Blume, in an interview with New York magazine's Amy Odell, appeared to cast aspersions on Tavi Gevinson's success as a freelancer — Gevinson has gained much notoriety through her blog, and has a story in this month's Harper's Bazaar. Her full quote about Gevinson and the Harper's Bazaar piece read:

"A lot of people are going to read this. Is this a smart marketing move? Of course," Blume said. Did she get the sense people were taking Tavi seriously? "I think she's very dear, but I think it's crazy. I think it was insulting enough when we were expected as adult women to take our fashion cues from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. All of a sudden women in the fashion world were starting to look like bag ladies. I mean, that's very silly."

Blume doesn't think the industry's top buyers will take Tavi's fashion critiques seriously. "Are the creative directors of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman going to tailor their purchases according to [her tastes]? Probably not. But is Harper's Bazaar going to sell a bunch of issues because of the novelty? Yes. Will she end up on morning shows? Yes she will," Blume said. "I don't think she's a fashion sage, I think she's a novelty and I think she's going to be used as a marketing device as a novelty."

So: Tavi Gevinson's success is "crazy," and vaguely "insulting" to "adult women," Gevinson is better suited to "morning shows" than real fashion criticism, and her appeal is solely based on her "novelty" value and usefulness as "a marketing device." Pretty harsh gist for a girl barely into her teens.

In the same story, Elle editor Anne Slowey wondered aloud if Gevinson actually wrote her blog, or her other freelance work. Slowey even compared Gevinson to JT Leroy, the famous teenaged author and novelist, whose existence was later revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by the writer Laura Albert. "She's either a tween savant or she's got a Tavi team," remarked Slowey.

Today, Blume is distancing herself from the remarks she made to New York. In an e-mail — actually, several e-mails to two different Jezebel editors, plus a bonus Facebook message — about the young writer, Blume says she never meant to imply Gevinson was just a novelty, but rather that she was "addressing how an adolescent is likely being used as a marketing device, which is actually a very protective stance on Tavi's behalf. That said, the tenor of the NY Mag piece is not what I would have liked, so I hope to clarify my own stance."

I'm not in any way leading a charge against Tavi. As I emphasized in parts of the interview not published by NY mag, I believe that passion like hers should be appropriately encouraged and celebrated ... yet I also expressed concern that she is being used as a novel marketing gimmick by an industry not exactly known for its positive messages for and treatment of young girls.

I hope that she's being amply guided and protected as her star rises, as 13 is a very vulnerable age, no matter what confidence is projected. I most certainly would never attack a precocious thirteen year old girl, but rather I am skeptical about the industry's response to her. As someone who's covered the business side of the fashion industry, I think it's more than valid to address the marketing aspect of this phenomenon, especially when the welfare of an adolescent is concerned.

I contacted New York for a response, and they declined to comment other than to say that they stand by the story.

Photo of Tavi Gevinson via her blog

Earlier:Elle Editor Leads Backlash Against 13-Year-Old Blogger

Related: Editors Like Tavi But Don't Take Her Fashion Advice Seriously [The Cut]
Style Rookie [Official Site]

In a seven page piece exploring everything from Pelosi's preferences for dark chocolate ice cream to her varying smiles, writer Vanessa Grigoriadis paints an interesting - and slightly familiar - portrait of the Speaker of the House.

She's a kind of Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, imperious with her power and relishing her ability to attack, dropping bombs like "If people are ripping your face off, you have to rip their faces off."

Detailing what Pelosi's foes have to say about her (notable comments include "Mussolini in a skirt" and "domestic enemy of the Constitution") as well as her falling approval ratings, one gets the impression that Nancy Pelosi doesn't really give a fuck what's happening around her as long as she can do her job:

All of which might inspire some worry in a person who was paying attention. But Pelosi, pretty much, isn't. She doesn't often watch cable news or follow blogs, and her cell phone of choice is a Motorola Razr. She definitely isn't watching Fox, and can't really tell Sean Hannity apart from the other anchors. For the most part, Pelosi is in a bubble, where much of what passes for politics doesn't penetrate. Her face, the one with the frozen smile, is her mask. She often seems unaware of how it looks. For her, the world consists of her members, her donors, and her family, plus President Obama and Rahm Emanuel, whom she sometimes speaks to several times a day. As far as she's concerned, anything else, and that includes the press, is a petty distraction from her "historic work," as she likes to say, before ticking off the accomplishments of Congress on her watch over the last two and a half years: the passage of large increases in college aid and veterans' health care, raising fuel-efficiency standards and the minimum wage, and ethics reform, not to mention the stimulus, bailout, and a climate-change bill that she masterfully shepherded through the House-where it passed by a margin of one vote.

Translation: Fuck you, she's handling her business.

Throughout her piece, Grigoriadis repeatedly raises the idea that Pelosi is wearing a mask , paying special attention to those moments when Pelosi drops her guard and her "true nature" is revealed:

Pelosi's bill will get diluted later in conference, and who knows how reform might actually play out. As a health-care CEO put it to me, "the only thing that keeps an oncologist out of a patient's coffin is nails." But national health care, even a watered-down version-what a legacy.

"Not so fast on that, on the legacy," says Pelosi, taking a seat in a cream-colored chair in her beautiful office, sun pouring into the room from a high narrow window. She breaks into one of her grins. "I said to Al Gore one time, ‘Your work here will be part of your legacy,' and he said, ‘Um, is there a message here?' " Then the smile is gone, and she begins to frown: Pelosi dislikes the perception of hogging credit, and has even decreed that her staff not use the word I when writing for her. "No," she says. "This is about the health of our country, diet, the way we live, pursuing a more wholesome path. It's personal. It's economic. Imagine what would happen if you could have any job you wanted without worrying about needing health care." She pauses. "And it won't be my legacy. It will be everyone's legacy." She gives a tight smile. "I don't even think in terms of legacy." The eyes pop. "I mean, what?"

