(Thumbs up)MARGARITA FORES IS on a roll.

This Florence-trained chef, who?s behind one of the most popular Italian resto chains, is not only into catering and floral arrangements. She?s also exploring yet another resto variant. She?s opening a champagne bar, Lusso (luxe in Italian), at Greenbelt 5 any time soon.

But Fores is doing none of these without what she?s come to regard as a critical business tool?feng shui. She?s a late convert to the practice of tapping good, positive energy for the home and office, and of determining auspicious dates.

She?s not opening Lusso until the moon is as it should be.
She never followed feng shui before, and now, she realizes, it doesn?t hurt to heed it. So?she?s doing away with the spiral staircase that leads to nowhere at Pepato. She moved the cashier away from the spot over which the pointed chandelier hangs, also at Pepato.

Margarita?s new conversion isn?t unique. In fact, there are more and more entrepreneurs, we notice, who are tapping into feng shui?again (it peaked in the ?80s)?these days. With times being hard, it won?t hurt to get some help from the rest of the universe, earthlings having been not that reliable.

Marc Jacobs and BF about to tie the knot?

(Thumbs up)DESIGNER Marc Jacobs and his ad executive boyfriend, Lorenzo Martone, are engaged, according to a Women?s Wear Daily news flash. It says the couple, who have been dating for a year, will ?go public? as they arrive in Martone?s native Brazil wearing rings.

Rumors of the couple?s wedding plans have been rife for some time. New York Post recently reported that the designer and his beau purchased together a $13-million, 4,500-sq ft townhouse in New York City?s West Village.

The Gossip?s Ditto is new designers? fave

(Thumbs up)MARKING the end of the Fall collections, Italian luxury fashion house Fendi staged a concert to preview the new album of punk-rock act The Gossip. Its front woman, Beth Ditto, is a new front-row fixture at fashion shows, dressed by top designers like Marc Jacobs.

The buxom Ditto is widely touted as a new fashion muse in the mold of Amy Winehouse, who, a few seasons ago, also inspired creative director Karl Lagerfeld?s campaigns for Fendi. She recently graced the cover of Condé Nast?s Love, a new style magazine, buck naked.

The concert gathered A-listers like British supermodel Kate Moss. But perhaps the best part was that Fendi did away with the usual extravagant after-party swags, in keeping with the fiscal climate. Instead, guests went home with concert buttons bearing the logos of the band and the fashion house.

Watch your ?figure of speech?

(Thumbs down)DID he or didn?t he?

No thanks to Cyberspace, melodramatic meltdowns, like smoking inside enclosed public spaces, may soon be a thing of the past.

A soundless video clip purportedly showing fashion designer Boyet Fajardo and the object of his ire has lately made the rounds of several blogs.

Not since last year?s Gucci gang brouhaha have cyber-pundits been this riveted, dishing out their brand of bile against the designer.

With his back against the surveillance camera, Fajardo was shown berating a hapless Duty Free Philippines cashier before making him kneel before him.

According to people close to him, however, the designer was merely ?speaking for effect,? since he found the ?overacting? cashier ?whimsical.?

The cashier?s sin: He refused to honor Fajardo?s credit card until he could compare the designer?s signature with other forms of identification.

Fajardo reportedly found this odd since he had already made a number of earlier transactions using the same credit card (with different cashiers) in the same store.

Unable to produce the required documents, an exasperated Fajardo, who?d just flown in from a Shanghai business trip, asked to talk to the cashier?s superiors, including the store?s assistant comptroller.

When the matter was finally settled, the comptroller reportedly asked Fajardo how DFP could make amends.

The designer, pointing to the cashier, reportedly asked him to kneel before him. Fajardo claimed he was merely using a ?figure of speech? when he said, ?Lumuhod ka? (kneel).

Rather than protest, however, the assistant comptroller demanded the cashier to do as he was told. And he did.

The video is enough to make you cringe.