Are models slowly returning to the covers of ladymags? Joan Smalls was on the January cover of Elle; now Lara Stone graces the April cover of Bazaar. Back in September, People editor Larry Hackett said: "The era of the A-List movie star is over." So does the future of fashion mags look like the (model-driven) past?

Lady Gaga commands that we all get our eyes checked so we can gaze upon her on the February cover of Fashion Magazine, aka Canada's "No. 1 Fashion and Beauty Magazine."

September issues of fashion magazines are traditionally the largest of the year — the volumes with the most pages — not only because of the lavish fall fashion-oriented editorial photoshoots, but because the designers reveal their fall ad campaigns. But yesterday, Oscar de la Renta debuted its fall collection on …

Here is what Franca Sozzani, editor of Italian Vogue, has to say about her magazine featuring "slave earrings," with a bizarre caption about "women of colour": "It is a matter of really bad translation from Italian into English," according to a statement.

• Paulina Porizkova on America's Next Top Model: "The one guarantee that you will never make it as a model is to go on that show." Which is both honest and interesting, since she used to judge "that show." [NYPost]

On a conference call just now, I mentioned the Essence/white fashion editor controversy, and asked Nina Garcia if there's enough diversity among fashion editors. Basically? She said yes. She did add that there's always room for improvement, however.

On September 9, the opening day of New York Fashion Week, a group of young Black women staged a silent demonstration.

Ooh baby, she likes it raw. Wasn't this an ANTM challenge some time ago? Which was in French Vogue before that? Anyway. This is the September 2010 cover of Vogue Hommes Japan. Shot by Terry Richardson, of course.

"Fashion Cliques" is supposedly a fun little listicle thingy on page 202 of the September issue of W. The concept: A guide which categorizes fashionable women as one of five different "types." Including "The Girl Who Eats Her Feelings."

In fall 2007, WWD and The New York Times published pieces about the absence of black models on the fashion runways. We did our own tally of black models in fashion magazines, and came up with some shocking statistics.

While W is going for the up-and-comers this September, its bigger peers have discovered a rather different flavor: the Olds. And by old, we mean over 40. How could something like this happen?

What have the end of the luxury boom and the rise of free Internet media meant for fashion magazines? Mostly, they're looking for new ways to sell you shit, this time with less pretense.

Blogger/stylist/former model Rosemary Kokuhilwa writes: "I think it's about time we have Vogue magazine in Africa." She's referring to images by Paris-based Cameroonian photographer Mario Epanya, which illustrate what Vogue Africa could look like. Good idea? Yes and no:

Recently, we came across a copy of the May 1986 issue of Elle magazine. How does it compare to the May 2010 issue of Elle? What has changed — and what hasn't — in the last 24 years?

Why is People spinoff StyleWatch so successful? Because it only cares about products. And it doesn't pretend to care about anything else.

And plenty of them lost more than that. On the bright side (?), Vogue publishing director Tom Florio says "our profits will be up substantially, almost double" even if next year's revenues are flat, thanks to costcutting and layoffs. [WWD]