Another episode about chocolate ice cream reveals how quickly Pelosi can flip if she starts to feel attacked. After describing how Pelosi giggles when one of her staffers (Grigoriadis writes "servant") brings her two scoops of dark chocolate ice cream, she relates the following story:

Chocolate ice cream is the staple of Pelosi's diet: She doesn't cook herself, so except for a salad for lunch and whatever an aide hands her for dinner, that's what she eats. "I think that's the first time she's ever turned it down," whispers her personal assistant, later. "The other day, she came in at 8:45 a.m. carrying a pint of Häagen-Dazs with an inch left in it-she'd eaten the whole thing on the way in. She handed it off to Michael, and then two hours later, she said, ‘Where's that ice cream? Can I eat the rest of that?' " (At one point, when she mentions to me that she likes artisanal ice cream, I joke, "Oh, elitist ice cream," and she shoots back: "It's not elite. It's not elite. It's just a small operation.")

In addition to the mask references, Grigoriadis also plays up the congressional royalty aspects of Pelosi's personality.

Unlike in the Senate, the majority rules absolutely in the House, and that suits Pelosi. She may not want to be a queen-when members of the Black Caucus called her that once, she said, with typical regal flourish, "I am not an emperor or a queen, but neither am I a fool"-but in reality, the House is hers to rule. If Pelosi wants to put a member on Ways and Means, she just makes the committee bigger. If a member is upset, she can give him a big office budget. If he's still not happy and she knows he has an interest in NATO, she can prioritize his access to an airplane and off he goes. This has let her create a leadership style that's less stick and more carrot. She maintains goodwill by feminine touches like presents of flowers, weekly meetings with freshmen, thank-you notes, calls to associates' sick family members. "Nancy has a minister's political skills," says Majority Whip James Clyburn. "She looks for common ground, seeing and feeling things that most people don't."

Amid all the discussions of giggling and Pelosi's personal touches, what's often obscured is Pelosi's keen mind for strategy. As Grigoriadis writes:

This is her Congress: She engineered the strategy for taking back the House in 2006 with Rahm Emanuel, a two-year congressman she tapped to be her deputy, and who likes to call her "mommy." That was a time of some intense giggling, with the two of them-the fancy lady and the potty-mouthed Rahmbo-so ambitious, so driven, that every possible seat that could be occupied by a Democrat is now occupied by a Democrat, which is an opportunity and a challenge. There's nowhere to go but down.

Clearly, Nancy Pelosi is very skilled at understanding how political games are played. In one of the more revealing moments in the piece, Pelosi's tough exterior is shown to be wrapped in pragmatism, with a steely understanding that while ideals are nice, the important thing is making sure the work proceeds:

The other party is very much outside her bubble, barely noticed. "Nancy really doesn't care about Republicans, because she doesn't believe the whole bi-partisan thing exists," says a close associate. "Her attitude is, ‘God bless their souls, but these people don't believe in global warming. They just don't agree with us.' " She loves Obama, knows that he's her best hope. "She has a new source of energy, in wanting this young man to succeed," says Congressman George Miller, a close friend, a bit gooily. But there have been a few rocks here and there. She was getting upset over the summer, says a source, at the way Obama was pandering to conservatives to secure a bi-partisan bill, though her office says she was more concerned with the lethargy of the finance committee at the time. Don't waste your time, they are not voting with us, she told him. Did someone tell you they would? The president's attitude was, well, the Republicans are elected, and we're elected; let's all make this work together. Emanuel would get the same earful from her: Does the president not understand the way this game works? He wants to get it done and be loved, and you can't do both-which does he want?

Specific discussions of how her gender has impacted her perception in the public sphere are limited in the piece, but Grigoriadis does make an excellent point about the balancing act that women endure, in attempts to look both tough and vulnerable without looking hard or weak.

To look weak in public, well, that's Pelosi's worst nightmare. Hillary might cry to boost her poll numbers, but a powerful woman nearing 70 always keeps a stiff upper lip, never showing more emotion than Maggie Thatcher. And, in a way, it works for Pelosi, having the world see only the hard shell, thinking she's an archetypal female monster with a pasted-on smile. The smile is meant to balance out her aggressive rhetoric, to calm men down, to seem less threatening (it doesn't work, of course); but it is also a way of shutting people out of her true emotions, who she really is. But that's okay-she is willing to have people not understand her. If need be, she's willing to be hated. Not caring makes Pelosi powerful. She'll listen to her poll numbers from her staff, but she doesn't really process them. "I'll take the hit," she likes to say, waving a hand. "I'll take the hit."

Some of Pelosi's nature could probably be ascribed to her upbringing in Baltimore, where she was knee-deep into politics from an early age:

She's the seventh child and only daughter of Thomas "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro Jr., a slick dresser who wore diamond rings on each of his pinkies and began representing Little Italy in Maryland's House of Delegates at 22, followed by five terms in Congress and three as Baltimore's mayor. (When asked about his rival in one election, D'Alesandro said, "I don't know [who he is], but it's some no-good son of a bitch, that's all I can tell you.") Nancy's childhood home functioned as D'Alesandro's auxiliary office, with a portrait of FDR in the living room, copies of The Congressional Record stored under her bed, and an open door for constituents searching for jobs, permits, stop signs.

