The course, being taught next spring by Professor Wendy Belcher, is offered through the Comparative Literature and African-American Studies departments. Its full title is "Model Memoirs: The Life Stories of International Fashion Models." And yes, there will be in-class visits:

Explores the life-writing of American, African, and Asian women in the fashion industry as a launching point for thinking about race, gender, and class. How do ethnicity and femininity intersect? How are authenticity and difference commodified? How do women construct identities through narrative and negotiate their relationships to their bodies, families, and nations? This course will include guest lectures by fashion editors and models; discussions of contemporary television programs, global fashion, and cultural studies; and student self-narratives about their relationships with cultural standards of beauty, whether vexed or not.

How much I would pay to be a fly on the wall the day the class asks Vogue's Candy Pratts Price how she commodifies authenticity and difference.

Far be it from windbag me to suggest that modeling is lacking in meat for young people's intellectual delectation. (Besides, it's my limited experience of these things that the professors behind the fluffiest-sounding courses team the material with theory from from only the most punishing and willfully obtuse of the French deconstructionists. Either that or my Advanced Topics In Popular Culture: "Breakin' II, Electric Boogaloo" course was just totally hard.) But I can't help but notice that Prof. Belcher hasn't yet fleshed out her reading list. It includes a mere three items: Alek Wek's memoir, Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel, Irina Pantaeva's Siberian Dream, and Jillian Shanebrook's Model: Life Behind the Makeup. Clearly this needs some work.

Given my (onetime) profession and my (eternal) predilection for reading, I have kind of a Thing for books written by models. Often, they're unintentionally hilarious — even before Naomi Campbell came out and admitted she had writer Caroline Upcher to thank for her novel Swan, did anyone actually believe she'd written it? Others can be strangely affecting: Susan Moncur's They Still Shoot Models My Age is awesomely written, if kind of insane. (Among other things, it taught me that notorious gaping asshole photographer David Bailey called his models "ratface.") Shoot is now out of print, but there's no reason the Comp Lit whippersnappers couldn't scour Amazon for second-hand copies. I'd put Crystal Renn's recently released memoir, Hungry — written with Marjorie Ingall — on the list, too. If Belcher is interested in models as women who are permitted, by virtue of their physical aspect, to move frictionlessly across cultures and classes, you could do worse than to consider the experience of a 14-year-old girl from small-town Mississippi thrust into the Manhattan fashion industry.

I have not read Cheryl Diamond's Model: A Memoir, but other sources have said it accurately portrays the realities of modeling. For something with pep and honesty and humor, assign Elyse Sewell's LiveJournal. And definitely make 'em read Waris Dirie's Desert Flower. If they can handle the genital mutilation.

If it were up to me, I'd have the students read all of the above, and then watch Sara Ziff and Ole Schell's documentary, Picture Me. And Frederick Wiseman's Model.

And then, we'd all eat cupcakes and never look at fashion magazines or catalogs or billboards or JC Penney's fliers the same way again.

Image via British Vogue

Princeton's Next Top Model (Class) [The Ink]
Course Details For Model Memoirs: The Life Stories of International Fashion Models [Princeton Registrar]

Italian TV host Simona Ventura's cups runneth over in a gown that's part Mae West, part Sleeping Beauty.

Get oooout! Donatella Versace keeps the Versace message alive: It's all about tight or shiny, and hopefully a little of both. Kudos on braving the ankle-snapping heels, the thought of which make we mere mortals tremble.

Anna Piaggi! Italian fashion writer! Style icon! She of magical spreads for Italian Vogue! Always eccentric, never afraid. And she's used a bright red manual Olivetti typewriter for her work since 1969. What is not to love?!?!

Ms. Jackson's curves are positively goddess-like in this draped gown. We've been seeing a lot of electric blue and sapphire blue on the runways, and this jewel tone is really exquisite.

Kanye wants to know if you've heard any funny Kanye West jokes lately. Looks like he left one accessory — the booze bottle — at home. As for Amber Rose? She makes chic look easy. Damn her.

Rachel Bilson's black column dress is elegant, though a little dull.

Model Noemi Lenoir is one of my favorites, and her silky shirtdress is certainly sleek and chic.

A little Internet research reveals Hofit Golan's claim to fame seems to be posing on red carpets in skin-baring outfits. Mission accomplished!

While this is not my favorite dress on Dita Von Teese, I appreciate her wearing a bright color, when almost everyone else chose black. She is a show-stopper, even if the ruching and the sleeves seem a bit much.

Model Anja Rubik makes chain mail look sexy.

Chanel Iman is adorable, but I'm going to have to pretend I didn't see that incredibly chunky shoe peeking out from under her sumptuous gown.

Alek Wek: Stunning. Period.

On the left we have Giovanna Battaglia. L'Uomo Vogue editor and former Dolce and Gabbana model. On the right: Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, son of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. In other words, friends, you're looking at fashion royalty. Her ensemble is ridiculous — yet somehow amazing; his vibe reeks of "I'd rather be on a boat in Sardegna." Bow down.

