Two winners of the 2007 Passion for Fashion design competition will win a full scholarship to one of the 21 Art Institute campuses in North America, including the one Downtown.

One grand-prize winner in the fashion design division and one in fashion marketing and merchandising and retail management also will win trips to New York Fashion Week in February, a day with staff at Seventeen magazine while there and a feature in the publication.

Formalwear is this year's theme. Entries are due by Nov. 20, and final results will be announced in January. A completed entry form, essay and minimum 2.0 grade average are required. Complete details are at artinstitutes.edu/passion4fashion.

Totes benefits YouthAIDS

To raise money to fight AIDS and to commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, Aldo is selling limited-edition tote bags for $5 -- in some countries, enough to pay for six months of medical attention for a child with AIDS.

The red-paneled tote features black-and-white photos of Adrien Brody, Ludacris, Pink, Eva Mendes and other celebrities who have participated in the YouthAIDS: Aldo Fights AIDS campaign.

The bags are available beginning tomorrow at the Aldo footwear stores at South Hills Village, Ross Park and Monroeville malls and at youthaids-aldo.org.

All proceeds benefit YouthAIDS, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit education and prevention program of Population Services International that targets 600 million people ages 15 through 24 in 60 countries. AIDS has orphaned 15 million children and kills one child every minute, according to YouthAIDS.

Accessories for accessories

Many women covet a $6,000 Hermes Birkin bag. But for Amanda Miller, who carries one to work, the appeal lies not in the exclusive bag but what's on it. Hanging from her Birkin are unusual charms, including a skull from Prada and a plastic bunny in a space suit that she bought from a vending machine in Tokyo.

The doodads convey "not only do I have style and a perspective on history, but that I have a real sense of whimsy," said Ms. Miller, a 28-year-old travel-industry publicist in New York.

An odd but growing product niche in the luxury-goods business these days: accessories for accessories. The items appeal to an increasing appetite among consumers -- often younger -- for personalizing the way they look. With luxury-goods companies now making handbag charms, they also provide consumers with a lower-price entry point to the world of Coach, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Prada.

The trend began in Japan, where street fashion emphasizes "kawaii" -- or cute -- style. Several years ago, teenage girls started attaching figurines of Hello Kitty and other characters to their backpacks, cell phones and bags.

Brands say the importance of these doodads is out of proportion to their size. Creative displays of the charms and other small items, like iPod holders, spruce up stores and broaden the product line.

The trend comes amid a boom in the market for luxury accessories. Since 2000, U.S. sales of premium handbags and accessories more than doubled to $4.7 billion, according to Coach's internal research. The growth partly reflects eye-catching items like the charms and other small accessories, which Coach says generated 23 percent of its $2.1 billion in sales in the year ended July 1, up from 20 percent a year earlier.

-- Rachel Dodes, The Wall Street Journal