The political arena is not a place for the faint of heart, and through her years in Congress, Pelosi has always focused on the bottom line: does she have the votes? A master politico, Pelosi is credited with "raising $155 million" for the Democratic Party over the last seven years, and her ability to give the outward appearance of compromise while pressing for her beliefs has served her well. But still, even while she works to balance her two selves, she still isn't going to stand there and take anyone's shit.

Last week, at the unveiling ceremony for her new health-care bill on the Capitol steps, she smiled away, reminding everybody that they should celebrate this historic day. On the lawn, a knot of protesters kept shouting at her, distracting from her important purpose. "You will burn in hell for this," one man yelled into his megaphone, over and over.

She tried to ignore him, but finally shot a withering look his way. "Thank you, insurance companies of America," she declared, smirking a little.

The mask is back on.

Why Is Nancy Pelosi Always Smiling? [NY Magazine]

If you've ever read about the paralegal who keeps on seeing some dude she calls The One Who Cries for lackluster sex, the sweet but dim college boyfriend who doesn't seem to realize his girlfriend doesn't love him anymore, or the lady who followed her cheating boyfriend to Mexico, as well as that guy who comments obsessively on every post, and wondered, Who are these people? Well — they are real. And they have all the tattoos you'd expect.

From left: The Polyamorous Paralegal, The Horny Editor Visiting The 'Rents, and The Expat New Yorker Trying To Make It Work In Paradise.

Analyzing all of humanity's sexual habits — or even all of the city's — based on a self-selecting sample that is, as Yang writes, comprised of "bizarrely oversharing New Yorkers motivated by the impulse to brag or, as often, the urge to fling their terrible abjection in the face of the world," seems a little daft, but the editor of the feature, Arianne Cohen, hazards a few conclusions anyway. "Married Diarists have approximately triple the amount of sex as single ones (even twenty-something singles) simply by dint of sharing a bed," she writes. "Manhattanites are more likely to have intimacy issues, while Brooklynites are more likely to cheat. As for which gender has sex on the mind more often, I'd say it's a draw — though men are more likely to masturbate, somewhat commonly in public bathrooms."

And, whoo boy, is there a lot of masturbation. Communications technology, in making us all reachable, in giving us all the permanent option to do something or someone else, has made us each subject to "the nagging urge to make each thing we do the single most satisfying thing we could possibly be doing at any moment." Human relationships are a menu of choices, constantly updated via Facebook. "In the face of this enormous pressure," Yang writes, "many of the Diarists stay home and masturbate." (And, though they can't have helped, maybe it's not really the cell phones that bring it out in us. Joan Didion seems to have made the exact same point about the tendency toward option paralysis in this city — minus the self-abuse — when she wrote in 1967, "Nothing was irrevocable; everything was within reach. Just around every corner lay something curious and interesting, something I had never before seen or done or known about.")

Then there's this:

An inordinate number of Diarists find themselves at the brink of enjoying one sexual experience, only to receive a phone call or text from another potential suitor. They become a slave to their compulsion and indecision. Consider these snippets in a week of one Diarist, who is deeply conflicted between her Pseudo and Ex:

2:55 p.m. Pseudo G-chats me. Looks like he might be interested in hanging out tonight after all. 9:30 p.m. Meet up with Ex and friends at bar. Text Pseudo to see if he's up for doing anything.

2:20 a.m. At a bar with Pseudo and other friends. Ex drunk-texts me: "Wanna fuck?" 3:17 a.m. Half-bottle of wine plus mucho beer plus a few rounds of shots leads to me texting Pseudo, "Let's get out of here and go back to my place." 3:18 a.m. Pseudo texts back, "I don't feel like dealing with you."

11:45 p.m. At a bar with Pseudo. Ex drunk-texts me.

1:30 p.m. Ex calls and wakes me up. Says he needs to talk in person. 7:49 p.m. Text Pseudo and tell him about convo with Ex. Pseudo replies that he's sorry, he hopes I end up getting what I want. What the hell does that mean? I have no idea what I want, clearly.

This compulsive toggling between options winds up inflicting the very damage it was designed to protect against.

This would be funny if it weren't absolutely true.

Yang, with the diaries, paints a picture of an aggressively devil-may-care kind of young New York that isn't entirely aware of its own contradictions. We seek romance, but avoid emotional exposure. We hedge "The anxiety of appearing overly sincere" against "The anxiety of being unable to love." One 26-year-old diarist says, of his girlfriend, "I want to love her. And I should. I just, well, don't. She's the best girlfriend anyone could ever hope to have. I wish that were enough to love her." Another, aged 39, spends a moment every Sunday looking for M4W posts by Steve, "a disgusting person I slept with back in April," on Craigslist.

There's a thick vein of neurotic self-loathing in these stories, which, though rarely elegantly expressed, has its own kind of appeal. Maybe we shouldn't be asking what the sex diarists tell us about our behavior, but what our willingness to read their reports says about us.

A Critical (But Highly Sympathetic) Reading of New Yorkers' Sexual Habits and Anxieties [NYMag]

In addition to mentioning that Wintour arrived at the magazine with her own desk, New York also notes that in the fortnight their new editor has been on the job, she hasn't appeared in the same outfit twice.


Wintour's first fashion spread for New York starred a young Andie MacDowell posing on a Midtown rooftop in a Rietveld Red Blue chair.


Reader response to Wintour and her aesthetic was mixed.


It took Wintour all of until August 24 to run a spread that linked higher quality pieces with higher prices. "Investing In The Best" advises that "The right looks are also more costly, but well worth it." And they're still pulling that 'investment pieces' line on us now!


For the May 3, 1982, issue, Wintour ran a spread called "Wait Until Dark."


It was shot by Lothar Schmidt on location at Danceteria.

But one of the best reasons to trawl through New York's digitized archives is to search, in these spreads, for the headwaters of Wintour's aesthetic.

