“Jessica is very pretty and feminine, but she didn’t want this to be over-the-top frilly,” Ashwell tells PEOPLE. “The words she used were ‘gypsy’ and ‘bohemian,’ so we brought in lavenders and mauves with a bit of pinkand aqua.”

On one wall, Ashwell hung vintage [...]]]> When Jessica Simpson and fiancé Eric Johnson asked Rachel Ashwell of Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture to design their daughter’s nursery a few months before Maxwell Drew arrived, the couple had a very clear vision in mind.

“Jessica is very pretty and feminine, but she didn’t want this to be over-the-top frilly,” Ashwell tells PEOPLE. “The words she used were ‘gypsy’ and ‘bohemian,’ so we brought in lavenders and mauves with a bit of pinkand aqua.”

On one wall, Ashwell hung vintage butterfly wallpaper that “definitely set the tone,” and filled the room with luxe furniture from her boutiques. As a complement, the designer scoured flea markets to find vintage pieces that she converted into shelving units — and even a custom changing table, which she made by screwing a changing table top to a dresser.

One reason the experience was so satisfying was because Simpson, 31, and Johnson, 32, completely shared her vision, and loved nearly every idea she proposed — so much so that they asked her to design the rest of their home for them as well.

“They were probably the most un-neurotic people I’ve ever known,” says Ashwell. “Jessica wanted [the nursery] be cozy and cute, and she was very respectful of Eric, asking, ‘Do you like this?’ And he was nicely opinionated.”

“I found being around them very inspiring to think, ‘Wow, [this is] a real collaborative vision,’” continues Ashwell. “I even wrote them a little note saying, ‘It’s been such a privilege to be part of making your home for you, because I know it’s going to be a house of substance.’”

For photos of what’s inside Maxwell’s nursery — and an update on how Simpson and Johnson are handling parenthood — check out this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

In a deal put together by the Farrah Fawcett Foundationand Culver City-based branding agency Brand Sense Partners, the $24 men’s T-shirt is being sold at the retailer’s bricks-and-mortar stores and online, with [...]]]> The famous Farrah Fawcett photo — the one taken by Bruce McBroom of the actress in a red bathing suit posed in front of a striped blanket that would go on to sell more than 12 million posters — is back in circulation — on an Urban Outfitters T-shirt.

In a deal put together by the Farrah Fawcett Foundationand Culver City-based branding agency Brand Sense Partners, the $24 men’s T-shirt is being sold at the retailer’s bricks-and-mortar stores and online, with a portion of proceeds going to fund the foundation’s alternative cancer research efforts.

At the time Fawcett passed away in 2009, the legal rights to the red bathing suit photograph were the subject of an ongoing lawsuit, according to the foundation’s president, Alana Stewart. ”She’d wanted to do this for a long time.”

Stewart said that now that Fawcett’s estate owns the rights to that iconic image, it can be used on a variety of products, with a portion of proceeds helping fund the foundation that bears her name (which Stewart, who was a close friend of Fawcett’s for more than 30 years, says is in accordance with the wishes of the late actress).

The Urban Outfitters T-shirt is the first of the licensed products bearing the image to hit the market since the actress’ passing nearly three years ago (although, in 2011, Mattel did release a collectible Farrah Barbie doll based on the image — posed in a red bathing suit against a striped blanket –with a portion of proceeds going to the foundation), and Stewart hints that it won’t be the last.

“There are some things in the works,” she said, “but what’s really important to me is that it needs to be exclusive and classy — something that Farrah would have approved of.”

Although Stewart declined to say what percentage of the proceeds from the sale of each $24 shirt will go to the Farrah Fawcett Foundation’s cancer awareness and research efforts or estimate how much the T-shirt deal might ultimately be worth, she pointed out that sales have already been surprisingly brisk.

“I don’t think she could have imagined that all these young kids would be going into Urban Outfitters and buying a a T-shirt with her picture on it,” Stewart said of her late friend. “I bet she’d think that was pretty cool.”

The company said that some proceeds from the sale of the case goods pieces also will benefit Trees4Trees, a nonprofit foundation that focuses on reforestation and related education initiatives in Indonesia.