Dean and Dan Caten — founders of Dsquared — can pull off pink tux jackets with roughed-up jeans like no one else. They need to call Chuck Bass when they're looking for a third to call the corners with.

Linda Evangelista looks like she's been watching old movies on TCM. Loving the hair and slinky velvet skirt!

[Images via Getty.]

• Naomi Campbell stalked the runway like a thoroughbred in Mumbai for a charity show. Last time Campbell blended fashion and philanthropy, the supermodel raised over $1 million for Hurricane Katrina survivors. [Daily Mail]

• Mikhail Gorbachev is not enough for some people. The rapacious machine of Louis Vuitton's advertising, which most people don't realize actually sucks its subjects' dignity through the lens of Annie Liebovitz's Canon, has claimed more victims: Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride, and fellow astronaut Jim Lovell. That's right: men and women who could withstand the g-forces of extraterrestrial flight could not say 'no' to LVMH. [WWD]
• British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman says her biggest concern about taking the position back in 1992 was that it would involve a lot of flying. "I hadn't been on a plane in 10 years," she said at an event in England. "How could I accept a job that would mean that I had to fly all the time? I'm still very nervous on a plane." [Vogue UK]
• More bad news for Halston: the oft-revived label, left semi-conscious as of late following the firing of its latest creative director, Marco Zanini, is now down one vice-president of marketing. Atul Pathak resigned two weeks ago, just after the Paris shows. [WWD]
• Los Angeles fashion week happened recently. Don't feel too badly if you missed it: the LA Times itself called proceedings "more than an exercise in futility." [LA Times]
• Vera Wang's Lavender line is in trouble. Hitting the high end of the price range for a contemporary line is causing some grief, and Saks has dropped it. Neiman Marcus will carry Vera Wang Lavender in only ten stores this season, and drop it for fall. Wang says she's mulling over lowering the pricing, or spinning it off into a license. [WWD]
• Lanvin's London flagship store is now open. I suppose that means Alber Elbaz's long contretemps with the architects, related by Ariel Levy in her recent New Yorker profile of the designer, was happily resolved. [FWD]
• Kira Plastinina's still got stores a-plenty, too. (Albeit not in the US, where her eponymous pink-themed clothing chain went bust less than a year after her entry into the market.) As soon as she finishes high school in Moscow this spring, the fruit juice heiress intends to take a step that most designers tackle before launching international retail chains — going to fashion school. Since Kira Plastinina rather strikes one as the kind of person whose life is the sustained experience of getting what she wants, without regard for talent or even passion, she's expecting acceptance at Parsons in New York and Central St. Martins in London, the Yale and Oxford of fashion design, respectively. [FWD]
• Fiona Ellis, who scouts models for the London agency Independent, thinks Tyra's shorties-only season of America's Next Top Model is dumb. The woman who found Alek Wek and Erin O'Connor, among many others, would know. [Vogue UK]
• Net profits at Versace fell 30.7% in 2008, but it was largely due to the softening of the Euro against the Dollar. Without the hard shift in the rate of exchange, their profits would have grown by 10%. [WWD]
• "Heavy black lines and crisp, grid-like patterns created an Op Art effect in Dries Van Noten's spring collection," says the LA Times. Which is why you should...wear a plaid shirt from Express. [LA Times]
• The top 10 new models of the Fall/Winter 09 show season: 90% white, 10% Japanese, 50% not actually "new." [Style.com]
• Do. Not. Want. Spanx clothing. No, just...no. [Glamour]
• Christian Siriano has picked up one hell of a stockist for his line: Saks Fifth Avenue. The department store will sell his fall collection in a new store-within-a-store for emerging talents. [WWD]
• Iekeliene Stange, the quirky Dutch supermodel/photographer, has an exhibition opening in London this Wednesday, following a successful show in Berlin. [The Horse Hospital]

[London, February 23. Image via Getty]

[London, October 15. Image via Flynet]

• As previously reported, for reasons one can only imagine, Tyra Banks plays first lady in the new issue of Harper's Bazaar. This article reads: "Voguing like a supermodel, Tyra pays homage to Michelle Obama and Jackie Kennedy with pearls, slinky black shift and curly flip, draped against a Barack Obama lookalike and smiling at a tyke playing hide-and-seek à la JFK Jr. Banks confessed that if she were first lady, her Secret Service code name would be 'KMFA: Kiss My Fat Ass.'" Yes. Well. No further comment. [New York Post]
• Tyra also says: "Michelle Obama, you're one hot mama." [WWD]
• Don't worry, Vogue editor-at-large and python duster-enthusiast Andre Leon Talley (who famously stuck Jennifer Hudson in a hideous metallic bolero) will not be messing with the real-life Michelle Obama any time soon, rumors to the contrary. Quoth the less-than-jolly giant, "I think that Michelle Obama does not need advice." [BlackBook]
• Michelle's also on the cover of Ebony. "She wore her own clothing for the shoot —
  including a suit from favored designer Maria Pinto." [WWD]