Am I alone in drawing a visual parallel between "Wait Until Dark," and a story for U.S. Vogue's September, 2007, issue, featuring Shalom Harlow?

The later spread, photographed by Steven Klein, even has the same men's wear theme.

In the February 28, 1983, issue, the cover fashion story "Metropolitan Life" features this shot of model Jennifer Rubin at Sloan's supermarket.

Vogue Paris used the Morton Williams on E. 23rd St. as a setting for its own editorial about surreal suburban malaise in October, 2007.

And in fact it was that editorial, by Steven Klein, that I always assumed was the inspiration for American Vogue's tamer, Steven Meisel-shot, supermarket editorial of one year later. But maybe all this time Wintour was hearkening back to the winter of '83?

Predictably, Wintour's love for fur blossomed early. This story, entitled "Furs For All Seasons," is from September 14, 1981. Wintour touts this "sheared-rabbit blouson that reverses to a rain jacket." It's by this designer, maybe you have heard of him, Karl Lagerfeld?

Amazingly, in 1981 a Fendi "beaver coat with squirrel necks and mole" only ran $8,250. That seems like a steal given the $64,300 gold-dipped Fendi fur coat that Vogue featured in its September, 2008, issue. This editorial does take care to point out that "None of the furs shown is on the endangered species list." So while Anna Wintour might judge you for your egret-feather hat, she thinks rabbits are fair game. Good to know.

Also in September of 1981, Wintour used a spread to boost the American profile of the then-little known Japanese designers Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. (Apparently she was a fan of shooting head-to-toe runway looks even back then.)

Wintour shot a 25-year-old Ines de la Fressange for a story about what models wear on their own time. Her famous Anglophilia definitely shows in the spread: two of the five models pictured are British, and a third, Wintour points out, shops at an L.A. store that specializes in "English rock'n'roll clothes."

Lady GaGa, is that you?

I searched, valiantly, for a picture of a model pulling some daft pose while jumping, since that's pretty much all that Vogue publishes under Wintour's watch today. This shot from an April 4, 1983, story about British fashion designers was as close as I could get.

Eureka! The definitive inspiration for the terrible graffiti Wintour made Julian d'Ys paint on the walls of the Met.

As for this editorial, from the December 13, 1982, issue, I've got no snark.

It's actually kind of beautiful — the spread has a simplicity that's entirely missing from the sterile, massively airbrushed set pieces of American Vogue today.

I suppose you don't get to be Anna Wintour without doing something right, once upon a time. (Either that or secretly sacrificing your first born.)

All images via the Google Books archive of New York

• Funny, this picture of Amy Winehouse looking "healthy and stylish" still looks off. British label PPQ is bringing the troubled singer's long-rumored fashion line to fruition — if you count PPQ "providing all materials and doing the design," as anything like having your own collection. [This is London]

• Here are about 500 words on how Michelle Obama sometimes lets the press know what she is wearing, and sometimes doesn't. [WWD]
• Designers at Sao Paulo Fashion Week have agreed to cast a minimum 10% quota of models of African or indigenous South American descent. Last year, only 2.3% of the models — 8 girls out of 344 — were non-white. The quota will be enforced by a hefty $120,000 fine. [BBC]
• In more news from the annals of New York real estate envy, Sally Singer, fashion news and features editor of American Vogue, lives in an eclectic apartment in the Chelsea Hotel. [The Selby]
• Pat McGrath, one of the sweetest and most talented makeup artists around, was in New York to publicize Dolce & Gabbana's new makeup line, which she helped develop. What McGrath would like most, however, would be the fountain of youth in a pill, or her own, namesake line, like François Nars, Laura Mercier, and Bobbi Brown. One of those things just might come true, in a just world. [NY Times]
• Since Gisele and Tom got married and became 78% more boring, voilà: your new model/quarterback couple is Hilary Rhoda and Mark Sanchez of the Jets. [P6]
• Complicated modern woman Miuccia Prada: "If you compare with philosophy, [fashion] is frivolous, but frivolity may be something good, something that is part of our lives, so I don't dislike it and what I like is the mix, that in your life you can have serious things, [and] more frivolous ones...Beauty is not something that is contrary; it is the right of everybody." [CNN]
• Thierry Mugler earned a kind of fashion comeback when Beyoncé chose him to design the costumes for her current world tour. And why not? Cinched waists, severely cut skirts, and padded shoulders are everywhere now. While Mugler has no plans to re-start his label, which he had already sold to Clarins long before he quit designing in 2000, this profile explains just how a ballet dancer from Strasbourg came to fashion prominence, via driving a van around Afghanistan and living in the Haight-Ashbury in the late 60s. Interesting start for a man who's made all his money from perfume since 1992. [Telegraph]
• "I don't like most perfumes," says Nicole Miller. Which is why she had to make another one of her own! Perfectly logical really. [WWD]
• And Armani, too, has a new perfume. His scent pays tribute to his muses. [WWD]
• How does El Museo Del Barrio in New York raise funds? Why, by getting Isabel and Ruben Toledo to tutor students from Spanish Harlem in art, and then auctioning their work — "portraits of Latin icons like Salvador Dalí and Christina Aguilera," reports Style.com. Also, by throwing a kick-ass party where Gloria Estefan took the stage. [Style.com]
• Burberry, which moved into the space vacated by New York magazine on Madison Avenue, will turn on its big neon sign next Thursday. Designer Christopher Bailey and CEO Angela Ahrendts will fly in from London for the vernissage. Neon signs of this type aren't normally permitted in that part of Midtown, but because of New York's iconic sign, now dismantled, Burberry has a rare opportunity to grandfather its own in. [HintMag]
• Oh, how cute. The Daily Mail have an anonymous fashion mole. Today, s/he reveals that — gasp — models aren't paid very much (but do get to meet a lot of the rich menz, which we of course totally love, since we're all privileged alphas doing this to snag hubbies anyway) and are often required to change their names. For practical reasons, such as our agencies not wanting four "Jennifers" on their books. Shocking. [Daily Mail]
• Aeropostale's profit for the first quarter grew a whopping 81% on last year. Sales were up 21%, and same-store sales jumped by 11%. [The Street]
• First quarterly profits at Gap Inc. dropped by 14%. [WSJ]
• Aquascutum's chief executive Kim Winser has resigned after the rejection of her bid to buy out the company. [WWD]
• Designer denim sales are one thing that is not going soft in the current economic climate — high-end jeans sales grew by 2.3% in the quarter just ended. [LA Times]
• Brooks Brothers luggage: launching just in time to take to Southampton for the opening of the summer place. What a relief! [WWD]
• Linda Morand, who runs this website — probably the best compendium of 60s fashion magazines out there, and the members who scan and post to it care about identifying models to boot — is to be one of the producers of a two-hour television tribute to the supermodels of the last six decades. The idea is to make it an annual event, and impanel judges of industry prominence to induct models into it. I can't lie; I would probably watch this. Especially if it turns out better than the Vogue/VH1 Fashion Awards. God knows I've happily killed far more than two hours on MiniMadMod60s. [PR Newswire]