This group primarily gives local farmers and landowners free seedlings for species used in furniture production, including teak, mahogany [...]]]> Effort focuses on reforestation in Indonesia

AT THE MARKET – Shabby Chic is launching a new case goods line through its brand partner Miles Talbott, which specializes in upper middle priced lifestyle upholstery.

The company said that some proceeds from the sale of the case goods pieces also will benefit Trees4Trees, a nonprofit foundation that focuses on reforestation and related education initiatives in Indonesia.

This group primarily gives local farmers and landowners free seedlings for species used in furniture production, including teak, mahogany and mango. It also offers in planting and best forestry practices that aim to produce a sustainable yield of these and other species.

The 20 new pieces represent the first case goods line for Miles Talbott and include bedroom, dining room and occasional furniture.

Belmont is an occasional and dining group made with hardwood solids in a layered white paint finish and featuring caned elements. It includes round and rectangular dining tables targeted to retail at $1,700 and $2,000, respectively. Cocktails are targeted to retail at from $700 to $1,000.

Soverign, a bedroom collection, features pieces made with solid mahogany also in a layered white paint finish. A cane bed in the group is targeted to retail from $1,700 to $2,000.

Created in partnership with designer, retailer and author Rachel Ashwell, the wood collections complement the company’s line of Shabby Chic upholstered and slipcovered sofas, chairs, and ottomans that launched in April 2010. The company also offers a number of upholstered beds.

“We have had tremendous success with the Shabby Chic upholstery collection and have thoroughly enjoyed working with Rachel Ashwell and her talented team,” said George Jordan, president of Miles Talbott Furniture. “We jumped at the opportunity to work with them on a case goods collection, which will allow our customers to access the Shabby Chic brand as a whole.”

The new case goods line can be seen at the Miles Talbott and Shabby Chic showroom at 1690 English Road.

Chauvinism, cigarettes, Vic Damone – there’s no end to the revivals that Mad Men, the 1960s-set American television drama, has inspired. And, as series five airs on Sky Atlantic next week, there’s no better time to reflect on the show’s influence on the watch world.

The costume designers bestowed Don Draper, the creative director of [...]]]> The Mad Men effect is still reverberating in the watch world as character Don Draper’s Jaeger-LeCoultre is launched in limited-edition with the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce logo.

Chauvinism, cigarettes, Vic Damone – there’s no end to the revivals that Mad Men, the 1960s-set American television drama, has inspired. And, as series five airs on Sky Atlantic next week, there’s no better time to reflect on the show’s influence on the watch world.

The costume designers bestowed Don Draper, the creative director of the Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper, with one of the most elegant status symbols of the time, a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. Ultra-slim, functional flip case, clean dial – a perfect fit for the suave leading man.

This month, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra-Thin Tribute to Mad Men is being launched in a limited-edition version with the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce logo embossed on the back. Each piece comes in a walnut box with a commemorative letter from the fictional Roger Sterling – Draper’s boss – and a copy of Sterling’s book, Sterling’s Gold, autographed by Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator and executive producer. ‘The Reverso is so unique that it has been made in many guises without losing its essence,’ Jérôme Lambert, the CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, says.

We’ll have to wait to see if the same ca be said of the multifaceted Draper. Price on request (020-7491 6970).

The store will be located at 77 Wooster St. near design and fashion brands The Rug Company, Chanel and Tiffany, and will extend the design stretch of Wooster that houses Desiron, Dune, Cappanelli and Room & Board.

The DwellStudio flagship store will offer a stylish mix of items for the modern family home, all curated from the point of view of founder Christiane [...]]]> DwellStudio will open its first flagship store in New York’s Soho neighborhood in early May 2012, the company announced.

The store will be located at 77 Wooster St. near design and fashion brands The Rug Company, Chanel and Tiffany, and will extend the design stretch of Wooster that houses Desiron, Dune, Cappanelli and Room & Board.

The DwellStudio flagship store will offer a stylish mix of items for the modern family home, all curated from the point of view of founder Christiane Lemieux. The store will carry bedding, artwork, furniture, rugs, home accessories, tabletop and vintage/found objects, offer full-service custom design services, and present an expansive collection of Robert Allen fabrics.

