• Sarah Palin: "I'm back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska." The store's name? Out of the Closet. [L.A. Times]
• Oy. Celebrity stylist Philip Bloch christens Michelle Obama "Blackie O." [NY Mag]
• Michelle's J.Crew bump continues to push the company - because of course if you buy those separates you'll look just like her and be a potential first lady! [Racked]
• Thank God, local news is monitoring Karl Lagerfeld's Vermont activity. Apparently he's wearing the full Karl Kostume! And his neighbor is named "Loomis Beame." [NY Magazine]
• Keira Knightley carries Anya Hindmarch dust bag instead of the purse it came with. [ElleUK]

• How would you respond to this query to the WSJ's style column? "I always think my husband and I should look more like a couple when we go out, with complementary outfits. But he just puts on the same baggy jeans, even though I am in dresses. What's a way for us to dress more like a couple?" [WSJ]
• Obviously copying my Halloween costume, Rebecca Minkoff cites Liz Taylor as an inspiration. [WWD]
• Angelina's stylist on her red carpet "gown": "It's two separates that looked great together, clean and simple with a pretty shape, which is what we like." [FabSugar]
• Anand Jon's (whose real last name is apparently Alexander) trial wraps up. [Breitbart]
• Narciso Rodriguez: "I don’t recall a specific thought, like, 'Oh, this is who I am,' but I was always watching my mom make clothes, and so I was comfortable with the idea of tearing into a piece of fabric. I remember a piece of black wool felt—I was making a very cool vest, and Mom walked in on me with the scissors in my hand, as I was cutting into the felt, and she freaked out: “What are you doing?!” I was ruining a lot of fabric back then." [Style.com]
• Michelle Malkin accuses the Gap of promoting "Voter Fraud Chic." [Michelle Malkin]
• Is that why The Gap has sent all its employees on a three-day vacation?! "Cutting costs" my eye. [WWD]
• Model Carol Alt loses high-profile legal battle with her ex. [Reuters]
• Obama vows "to support five key textile industry policy positions" to save the listing U.S. industry and monitor China. [WWD]
• Say it ain't so! Spies say Nina Garcia was seen purchasing slutty schoolgirl costume! [NY Mag]
• Model moments through the ages: kinda fun. [Telegraph]
• Still got time to waste? Here's a gallery of movie fashion moments through the ages! [EW]
• Crotchety WSJ writer is proud to be a shlub. [WSJ]
• What do sharks in formaldehyde and prospectors have in common? Why Damien Hirst's line for Levi's, of course! T"he 12-piece Damien Hirst X Levi’s Collection revolves around some of Hirst’s favored themes — skulls, colorful spots and tropical butterflies. Jeans retail for about 180 euros, or $230 at current exchange, with T-shirts at 65 euros, or $83." You can get it in Berlin and Milan. [WWD]
• Stefano Pilati on sex — or not — at YSL. "For me, the main factor is the seduction factor. I want to look at a woman and feel seduced. I never touch the idea of sex...Sex one of the most complicated things; it's too subjective. And if you have subjectivity, you have to balance it out - with you skills, your knowledge, the values of your brand. Sex for me is personal." [VogueUK]

Over on the blog Feministe, Jill Filipovic writes, "I see a scary animalistic black man, a primal scream, and a beautiful white woman. Google image King Kong for a comparison." What's interesting is that the editors had another, more "civilized" photograph of LeBron and Gisele they could have chosen. Upon seeing this more "civilized" image, blogger Angel from Concrete Loop asks, "Why wasn't this the cover instead of that other HORRID one?" Commenters on that site agree: "Lebron is straight up perpetuating a stereotype (that of the brutal, wild savage) that helped enslave, lynch, and murder hundreds of THOUSANDS of our black men for centuries... and I'm just supposed to be content because he made it onto "massa's" magazine?! Take that weak shit somewhere else," "MJ" writes. Adds "cococola72284": "This 'King Kong capturing the damsel in distress'... is offensive. Not only does this man look like an ape, but he's got this good ole prize, a white woman on his arm. There are a number of black high fashion models they could've paired him with and other shots they could've used of him. At least put him in a suit. He carries a suit VERY well." On this site, a shot of the cover prompted similar comments.