First, last Monday, The New York Post's Page Six gossip column reported that Marc Jacobs had written a letter to U.S. immigration authorities supporting Luz's application for a work visa that would allow him to remain in the country legally, and continue seeing Madonna. Alleged a tipster, Jacobs wrote that Luz was "highly talented" and "a necessity to the label." A client brand making such an overture to immigration on behalf of a foreign model isn't at all unusual, if in fact a business relationship exists between the model and the brand.

Nonetheless, at the time, Madonna's rep denied the singer had asked her designer friend to pull any strings. (But this is the same woman who said in 2006 that Madonna wasn't adopting a baby in Malawi, and in 2008 that Madonna and Guy Ritchie had no plans to divorce.) Marc Jacobs' own PR representative — likely Kate Waters, who has herself been less than forthcoming in the past — also rubbished the report that Jacobs had written any such letter.

But then on Wednesday, at a benefit for Parsons, Jacobs himself gave two wildly conflicting quotes on the subject to two different media outlets. When asked by the New York Daily News, he admitted that Madonna had, in fact, asked him to write a letter in support of Luz's visa application, framing it as a favor for a friend. "I'd do anything to help a friend," said the designer. "It's no big deal — I didn't know that anybody even knew about it. Jesus is the sweetest guy. I hope he and Madonna are happy." But that same night when New York magazine asked Jacobs to clarify his working relationship with the model, Jacobs replied that there was none. "Why is everyone asking me about him?" protested the designer. "He's not modeling for me. I don't do men's wear."

So which is it? Is the Brazilian male model's talent so crucial to Jacobs' label that the designer simply had to do his utmost to get his immigration situation regularized, or is Luz a "sweet guy" who is absolutely irrelevant to the Marc Jacobs business? Is Jesus Luz working for Jacobs, or not? And if indeed he is not, then did Jacobs do something far more serious than lying to Page Six — lie to the INS?

Luz Keeping Madonna Warm [P6]
Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's Lying Flack [Gawker]
Cleaning Up [P6]
Seen and Heard [NYDN]
Jesus Luz Won't Appear In The Louis Vuitton Campaign, Enjoys Dinner Dates With Marc Jacobs' Fiancé [The Cut]
Madonna And Marc Jacobs In Liars' Corner [P6]

One week before giving birth to little Archie Arnett, writes New York's Emily Nussbaum, the Saturday Night Live funnylady "went out there swinging, her immense belly swaying over the Weekend Update desk, performing a wild, aggressive Sarah Palin rap—effortlessly shooting down both a dancing moose and the actual Sarah Palin." Inspiring? Sure. Amy Poehler is awesome, but does anyone actually think that she would be less so because she's with child? Does carrying a fetus render a woman brain damaged?


Which is why the following is so baffling:

Anchor Campbell Brown savaged spin doctors throughout her first trimester, sharpened by fuzz-head hormones that fell other women.

Sorry? Other knocked-up women are walking around befuddled and bewildered? Isn't every pregnant working woman out there doing her job? While you may not see them rapping or interviewing Democratic strategists, don't you know pregnant women who make quick business decisions, instill fear in underlings, lift grocery bags, corral kids and always have a witty comeback? What do you think they'd say about the idea that they're thought of as "fuzz-heads"?

Because Our Pregnant Women Kick Ass [NY Mag]

• Between expanding his "empire," hosting Mad Men parties, judging Project Runway, and, presumably, tanning, Michael Kors is guesting on Gossip Girl. "I love the clothes, everyone is good-looking, the plot line is a riot," Kors says. "I love the show. They called and said, 'You are very Gossip Girl.' I thought, 'Finally, I am a teenager.'" Question: When does this guy have time to actually design? [WWD]
• Perennial fashion critic Mr. Blackwell hospitalized! [AP]
• Just try and get rid of Heatherette! Rumors to the contrary, the glitzy design duo ain't going anywhere. [The Cut]
• NYC Boutique Opening Ceremony staying open for a marathon 72 hours. Cause that's what Olympic athletes would want them to do. [New York Times]