The design of the DwellStudio store is a partnership with architects Will Meyer and Gray Davis of Meyer Davis Studio, chosen for “their in-depth understanding of DwellStudio’s mantra of making elevated modern design blend beautifully into a livable environment,” according to the company. In New York, Meyer Davis has designed stores for John Varvatos, Oscar de la Renta, restaurants Locanda Verde, Bouqeria and Mas Farmhouse, as well as DwellStudio’s main offices and the residence of Lemieux and her husband and business partner, Joshua Young.

Estée Lauder is going retro in a special issue of Newsweek. More Photos »

To celebrate the return of “Mad Men,” Fab.com is having a vintage merchandise sale. More Photos »

The fifth season of “Mad Men,” the drama series about advertising and America in the 1960s, is to begin on the AMC cable channel on [...]]]> A SECOND kind of March Madness is affecting Madison Avenue as marketers, agencies and media companies scramble to capitalize on the hoopla over the return of “Mad Men”.

Estée Lauder is going retro in a special issue of Newsweek. More Photos »

To celebrate the return of “Mad Men,” Fab.com is having a vintage merchandise sale. More Photos »

The fifth season of “Mad Men,” the drama series about advertising and America in the 1960s, is to begin on the AMC cable channel on Sunday. It has been 17 months since the final episode of Season 4, and that hiatus — twice as long as usual — has whetted the appetites of fans and those hoping to entice them to buy magazines, books, clothing, cosmetics, jewelry and other merchandise.

“One of my operating strategies for new products is always try to find a way to ride in on something hot,” said Steve Eisner, who led Eisner Communications in Baltimore until it closed in 2006 and has published a novel, “The MineFields,” about the ad business during the last three decades.

“You can ride those coattails until it brings your product some lift,” said Mr. Eisner, who plans to advertise his book on the “Mad Men” fan page on Facebook and on blogs. One ad asks, “Want to stay on Mad Ave after ‘Mad Men’ ends?”

Authors of nonfiction looks at the industry in the “Mad Men” era are also hoping to gain attention, among them Andrew Cracknell, who wrote “The Real Mad Men: The Renegades of Madison Avenue and the Golden Age of Advertising,” and Jane Maas, who wrote “Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the ’60s and Beyond.”

“I think ‘Mad Men’ is pretty accurate, but I don’t remember anyone with an actual bar in his office,” said Livingston Miller, president at Seiter & Miller Advertising in New York, which is asking industry executives to reminisce about the last 50 years in interviews that can be watched on a YouTube channel devoted to “Advertising’s Greatest War Stories.”

“I’ve been spending the last two months going through dusty bound volumes,” said Rob Gregory, president at the Newsweek Daily Beast Company, who showed a reporter an ad from a 1965 issue of Newsweek that carried the headline “How do they manage to have a pretty Hertz girl waiting to meet you wherever you land?”

The contents of the “Mad Men” issue include a cover article by Eleanor Clift — who, echoing the character Peggy Olson, began as a Newsweek secretary and was promoted to so-called men’s work — and ads that evoke the period or reproduce vintage pitches.

The sponsors include Allstate, Benetton, Bloomingdale’s, British Airways, Domtar paper, Dunkin’ Donuts, John Hancock, Geico, Estée Lauder, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, New York Life, Old Forester bourbon, Spam, Triumph motorcycles, Tide, Ultimat vodka and Johnnie Walker.

For instance, the Estée Lauder ad will introduce a Mad Men Collection of makeup in colors and packages inspired by the brand’s products of the era.

Online, Newsweek will offer video clips, content on newsweek.tumblr.com and a “retro 1966” makeover for the Web site dailybeast.com/newsweek, Mr. Gregory said, so it looks the way it might have had the Internet existed then.

There will be 40 kiosks set up this week in the lobbies of ad agencies to promote the issue, he added.

Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, an agency in Boston that is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, worked with the Newsweek Daily Beast executives to bring the project to fruition.

“We positioned the sales pitch, the idea of creating custom ads, and we even sold a few to our clients,” said Karen Kaplan, president at Hill, Holliday, referring to Dunkin’ Donuts, whose ad carries the headline “Say ‘Yup!’ to America’s favorite cup,” and John Hancock, whose ad, in black and white, carries the headline “Pessimism is a darn lousy investment strategy.”

