A few days back, Lynsey and I pootled along to the Nokia Young Fashion Designer Awards, hosted by Brendan Courtney at the gorgeous old Habitat building on Dublin's Dame Street.

20 finalists had produced designs inspired by sponsor Nokia's Supernova handset. Impeccably dressed but presumably pretty nervous, the talented group looked on as their creations walked the catwalk, judged by some of fashion's finest.

The judging panel was made up of fashion blog-goddess Susie Lau, Fashion Wire Daily European editor, Godfrey Deeny, Head of Menswear at Hermes, Brendan Mullane and Irish knitwear designer Tim Ryan (also the student mentor).

Donegal's Aoife Gallagher took home the top prize of cash, phone-based goodies and all the glory she could eat. Here's the lady herself, skipping home with the awesome winning design:

I must admit that my personal fave was one of the runners-up, LSAD's Ciara Glynn who showed us an Irridescent Space Warrior. Here it is, along with a design sketch. Yum!

Congratulations to joint runner-up Lyn Allen and to all the designers. Every entry betrayed a shovel full of talent and we're very proud of the strong fashion coming out of Ireland because of the likes of you guys.

You're all surely destined for great things - and if you'd like to get there via crowd-funding, give us a shout some time!

First, there were the bestsellers.

Coco and Stella - both £24.99 by Marshall & Vox - have consistently been among our top sellers since they launched.

Next came the bargains:

Topshop and Wintour are now in the Sample Sale, discounted to a delicious £15 to make way for new items.

Now, say hello to Halston and the Sugababes.

Marshall & Vox extend their cheeky fashion insider tees with these awesome tribute tees, both available in the Boutique.

If you like these, you might also want to pick up a share in the label - it's only £11 to invest. Visit Marshall & Vox's page and click on the 'Become a Supporter' link to get started.

Music crowd-funding platform Sellaband have just announced that music icon Chuck D (Public Enemy) is joining them as an ambassador while they attempt to gain ground in the US.

Since their launch in August 2006, the German venture has seen fans raise $50,000 in funds for 29 musical artists to release albums. A mighty $2.2 million has been invested in unsigned artists overall. You can read more here and here.

We're delighted to see them going from strength to strength as one of the pioneers of crowdfunding and can't wait to see them break America with a democratic funding model.

We're looking forward to developing a similar track record of success in connecting fashion fans with great designers.

Want to come along for the ride? Find out how the back-a-designer scheme works.

Just a reminder: My Space Top Friends...

...is one way of getting some sweet prizes, including:

We'll be making the prize draw this evening, so add us now! Full details here.