STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

From the New York Post, (but using Yahoo link)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pagesix/20060131/en_pagesix/thebritisharecoming;_ylt=Av_jXbzmC95o_mkVk8_OebBdDxkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

As the latest in limited-edition shopping campaigns, Target is taking a page from H&M, which had successful sell-out collections from European designers Stella McCartney and Karl Lagerfeld.

"It's going to be a huge hit," says Stephanie Trong, deputy editor at Jane Magazine. "Luella's trademark is Brit cool."

The sassy collection features cropped jean jackets, pleated schoolgirl skirts, prom dresses and bathing suits, all with Luella's trademark tomboy punk edge, ranging from $9.99 to $149.99.

"It's adorable," Trong says. "I like how it's prep, but subversive prep, and she uses a lot of bright color and bold patterns. That's fun, and that's the way a twenty-something girl wants to dress, and she wants to experiment."

Target will sell limited-edition collections from four high-end designers over the next year. WWD has speculated that the next designer team could be Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez.

"It gives me such a buzz to be able to appeal to that girl, the 14- or 15-year-old girl who can't necessarily afford my clothes and shouldn't be spending that kind of money," Bartley, a former British Vogue fashion writer, told The Post from her estate in Cornwall, London. "I've been egotistical, and checking out those chat rooms on the Internet, and there's all these young excited girls."

While designing for the masses seemed like a big chore at first, it was actually quite refreshing for the blonde-haired mother-of-two, and helped fuel her creative juices for her fall 2006 collection, which she will unveil for Fashion Week Feb. 8 at the Union League Club.

"The Target collection is fundamentally what I am about," she says. "It's what I love. It's very, very English, but with a bit of Americana cheerleader. The main inspiration is the English-ness and the London sense of history, of the music scene, or rioting, or English sports.

There are Targets in Queens and Brooklyn, and a "pop-up store" traveling around the city in a double decker London bus.

It's hard to say whether the frenzy will bring out fashionista claws like Stella McCartney for H&M (Target has 1,400 stores compared to H&M's 12 nationwide, and there are 100 pieces compared to 40), but Trong predicts "pandemonium."

Famed for designing clothes "to get drunk and fall over in," Bartley's collections of stovepipe pants, leather jackets and leather Gisele bags are staples in the closets of celebrities like Kate Moss.

Bartley's favorite piece is a green-and-black tartan prom dress.

"It's quite silly, but you feel fab going to a party in that," she says. "It has the '80's 'Pretty in Pink' prom vibe. (The collection) is not all midriff and plunging necklines, and I don't think it's overtly sexy. I don't think that's necessary as a teenager."

Get ready for Luella mania. Cherry-print pocketbooks, heart motif button-downs and skull iPod holders will be all the rage as Target stores unveil their exclusive line from Brit designer Luella Bartley tomorrow.