Newsweek is getting “a lot of new advertisers” who were “specifically interested in being in this issue because of the content,” Ms. Kaplan said. Of the 30 ad pages, Mr. Gregory said, 25 or 26 were created for the issue.

Among other magazines with cover articles or features about the coming season of “Mad Men” are Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, New York and Rolling Stone. Online, Reminisce magazine has created a slide show called “1960s Pop Culture in Ads,” which includes Cadillac, Wolfschmidt’s vodka, I.B.M. electric typewriters and Viceroy cigarettes (“a thinking man’s filter … a smoking man’s taste”).

The Banana Republic apparel chain, part of Gap Inc., has marketed clothing for men and women inspired by “Mad Men;” another collection, for spring 2012, is in stores.

And in 2010, Mattel sold versions of its Barbie and Ken dolls styled after four characters: Don, Betty, Roger and Joan. The series “resonates with our audience,” said Bradford Shellhammer, chief creative officer at Fab.com, a social commerce Web site with flash sales on merchandise for “people who love modern design.”

“A lot of the furniture we sell can be popped into the ‘Mad Men’ set,” he added.

Fab.com plans to greet the Season 5 premiere with a series of sales on items like period apparel and barware along with new rings, cuff links, tie bars and other jewelry.

That’s right, the gals are finally getting a chance to don the label’s quirky prints and ultra flattering designs with the launch of their new womenswear line, Pretty Penny. Not at all shockingly, super-cute striped dresses and menswear-inspired blouses fill this flirty debut [...]]]> A little preppy, a little boho, and a whole lotta cool — menswear label Penny Stock has been consistently delivering its unique, surfer-scholar look, season after season. But alas, there’s been nothing for the ladies — until now.

That’s right, the gals are finally getting a chance to don the label’s quirky prints and ultra flattering designs with the launch of their new womenswear line, Pretty Penny. Not at all shockingly, super-cute striped dresses and menswear-inspired blouses fill this flirty debut collection.

For those who can’t wait to see the goods in person, tonight’s your chance to get an early glimpse. Celebrate Pretty Penny’s debut with a night of sweet tunes, sweeter refreshments, photo-booth and nail-art fun, and of course, the chance to browse (and buy) the line’s wares for — dare we say — a pretty penny. This may be Pretty Penny’s first collection, but you can bet your bottom dollar it won’t be the last!

The initial product assortment under the venerable brands will be introduced at the International Home + Housewares Show and will include over 450 new products designed to enhance the consumers’ everyday kitchen experience.

As part of the [...]]]> Hudson Home Group, LLC, a New Jersey-based housewares company, has signed a multi-year exclusive contract with Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. of Richmond, VA. Under this agreement, Hudson will license and produce cookware, bakeware, kitchen tools/gadgets and cutlery under the Hamilton Beach and Proctor Silex brands.

The initial product assortment under the venerable brands will be introduced at the International Home + Housewares Show and will include over 450 new products designed to enhance the consumers’ everyday kitchen experience.

As part of the launch, Hudson will introduce a line of affordably priced ceramic-coated but PFOA- and PTFE-free cookware and the first collection of ceramic-coated bakeware products in the United States, Hudson stated. In addition to those products, Hudson will introduce an extensive assortment of kitchen gadgets and tools.

This partnership was brokered in part by Brand Sense Partners.

About Brand Sense Partners, LLC

Established in 2001, Brand Sense Partners, LLC (BSP) is a strategic new business development consultancy with an integrated turnkey infrastructure designed to execute the firm’s recommendations. BSP fosters growth in new categories of business for its clients by leveraging brand equity and other strategic assets. Clients focus on their core businesses while BSP’s team of industry experts develops the strategy through market research and in-depth analysis, negotiates the deals and manages the new lines of business. The BSP approach reduces capital costs, risk and time to market resulting in new, profitable and accelerated growth for its clients. Headquartered in Los Angeles, BSP manages more than 200 partnerships for its Fortune 500 clients with approximately $1.5 Billion in retail sales in the consumer products, media, technology, celebrity and fashion industries. For more information, please visit www.bsp.com.

For a detailed look at the products shown, visit the DwellStudio blog!