• July was a rough one for retailers; even Wal-Mart tanked. [WWD]
• Tyra/Michelle may have a lock on Bazaar, but Cindy McCain's got mag connections too, albeit crummy ones: "News of Tyra Banks' homage to Michelle Obama in the September issue of Harper's Bazaar broke Tuesday, but that didn't stop Cindy McCain from stopping by the Hearst Tower that afternoon to have lunch with Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black, Cosmopolitan's Kate White, Joanna Coles of Marie Claire and Rosemary Ellis of Good Housekeeping. During the lunch, McCain's daughter, Bridget, sent her mother a picture via BlackBerry of a new dress, seeking approval before leaving the house. The potential first lady approved." [WWD]
• The battle 0f the vibrating mascaras! [New York Times]
• The "work to flirt" dress: slutty for both day and evening! [Telegraph]
• Tara Subkoff capitalizes on the perennial power of faux lesbianism to sell clothes. Also, looks silly in today's GBU. [The Cut]
• The Nike equestrian boot is controversial. "One rider opined on a Web site that it looks like "the stripper boot of the horse world." U.S. Olympic rider Gina Miles wonders if wearing a swoosh might lead to lower scores in a sport that prides itself on centuries-old traditions. And Nike archrival Adidas, which is also creating new shoes for the Games, said no to riding boots. "We didn't feel we could come in with some meaningful innovation," says James Carnes, Adidas' creative director." [Business Week]
• More immediate, community-fostering webzines giving fashion mags a run for their big money. [New York Times]
• Behind-the-scenes vid of Nelly for Sean John undies. NSFW, obvs. [The Life Files]
• So that's why he looks like a shorn lamb: Justin Timberlake cuts his own hair. "I don’t require hair or nail appointments. I actually cut my own hair — that’s why it’s all the same length." [The Sun]
• Nine companies fined for non-disclosure of "inappropriate drawstrings" on children's clothing. [CNN]
• Is Wilhelmina modeling agency going public? [New YorkTimes]
• New fashion director appointed to Out mag. Grant Woolhead "is joining Out, recently acquired by Regent Media, as it publishes its September fashion issue. The issue, due to hit Aug. 12, features Neil Patrick Harris on the cover and has188 ad pages, up from 172 last year, according to Aaron Hicklin, Out's editor in chief." [WWD]
• Ancient lensman Bill Cunningham on summer scarves. [New York Times]
• File under: we should all have such troubles. The agony of care labels on expensive clothes. [The Cut]
• Teen retailers, including - if you can believe it - HotTopic - are feeling the pinch. [Wall Street Journal]
• Somehow grossly-named luxury retailer Aquascutum expanding. Prices are very reasonable. "The Aquascutum London line will feature blouses, wool skirts, and silk graphic dresses with pricing around $780. The vintage collection will include designs inspired by Aquascutum’s archives, such as a hot pink wool swing coat priced at $3,940." [Fabsugar]
• Yuck. Thanks to the Olsen Twins (and yeah yeah I know they don't wanna be called that), "glossy leggings" are a must for fall. [ElleUK]
• Paging summer '03! Band-Aids as "fashion accessories." [New York Times]
• Protect your investment: "A perk that comes with the purchase of a pricey status handbag is that most makers will fix broken straps and zippers, missing rivets and torn linings — often free of charge, if the fixes are simple." [Wall Street Journal]
• "Christian Francis Roth is back. A fashion darling of the early Nineties, Roth is trying to make his mark again with a contemporary spring collection called Francis by Christian Francis Roth, inspired by high school cliques." It's apparently the clique who wore really, really, really ugly clothes. [WWD]

"High?" Cruz asked. "You mean stoned?" "Yeah, exactly," he said. "Smoking it." Everyone in the room laughed—except Cruz.

According to a person briefed on her story, Cruz told both Daula and Shear, "I don't care what your view of probability is. Cut the position." The risk was too great, even for her. But whether Cruz actually gave that order is in dispute. Shear and Daula have denied she told them to cut the position. And by August, with the market in free fall, the Hubler bet had gone badly sour. Shear and Daula had managed to extract the company from $1.8 billion of the trade but had missed a crucial window of opportunity to untangle another $1.5 billion, a position that would metastasize into much more severe losses. In Cruz's view, the two men had ignored her orders and put the company in an untenable position. They "deferred to Howie [Hubler] instead of listening to Zoe," says one Cruz ally. Jay Dweck, a former Goldman Sachs executive who had recently joined Morgan, was heard by three people to say, "At Goldman, this isn't happening. When they say get out, they get out. At Morgan Stanley, when Zoe says get out, people start negotiating."

The Crash Of Morgan Stanley Executive Zoe Cruz [NY Mag]
Earlier: Women Are Underrepresented In Corporate America. Corporate America Is A Laughingstock. Coincidence?

But it's deeper than that. Because the gossip about Gossip Girl is just as interesting as the show: Blake Lively and Penn Badgley play boyfriend and girlfriend on the show, and might be dating in real life! Blake Lively and Leighton Meester play frenemies on the show, and might kind of hate each other in real life! Hotties Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick (Nate and Chuck, respectively) are roommates in real life. But the truth is that the show could be even better — if it stuck closer to the books.

