Love, Condé Nast's new great white hope of a recession-era fashion mag, is Big News, as is its editor, Katie Grand, who's been a major fashion insider for years. Clearly, she's got serious chops. Which the Times gets around to after discussing her "fittingly high-pitched, cartoonlike squeak," the forementioned bag fetish, the stuffed guinea pig on the couch, and her getup: "Paper Denim & Cloth jeans, a vintage Sigue Sigue Sputnik T-shirt, a Chanel blanket wrapped as a scarf and glittery Miu Miu heels."

We get it: this is fashion journalism, and obviously this is a fashion writer, and to a degree, the disconnect between the launch of a very big gamble and such cute trivia probably doesn't seem as manifest to them as to the casual reader. Yes, we get that Grand, a major stylist, has worked with Prada, collaborates with Marc, dated Giles Deacon, hangs with Agyness and has worked her share of frivolously outré projects. But opening with that bag line does quite a bit to distract from concrete statements like, "‘It's very easy to be cool and self-indulgent,'' she said. ‘‘I think as an editor you have a responsibility to do an interesting, commercial magazine that people want to look at. We need a readership as well as advertisers,'' or,
"with the economy as it is, I wanted to do something that was a reality check on many levels.''

What that constitutes to a consummate fashionista, of course, is an open question. She says at one point,
‘‘They basically said, ‘Do whatever you want.' The fact that we have Beth Ditto naked on the cover shows that.'' Beth Ditto, nude, should not in itself be regarded as a piece of outrageous high-fashion performance art; challenging convention is very different from challenging conventions of beauty. And it's hard to get a sense, from this piece, of exactly what the magazine will be: "edgy," we're told, and involving a lot of her "favorite" personalities, but between the indulgent anecdotes about hats that resemble "an evening bathing cap," it's hard to say whether the insidery nature of Grand's career makes her better or worse suited to guaging the commercial marketplace. Certainly there's a lot to admire - and we like the stories of Grand's "earning money by knitting, mostly for other students, and writing knitting patterns for British Elle" while in school - but as evinced by the very tone of this profile, the demands of a resolutely fashion-centric world can be alienating to the rest of us when the chips are down. There's escapism, and then there's tone-deafness. We'll have to wait and see which Love is, because "Love Child" certainly isn't going to tell us.

Love Child [T Style]

It's no secret that fashion is not a diverse industry, and as New York's Amy Larocca points out, there was a conspicuous contrast between fashion's vocal support for our new president and the industry itself. "During the campaign, designers, from Marc Jacobs to Tory Burch, celebrated Obama in a frenzy of T-shirts and tote bags that conflated change and style. But despite such liberal goodwill, the industry is overwhelmingly white, both in its makeup and its view of its customer." Were diversity a matter of course, Italian Vogue's all black issue would not have been the huge cause for excitement that it was. And while that issue may have sparked a flurry of all-black fashion week shows and isolated celebrations of "the other," these were quite conscious exceptions. If Michelle Obama is to become a muse, in a certain sense it will serve as a rebuke: the embrace of a woman who's gotten where she is, stylistically and otherwise, in spite of the industry.

The other issue, says Larocca, is the role fashion plays in the First Lady's life, the fact that "she uses fashion but is not defined by her interest in it."

She’s no Jackie Kennedy, whose tenure as First Lady is remembered precisely for her interest in style. This seems an unlikely course for Michelle Obama. Here is a beautiful, well-dressed woman for whom fashion is a sidebar. Hers is the kind of résumé that can induce a certain self-hatred among people who’ve devoted their lives to tracking hemlines and hairdos.

Michelle's attitude seems to be an eminently sensible one: as long as one needs to wear clothes publicly, have fun with it, make them beautiful and interesting, champion smaller designers. But the need comes first, then the whimsy. At the end of the day, she doesn't live for fashion. And this, while probably the only way the industry can thrive in the coming years, is more novel than it should be.

The interesting question is what the high priests (and more to the point, priestesses) of the fashion world will do with this opportunity. Will they use it as a chance to see fashion and diversity embraced in a natural, organic and practical way, or will Michelle become an excuse, a solitary nod to difference that allows them to pat themselves on the back and then never put another black woman on the cover of Vogue for another two years? It's in some ways unfair to address Michelle Obama as anything but the individual she is, and yet the fervor with which fashion has embraced her does make one wonder: exactly what is it they want to be on board with? Just Michelle - which is, perhaps enough - or what she could start?
Michelle O [New York Magazine]

