hit high-end specialty retailers in mid-2009 and we cannot wait! Mary-Kate and Ashley have always had outrageous taste in shoes, from sky-high gladiator sandals to trendy peep-toe booties, so we can’t wait to see what they have in store for us. Pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE to hear what Mary-Kate and Ashley have to say about their jewelry collection.