JC Penney is upping the ante on being a fashion player.

The company has added all sorts of exclusive collections (Olsenboye, MNG by Mango, Cindy Crawford, I Heart Ronson and so on), is advertising everywhere and has kind of hired a serious new fashion director.

JC Penney has partnered with People StyleWatch to communicate its best seasonal fashion items.

Starting in September 2010, StyleWatch editors, including its editor Susan Kaufman and fashion director Kate Dimmock, will work with JC Penney's trend and merchandising execs to choose the most of the moment women's and juniors apparel, accessories and shoes. The resulting items will be touted as "People StyleWatch Must Haves" and will then be called out through in-store displays, on jcp.com and through print, social and mobile marketing efforts (hello, Facebook).

"We're focused on being the leading destination for affordable, high-quality fashion," said Liz Sweney, EVP at JC Penney, in a release. "Aligning with one of today's leading fashion magazines lends great credibility to our style authority and encourages customers to discover the new, higher level of fashion in our merchandise assortments."

"By teaming up with JC Penney, we are able to show our readers how they can easily wear today's celebrity-inspired looks with the exciting, affordable fashions found at JC Penney," Paul Caine, president and group publisher of Time Inc Style & Entertainment Group, said in a release.

See what a major U.K. retailer is doing to make their customers feel slimmer than they really are.