Why didn't the editors chose the more "civilized" image for the cover? Were they looking for something more dynamic and animated? Did they want something with action, with impact? Why not put LeBron James in a suit? (FYI, other athletes in the issue — skater Apolo Anton Ohno, snowboarder Shaun White and swimmer Michael Phelps — also appear in sport "uniforms" while the models wear high fashion.) Was it easy — maybe even on a subconscious level — to choose a photo that casts the black man as "big and scary" and therefore comfortable and familiar?

"Nobody says more about fashion size and shape than Gisele and LeBron," Vogue spokesman Patrick O'Connell tells Time. Really? Nobody??

LeBron James To Grace Vogue's Cover [Time]
I Know Vogue Isn't Exactly Racially Conscious, But... [Feministe]
Comment Spotlight: LeBron & The Vogue Cover [Concrete Loop]
Preview of US Vogue April 2008: The Shape Issue [ONTD]
Earlier: Holy Itshay, What Is That Big Black Man Doing On The Cover Of Vogue?!
Men's Vogue: Not Afraid Of Black People
What's The Message Behind A Black Man In Heels On The Cover Of Vogue?

"You've exhausted my patience!" erupts the late Nobel laureate Milton Friedman. "I have?" replies Johnson in disbelief.

The One Percent has less sympathy for the Fanjul family, the Florida sugar barons accused of polluting the Everglades. When I mention that — his own East Village residence notwithstanding — his social calendar may set him across from a Fanjul in Palm Beach or Manhattan at some point, he grows uncomfortable. "I don't know what that's gonna be like," he says. There follows talk of the difficulty of one person to really judge another, then a few failed sentences, finally a long breath. And for a wavering moment, Jamie Johnson looks like someone in a Jamie Johnson film. Then he decides to say what he means. "We're subsidizing an industry that trashes the environment, and then we're using tax dollars to pay for the cleanup and repair. It just so happens that the Fanjuls represent that."

Why Jamie Johnson Turned His Camera On The Rich And Powerful [Men's Vogue]

Covers with black people supposedly don't sell as well, but Men's Vogue editor in chief Jay Fielden tells Portfolio, "I don't think that Tiger or Senator Obama appeal only to one segment of the population. In fact, they proved to be two of the best-selling covers we've ever done, and we have good reason to expect even more from Denzel Washington and Will Smith. If there is some industry rule of thumb that you can't have African-Americans on the cover more than so many times a year, then we're glad to be the ones disproving it." Hmm, do we smell a Fielden/Wintour showcase showdown?

Black is the New White for 'Men's Vogue' [Portƒolio]

Earlier: Where Are All The Black Models? Let's Start By Asking Anna Wintour
We're Still Looking For Black Models

• WWD turns to everyone's favorite reputable source, reluctant fiction-writer James Frey for comment on the literary merits of Cynthia Rowley's new children's book, Slim. "I am very familiar with the genre of fantasy memoirs," he says. [WWD, 1st item]

• Vogue publishing director Tom Florio credits Men's Vogue as having "launched [Barack] Obama's campaign, right or wrong." [WWD, 1st item]

• Chloe Sevigny says her rebel-girl style stems from her disgust for the "homogenized, blonde, blue-eyed preppy girls" populating her Connecticut hometown. [Vogue UK]

• Fret not, Grey's Anatomy fans. Kate Walsh didn't take the plunge and chop her 'do into fierce bangs, as recently spotted at the GLAAD Media Awards: It's a wig. [People]

• Coulda-been-a-princess Kate Middleton gets offered a job by Tom Ford. [Fashionista]

The Budget Fashionista gets us all excited over the new Lela Rose line for Payless. [TheBudgetFashionista.com]

Those poor, sniffly models. [NYMag.com]

Hudson Morgan of Men's Vogue isn't gay? [Fashionista.com]

We think we're in love. [FabSugar.com}