Cecily von Ziegesar, who attended Manhattan's Nightingale-Bamford, a top-ranked private school in New York (Charlotte Ronson went there) has written twelve Gossip Girl books, and, as amazing as the show is, some of the choices Josh Schwartz of The O.C. made in bringing the story to the screen must be questioned. For instance: In the books, the character of Dan Humphrey is an underdog, a poet, a disheveled thinker...an awkward intellectual who doesn't hang with the cool kids. A "nerd". Which makes the fact that he has a relationship with pretty, rich, popular, mysterious, not-a-virgin Serena all kinds of amazing. Who doesn't love it when the underdog scores? (Think of Anthony Michael Hall and the prom queen in Sixteen Candles.) Unfortunately, TV Dan is chiseled and dapper. How can he be an underdog with that confident jawline? (Not to mention that TV Serena is no where near as flighty, carefree or impulsive as Book Serena). In addition, Book Vanessa (Dan's other love interest) — who has a shaved head, wears combat boots and makes short films about how vapid her rich classmates are — is an endlessly more entertaining character than TV Vanessa, who has yet to be interesting at all. And Book Jenny — Dan's younger sister — who has enormous breasts at a young age, the whole reason she catches the eye of older guys like Chuck and Nate — tackles the very real teen issue, of being sexualized too soon, of having your physical and mental states feel out of sync. TV Jenny doesn't get to explore that avenue.

Sure, it's tricky to adapt books for the screen. Hollywood is notorious for making such big changes that the original characters are unrecognizable (See: Breakfast At Tiffany's). But Gossip Girl's strength is in its true-to-life aspects. Despite all the money and freedom the characters on the show (and in the book) have, they still suffer the same teenage angst, the "the delectable tangle of jealousy, loyalty, confusion," as Pressler and Rovzar call it, that we're all familiar with. In a world with fauxmances and pseudo-scripted drama (The Hills), producers of Gossip Girl have a chance to keep it real. If only they would!

The Genius of Gossip Girl [New York]

• Anna Wintour on being called a "puppet" by French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld in New York Magazine: "Maybe you should ask Carine. I have no comment." [Frillr]
  
• But you should ask her about it if you happen to be at Oxford University today, where La Wintour will be speaking about her "media career and extensive charity work." If you are there please email us with details from her chat! [Vogue UK]
  
• "Ashley was surprised. The women were really chic. A lot of them had such great style. And we didn't expect there to be so many women like that." That's Rae Miles, commercial director of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's clothing line, The Row, about her and Ashley's visit to Dallas to promote the line. Because clearly no one outside L.A. or New York knows how to dress themselves! [WWD, sub req'd]

• Krazy Karl Kwote OTD: "I live in my own little world, sketching and drawing. I'm told what to do every day. I didn't even know where this [party] was till I came here." [WWD, 2nd item]
• Vivienne Westwood has chosen model Ajuma Nasenyana to front her Spring 2008 ad campaign. Nasenyana is not just a tall beauty, she's also (OMG) not white! [Sassybella]
• And in other brilliant Vivienne Westwood news, she invited a bunch of seven-year-olds to "collaborate" with her on her fall/winter 2008 collection. [Yahoo]
• Jill Scott (yes, the Grammy award-winning singer): Now making bras. [Reuters]
• "I think [John] Galliano is the best designer in the world. After that, there's Anna Molinari," says, um, designer Anna Molinari. [WWD, 1st item]
• Who knew? Agnes B. is one of the foremost funders of cutting edge global warming research. [Yahoo]
• Tomorrow the exhibit marking a collaboration between Chanel and award-winning architect Zaha Hadid opens in Hong Kong before continuing to tour for another two years across the globe. [IHT]
• For their one-year anniversary in London, Abercrombie & Fitch is celebrating with, well, pictures of nakeds. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Daughter of Ralph/candy scion Dylan Lauren writes to her seventh grade self: "Dear Dill Pickle, Am I fat? Would he like me better if I were thinner?" Um, yeah. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Banana Republic cares about the environment! Or, um, a little about the environment. In honor of Earth Week, one percent of in-store sales up to $100,000 will be donated to the Trust for Public Land. Wow: Way to go whole-hog with your philanthropy, folks. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Bobbi Brown: Embracing inner Miley Cyrus with glitter lip glosses. [BellaSugar]
• Robert Lee Morris: Doing a jewelry line inspired by Andy Warhol's drawings. [Sassybella]
• Model Erin Wasson: Doing a jewelry line that seems to be inappropriately overpriced. [Sassybella]

MEGAN: Good morning! Did you just see Nader on CNN? He smirked when Obama accused him of hubris and threw it right back.

MOE: Wait, was he actually on with Obama?
 
MEGAN: No, but they played video of Obama responding to a question about him yesterday.
(Is it fair to wonder what is up with his left eye and his slightly slurred speech? Was it always like that or have I just been ignoring him that much?)
 
MOE: Ah yes I did read about that.
I totally voted for Nader in 2000. SIGH.
My boyfriend at the time was actually his California campaign manager

MEGAN: I was googling for a picture to figure out the eye thing, and found this picture instead. I like this one better.
 
MOE: Or some title like that that applied to any other candidate would denote some level of importance..

MEGAN: I sort of what to see him debate Cynthia McKinney for the green party nod.

MOE: I think Obama relishes chances to look like a moderate and he doesn't have many what with the Clinton campaign "circulating" shit like this.

MEGAN: He looks like an Ay-Rab! An Ay-Rab!
He's here to destroy our way of life! Ahhhh!
  [commences running in circles with arms waving in the air]

MOE: So...what else. There's an extremely well-timed New York Magazine cover story about Chelsea Clinton... all the columnists are now grousing about how they still have to write about Hillary Clinton as if she actually has a chance, all the universe, ombudsman included, is still grousing about how bad that John McCain story was, and so we are left with... Ralph Nader.
There's also a lot of last-minute hand wringing over whether Obama is good for the Jews including Bernard-Henri Levy who is in town to talk about neo anti Semitism.
  I'm not sure where to begin with this stuff.
It's all so tiresome!
And I'm so tired!
 
MEGAN: I prefer just talking about silly pictures.
Like, whatever CNN producer thought it appropriate to put Ali Velshi in a cowboy outfit on a horse.
And then showed a picture of Yul Brenner in Westworld.
Oh, and they're debating again tomorrow night. Time to stock up on alcohol, people.
  
