>> Now I know I spend a lot of time expressing my frustrations with magazines -- like why pick Ashlee Simpson for the cover of Elle when there's Snejana Onopka, or Tanya D, for instance.  But we've had the models vs. celebrities on magazine covers discussion before, and I'm sure we'll have it again. 

So instead I'm going to explore what I like about fashion magazines, because as much as I complain, I still love looking at them.  Let's start with Vogue Paris, shall we?  There's a couple of reasons it's my favorite -- it's in French (watch out, francophile me coming through), and Carine Roitfeld, that wonderful woman, is the editor.  Oh, and they can go from a very minimalistic black-and-white page to a collage of polaroid-like photos.  I love how they use the different typesetting to become part of the aesthetics of the magazine, and I love that they cover people like Tom Binns rather than people like Keira Knightley.  Examples of some of my favorite spreads below:

On to the New York Times' Style Magazine -- T.  First of all, let me just say that the logo for this magazine --  the gothic letter T -- is the greatest thing ever.  Loving it.  But logo aside, the NYT Style Magazine also does the whole lots of white space/minimalism thing really well.  But aesthetic things aside, the NYT Style Magazine is very good with witty blurbs and clever pictographs and such. 

Nylon is similar to the first two, in that it has some very airy spreads -- lots of whitespace and lots of black and white photography (are we seeing a pattern here -- probably explains why fashionologie is so minimalist).  But Nylon also incorporates a lot of illustration into its pages, which I really like.  It is also really on the ball as far as the more innovative, cutting-edge reporting.  I am more likely to read about something I've never heard about in Nylon than any other magazine I pick up. 

As far as other magazines, Vogue Italia can also be very edgy in its photo editorials, but sometimes the way it is laid out, with typeset and pictures everywhere, it feels a bit schizophrenic -- I don't know where to look first.  Pop Magazine and Zink Magazine also have some great photo editorials -- there's this one from Zink, with the models made up in Roy Lichtenstein-style.  Way cool. 

>>  Hokay. So.  At Donna Karan, I found two things to like.  One being this trompe de l'oeil dress -- granted its nothing that special, but I like the cut on the top.  If worn, the weird metal stuff at the waist needs to get lost and be replaced with something like a red patent YSL belt (do they even make those?).  Or maybe this whole liking-of-this-dress goes back to the fact that it allows me to say "trompe de l'oeil" -- one of my favorite phrases.  Nahhh, I actually like the dress. 

I'm cheating when I say I like this other outfit -- I do like the swing coat shape, but it seems a little plain otherwise.  The color, however, is divine.  If we could see it more in the rest of the fashion weeks, I'd be much obliged.  Plummy = yummy. 

PS.  Has anyone else noticed the ridiculous amount of black stockings being worn on runways for fall?  Because it is.  Ridiculous.

The rest of Donna Karan's collection can be seen here.

>>  Were Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg (left and right, respectively) sharing a brain at some point in the past few months?  These jackets are looking oddly similar...  Not that I'm complaining, I love a good houndstooth jacket.