Mim Warner's Lost Her Cool

So hip it hurts

Want to know what'll be hot next season? Just ask Mim Warner, the best coolhunter in the business. But Mim's latest trend predictions ("slut" T-shirts for eight-year-old girls? Samurai swords for ten-year-old boys?) are troubling, to say the least.

Fearing that Mim's about to be out like last season's Capri pants and worried about what she'll say next, her staff implements a Mim surveillance mission. With clients fleeing in droves and everyone around her in a tizzy, Meghan Resnick, Mim's protegee, seems to be the only one in control of all her faculties. But watching Mim lose her cool is loosening a few of Meghan's own screws. Suddenly she's not sure of anything-her career, her future, her ex-boyfriend, even her judgment. When Mim-watching leads to the scene of a murder-with Mim leaning over the dead body-Meghan can't help but wonder if her boss will be forecasting her next trend from Sing Sing.

An affectionate satire about the ins and outs of coolhunting, Mim Warner's Lost Her Coolmines the mysterious forces that make a trend come together-and a woman fall apart.

Lynn Messina lives in New York City and works in magazines.