Do you think that since her new campaign tactic is to be sarcastic and shit the debates will be more interesting tomorrow?
MOE: Uhhhhh, I guess? I mean, I know never to trust the conventional wisdom, but the conventional wisdom is kinda compelling right now!
MEGAN: I'm just sick of them all playing nice. Yawn.
  
Also, the youngest superdelegate guy just endorsed Obama because Wisconsin and young people are going for Obama.
MOE: Yeah, Jason Rae. I am sick of that kid, too. I'm reading this Chelsea story.
Oooh, fun factoid: Obama's secret service name is Renegade!
MEGAN: Boys.
Also, I love the anecdote about Chelsea flirting with the hot jock on the campaign trail. Like, I want to think I would do it, but I know I'm too much of a weenie.
MOE: Hahaha here it is

Approached by a tall model-handsome college jock at the University of Utah, she literally batted her eyelashes at him. "Hell-o!" she said in a Mae West tone before posing for a snapshot with him.

when Gennifer Flowers sold the story of her affair with Chelsea's dad to Star magazine, including tapes of their intimate phone calls, Hillary took her 11-year-old daughter to the supermarket, pointed out the tabloids, and "told her what we heard was going to be in one of them," because she wanted her "to feel she's a part of this," according to Clinton biographer Sally Bedell Smith. Wead said Chelsea's parents "got a lot of criticism for preparing Chelsea like this. During one of those sessions, she apparently left in tears. Rush Limbaugh said it showed just how ruthless the Clintons were, putting their child through this." Limbaugh's concern was disingenuous, of course. On his TV show, he called her "the White House dog." Wead says, "The Ford children told me they wish they'd had somebody to explain things to them. Instead, they were just thrown upstairs in the White House, with the caveat, 'And by the way, don't make a mistake.' "

That fall, Chelsea couldn't resist reading the Starr report online, including the footnotes. When Bill Clinton learned that she'd read the report, he wept.

"There were these girls around her—it was their mission to have Chelsea be their friend," noted a student who knew her. "The mean girls positioned themselves around Chelsea when everybody was deciding who to live with, and I remember they pushed this sweet girl out of the group. She ended up gaining 25 pounds."

MEGAN: I sorta wanted Chelsea to realize that the girls were mean and be nice to the excluded one, but I'll bet she didn't know. Some women are great at hiding their true nature (and, no, I'm totally not saying that because I found something out this weekend that I was probably better off not knowing about one of my "friends," why do you ask?).
MOE: One of my best friends was good friends with one of her friends at Stanford and visited and told me Chelsea was just kind of unfriendly. Which is totally unsurprising. She's incredibly cautious. The excluded girl ... I dunno.

MEGAN: I mean, I think in that position you surround yourself with people you trust and are hesitant about everyone else. I would be. But I am sort of an unfailingly paranoid person for no reason.

MOE: Okay, so that story was boring. But is it as boring as our next task, which is tallying up the major opinion columnists who are calling for Chelsea's mom to quit?
Colbert King of the Washington Post wants her to quit because she's not black or something.
MEGAN: Oh, for Chrissakes. It's an election, people. Hell, even if you want to assume she's just pounding the potential future nominee, she's airing his dirty laundry far enough in advance of the election to practically inoculate him.
  
*innoculate
MOE: Frank Rich wants her to quit because her campaign reminds him of the Iraq war, with Mark Penn as Rumsfeld.
MEGAN: Mark Penn sucks. This is my completely unbiased and slightly uninformed opinion.
  
But he sucks.
 
MOE: Bob Novak thinks she should quit because she's too clueless to even know she is supposed to quit.

 MEGAN: I can't believe they paid him $10 million and dumped Patti Solis Doyle
Bob Novak is the Earl Of Minor, Creeping Despair. He's like one of the ghosts in The Sixth Sense, insofar and his mere presences causes the temp to plummet.
 
MOE: Eugene Robinson, the early bird here, thinks she should quit because she has the gall not to quit.
MEGAN: Because, God knows, it's important the quit in advance of losing.
*to quit.
  Shit, I can't type this morning.

MOE: Maureen Dowd says she should quit because she's too macho and Obama out-girled her. Umm... how is she not tired of writing the same column every other day?

Obama tapped into his inner chick and turned the other cheek.

MOE: Oooooh, another one: Jonathan Alter thinks she should get out because she will only survive if Obama does something completely retarded and that would be bad for everyone anyway.

MEGAN: Oh, ok, so, she should drop out because Obama fucking up and making himself unelectable is a possibility only if she stays in? I fail to see the logic there.
But it's good to know that political columnists can find 10 ways to say the same thing and get paid! That, like, totally bodes well for my employability.

That's the out-and-out porniest shot I found in SI. It doesn't appear to be on the website. Still...tame, right? Or is that just conditioning?

Ah, Lilo.

This is Formula 1 driver Danica Patrick. I just stuck her in because I was fucking impressed that someone who wears one of those suits to work would bother to have such a flawless body. I mean, I understand — laxatives, Master Cleanse, photoshop — still. She tells the magazine she drives commando and that she'd never pose nude. Is there a difference?

I found this in SI, too. Thanks for reminding me I'm straight, guys!

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Lindsay As Marilyn [New York Magazine]

Earlier: Nipple Alert!

"You think this will be so glamorous," she sighs. "You have the idea in your mind and then you get there and the people in the hotel ..." She grimaces and gestures hugely in the hip area. "There were lots of people who were so fat and like that."

"They are," Roitfeld says of her family, "why I am so down-to-earth. They keep me very ground."

The Anti Anna [New York Magazine]