• Lagerfeld on Bruni: "She’s imaginative, clever, educated. She knows how to behave. She speaks many languages. It must be an embarrassment for the wives of other heads of state to see this beautiful creature who can wear anything and speak like that. They are hunters who met—predators. It’s a good thing. He had seduced many women, and she was a kind of seductress. When two like this meet, it can be good.” [NY Observer]
• The Kaiser's mug is on this Urban Outfitters tee, part of a line called "Beautiful Ones Superstar Raglan." [BlackBook]
• So, NBC is totes suing the Weinsteins for how they handled the whole Project Runway decamping to Lifetime thing, but here's the really touching thing that came out on the stand: apparently Tim Gunn, the dearest fashion queen on cable TV, did the first season for free. Awww. [Rush & Molloy]
• Fergie's shoe collection: "I have always loved fashion because it's a great way to express your mood. And I'm definitely a shoe lover. The right pair of shoes can change the feel of an outfit, and even change how a woman feels about herself. A woman can wear confidence on her feet with a high stiletto, or slip into weekend comfort with a soft ballet flat." [FabSugar]
• Shocker: Naomi Campbell, terrible journalist. Her question to the Argentine president? "How did you feel when you saw Madonna playing Evita on the screen?" [The First Post]

• Marc Jacobs' marital status still ambiguous. [The Cut]
• Self-described "dirty fairy" and Gwen Stefani sorta-stepdaughter Diasy Lowe to model for Brit designer Karen Millen. "'She looks incredible in the clothes," gushed one fashionista, "and she's the ideal Karen Millen woman - young, eclectic, unique and an international style icon in the making." ' [Page Six]
• California institution Mervyn's files for bankruptcy. [Los Angeles Times]
• The south of France is seeing a high incidence of clothed breasts this summer. '"It looks like going topless has gone out of fashion," our girl on the Cote d'Azur tells us. "Men are whining everywhere you turn that there are no more bare boobs on the beach." ' [Page Six]
• Tory Burch seeks investor. [WWD]
• Is Kanye gonna buy Jil Sander? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Vanity Fair's 'up and coming designers' foldout cover is already generating controversy. And I mean, Zac Posen? Really? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Macy's categorically denies having used that sweatshop in Queens that got busted last week. [New York Times]
• With Vogue numbers slipping (and, come on, it's a recession) is the Nuclear Wintour's job safe? [Fashionologie]
• Kate Spade expands her (presumably preppy, perky, pricey) clothing line. [FabSugar]
• Feeding into our supposed hunger for inane fashion-driver rom coms, "'Fashionistas' traces the career of a young designer working at a design firm who plots to take down her ruthless boss by inventing a fictitious must-have designer." [Hollywood Reporter]
• The Mirror on Agyness's new do: "It's an unfortunate cross between Mr Spock, Sarah Harding and a suet pudding basin... The awful fringe, weird pointy sideburns, bouffant back and uneven sides are all reminiscent of the haircuts our mums used to give us. When we were three." [The Mirror]
• More on the Karan/Klein jungle jaunt: "Ms. Karan has been telling friends that the trip is part pleasure and part quest for inspiration for her new store and collection Urban Zen, which sells high-end organic clothes, furniture and knickknacks." [The Observer]
• You can't keep a good luxury brand down! LVMH sees profits. [WWD]
• Lots more shops planned for JFK Airport. [New York Times]
• Michelle Obama's harstylist: "The foundation of any hairstyle is the cut. That’s one thing we focus on doing very well here at Fekkai. With that, I am able to switch the hair into like maybe two, three different looks. We try not to give her too many different variations. People want to see her with the same style, especially when it comes to politics; there’s a lot of scrutiny when you’re in that arena." [Bellasugar]

Talk about high school...fashionistas are the worst. Let's take Karolina (ok, names have been changed to protect...ok, maybe not PROTECT since really, when did I start to give a shit about these assholes?...anyway as I was saying...names have been changed so that I don't get sued for defamation of character!)...

To which we say: Bravo! But who the fuck is she already? Some suggestions have been bandied about, and we've parsed the possibilities a bit ourselves, but as of now, nothing. And we're certain some of you people know who she is. So cough it up.

Update: Fashionista's Faran Krentcil says we misread her clue, explaining: "If the 'View from the Fourth Row' blogger is working from the building from Devil Wears Prada, she's not necessarily working from 4 Times Square. Remember, in the film, The Devil Wears Prada building is actually the Time Warner building - you can see it at the beginning, when Andy's coming out of the office." Ok, we are appropriately humbled, and totally on this.

If I Could, I'd Take My BlackBerry Into The Shower [ViewFromTheFourthRow]
Earlier: Dear View From The Fourth Row: Love Is Blind. We Are Not. [Fashionista]
Who Is The View From The Fourth Row Blogger? Here Are Some Guesses