The cover: Where once a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat sensibility used to dominate, the new (scandalous, Lindsay Lohan!) cover has been pared down: The gold lettering of the title is replicated in some of the coverlines, offset by other ones in always-fashionable black and set against the traditional solid white Elle background, making for a strong statement of sophistication. Hell, it practically makes Lohan look classy.

The FOB (front-of-the-book): Once opened, the first thing that jumps out is the change in typeface given to the magazine's page numbers at the bottom of each page, as well as accompanying text repeating the name of the magazine and where to find it on the web. (Is there anything that exists without accompanying URL anymore?) It's a small detail, yes, but one with a great impact. As for the FOB fashion pages themselves, where they were once muddled collages, they are now sleek and Euro-minded, making for much easier reading and causing me, at least, to occasionally confuse the magazine with one of my favorite fashion rags, French Vogue.

The fashion spreads: Here is where one sees the biggest change in the new and improved Elle, and everything — the styling, the photography, the concepts, the narratives — is exceptional. In fact, the opening fashion spread, "Bright Young Things", is so effective it compelled me to do something I have never ever not ever done before: Haul my ass to a store to buy something the day I saw it in a magazine. (Prada shoes. The price? Yeah, don't ask.) The story on Charlotte Gainsbourg, "Charlotte, je 'taime", is equally awe-inspiring. And the "Made in America" feature was styled by Mr. Zee himself, encompassing the same cool, sporty, all-American style seen in his advertising work. (An honorable mention goes to Mr. Zee's work in Lohan's photospread: Damn! Sistah looks hot!) All of it is hilarious and fresh and young and smart and contemporary: The things that editor in chief Roberta Myers' says the new Elle has set out to be.

The verdict: Exceptional. Gone are the redundant and increasingly banal images of the Gilles Bensimon years, swiftly replaced with the crispest, most relevant-looking American fashion magazine currently on the market. Yeah, yeah - I know my fellow Jezebels will continue to hate it for touting all sorts of "expensive shit" and the inclusion of a column featuring the fashion musings of Nina Garcia (Pregnancy! No fun 'cause you get fat!) but even they, I predict, will have to admit that this is the only book on the market worth resting their eyes on. Because in the end, if you threw all that silly "editorial" stuff in fashion magazines out the window, there's no way Elle wouldn't win the beauty pageant.

[Elle]

[C]rap transcends generational differences

According to Magazine Rack, Justine is rife with "bland recommendations" "by-the-numbers organizational framework", "overcaffeinated layouts" and "sad attempts to sound contemporary," while making no mention of sex, alcohol, acne, or peer pressure. Also: "It's a magazine for shut-ins, fantasists and reality deniers. Its fashion coverage also pushes the now-ubiquitous message of: "Why use your mind when your ass can do the heavy lifting, right?" And then this:

Justine has no more idea how to connect with teenage girls than Henry Kissinger does.

'Justine' September / October 2007 Review [MediaPost]

Wonder what the numbers will be like at the end of the year, when the scandalous Lindsay Lohan cover is taken into account?

Poor editor-in-chief Robbie Myers: if we've learned anything from their signatures, she can be expecting some poison flowers from Vogue's Anna Wintour by day's end, though Bazaar's daffy Glenda Bailey is probably too busy playing with her Simpsons figurines to realize that any of this has occurred.

Winners and Losers [WWD]

Elle readers seeking pages of fashion and style advice might be turned off by another Lohan arrest and pending court date, which will take place just days after the magazine hits newsstands... sources said Elle's interview and photo shoot took place prior to Lohan's stint in rehab, so it's likely the story doesn't include any discussion of her most recent run-in with the law.

Old News [WWD]

Susan Cernek was the first to leave Anne's department. You'll know Susan from her incredibly convincing attempt to play an insecure person in the recent Elle body issue. Susan is now at Glam.com. Then came Lindsay Talbot. We don't know Lindsay other than that she once cleaned Anne's office and that she once kissed a guy we know at a bar and so has decent boy-judgment. We imagine that she made the decision to leave Elle for Teen Vogue — following in the footsteps of former Elle sorority sister Danielle Nussbaum — sober, however, and that we don't understand. Does anyone really want to get closer to the cast of The Hills? Seriously, Anne can't be that bad.

Earlier: Anne Slowey's Kinda Nasty-Ass Office

Seems that Anne's new office desperately needed an eco-friendly touch-up, and so Lindsay was all to happy to do arrange all the the contractor-work, insurance papers, paint chips and other logistics. Other than getting an inside look at the way Elle editors do or do not share credit — Lindsay repeatedly makes clear that although Anne herself "decided to greenify" the new office, the renovation itself was more about "we" than "she" — what we love about this article is just how butt-ugly and ordinary Anne Slowey's office used to be. And it's not much better now!

Elle Magazine [Elle.com]
Related: The Fashion Week Food Diaries — The Fashion Editor [NY Magazine]

• Did the failure of Bonnie Fuller's 23-word-title self-help tome scare off the publisher for her replacement at Cosmopolitan, Kate White? White has apparently changed the title of the paperback edition of her latest non-fiction book, cutting it down from 17 words (18 if you're not counting hyphenated phrases!) to 15. With Fuller's book selling only 338 copies in paperback since its release in early January, we don't blame her! [Radar]

• Teen Vogue's Amy Astley may soon see that her staff has one-less intern to boss around. Intern Jenna admits on the magazine's "Intern Blog" that she loves cheapo American Apparel clothes; gives absolutely no love to Teen Vogue advertisers Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, & Chloe. [TeenVogue]

• Before she gave birth, "Project Runway" and Elle magazine diva Nina Garcia reportedly had much of the fashion department's staff running around to style and produce a photo shoot to showcase her then-baby-filled belly. [Rush&Molloy]

• Meredith Corporation-published mom-mags Ladies' Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle magazines will soon have an online video presence. What does this mean? More online content to ignore! [MediaWeek]