• They're finally airing that too-hot-for-TV-naked Eva Mendes Calvin Klein ad - albeit after nine pm! The "Secret Obsession" campaign "taps into the secrecy of a private moment - where it's clear that Eva is having illicit thoughts," marketer Lori Singer told WWD. [Page Six]
• Wanna see it? (NSFW, obvs) [E!]
• Everything Lagerfeld touches turns to awesome! Now he's collabing with architect Zaha Hadid on an installation, The Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion, "a gleaming futuristic pavilion with the startling appearance of a glamorous spaceship...a pavilion that, like a handbag, is a completely portable and functional container with vast symbolic potential." Indeed, Kaiser. [Independent]
• Celeb spawn modeling? No! Dakota Johnson, daughter of Don and Melanie Griffith, is in illustrious company: "The model, who is best friends with Demi Moore's daughter Rumer Willis, has just been signed to star alongside the MisShapes' Leigh Lezark and another famous Hollywood child, Isabella Rossellini's daughter Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann, to front the new season campaign for Italian fashion house Hogan." [ElleUK]
• Ho-hum. Another naked dame for PETA. This time it's Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard, which is, I guess, at least promoting a healthy body image. [Reuters]
• Speaking of which, designers like Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen are cashing in on the Olympics. "More and more we are seeing fashion brands getting involved in sports like the Olympics or Wimbledon or the U.S. Open." [Yahoo]
• Shockingly, all those "modeling agencies" on Craig's List aren't on the level. Sadly, a lot of teens are falling prey to them. [The Sun]
• Vids of Lauren Conrad's ads for Avon's new Mark Cosmetics, the younger line. [ONTD]
• An Australian study shows that women are way more concerned with the size on a garment's tag than they should be. "People are paying more attention to the size tag than the price tag and feeling down when they can't fit their standard size." This is why we're all 2s at Banana Republic, people! [Reuters]
• Sudanese model Alek Wek on breaking industry stereotypes: "I was told, 'You can’t make it – you're this, you're that, your nose is too wide, etc.'" [Daily Express]
• Thanks, Vogue: freckles are "in." [The Independent]
• Recessionistas, take note: Patricia Field's podcast on styling H&M. It's actually totally unhelpful, but still kinda entertaining. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Fashion mags launch search for "real women" (because we're so hard to find.) The Condies are searching for veritable dames with "interesting careers" to shoot for "major fashion layouts." So, if that sounds like you and you're between 20 and 30 years old, five foot five and five foot eleven, and wear a 2 to 6 dress size, you qualify to be one of those "real women." [New York Magazine]
• Dior profits way up. [WWD]
• Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. "Kelly Rutherford's baby is a real fashion victim. The hot mom in Gossip Girl was shopping recently in the Hamptons and was overheard saying that she and her husband, German businessman Daniel Giersch, named their nearly 2-year-old boy Hermés Gustaf Daniel Giersch because she loves the Hermes designer label. She also said her husband once worked as a mailman and the messenger god is Hermes." [Page Six]
• The case of the suited crook: "A former Saks Fifth Avenue suit salesman used his access to fine clothes to gain access to Midtown buildings, where he swiped cash and credit cards from empty offices." [New York Post]
• Is some random store ripping off Lanvin's Elaz tees? [Fashionista]
• Cosabella's fall Sex and the City lingerie collection is here. Some feel Charlotte, Miranda are somewhat misrepresented. [Fabsugar]

[New York, December 4. Image via Bauer-Griffin.]

• The pictures of Paris Hilton playing with puppies and wearing one-piece bathing suits on the beach? Part of an elaborate PR plan, naturally. [Page Six]
  
• Ben Kingsley, 63, kisses Mary-Kate Olsen, 21, in a movie currently being filmed. Is this the proper use of the man who brought us Ghandi? [Page Six]
  
• Erin Brockovich, 47, regrets her breast implants now that she's older. Imagine that! [Page Six]
  
• Robin Williams was seen wandering around Greenwich, CT, looking for the location of an AA meeting. Doesn't one of those As stand for anonymous? [Page Six]

• Sudanese model Alek Wek hints that there may be racism in fashion photography. You don't say! [Page Six]
• NFL star Matt Leinart has settled a custody battle with his baby mama, Brynn Cameron. At the courthouse, a TMZ staffer heard Brynn say, "Britney and Paris aren't allowed to be around the baby!" Is this just something people say in Hollywood now, like "Let's do lunch?" [TMZ]
• So you know how Van Halen is reuniting? They have a new band member, 16-year-old Wolfgang Van Halen. His dad is Eddie and his mom is Valerie Bertinelli. Good luck, kiddo! [People]
• OMG. Britney Spears might open the MTV Awards? OMG. OMG. [E!]
• Amy Winehouse update: Coke and heroin addiction plus fighting parents and inlaws = big trouble. Also, Amy's husband is an addict, too, big surprise. [Mirror]
• UK "glamour model" and general trainwreck, Jordan, has a little sister, Sophie, 17. Guess what Sophie wants for her birthday? Implants and a half-naked photo shoot! [The Sun]