• by whitley , September 2, 2005

The cover shot of the fall fashion issue of New York magazine inspires everything I can't stand about fashion. There is a model in a black and white 1960s mod dress with a black S&M claw-like glove on her left hand holding a copy of "Valley of the Dolls." The angle of the photograph diminishes the model's head to the size of a large pea, and blows up her hips and legs to the size of large tree stumps wrapped in black leather. Of course, the ubiquitous Marc Jacobs, the king of infantilizing women into cute, waiflike teenage boys, is behind this statement. To the left of the model are two cover lines: "Marc Jacobs With No Secrets Left" and "The New York Look (What Stores Only Buy for Us)."

Inside the mag, we learn that peasant clothes are the new luxury and Marc Jacobs is popular in New York because he is narcissistic and lost. What happened to a New York that represents glamorous sophistication, gritty romance, constant renewal, and sexiness? The only good fashion spread is an ethereal and inspired photo essay of made-up faces called "Exotic Beauty for Humanoids" that opens with a quote from Michael Cunningham's new novel, "Specimen Days." "She might have been beautiful. Beautiful was of course an approximation. An earthy term. The nearest word in her language was 'keeram,' which more or less 'meant better than useful.'"

Ever Since Adam Moss took the reigns of New York, it has been better than useful, but I've still been disappointed. It's classier than it was as a post-feminist tabloid under Caroline Miller, but now it's just too smug and almost cliché. With the pages filled with Adrian Grenier, J Lo and P Diddy, hedge fund boys trimming hedges in the Hamptons, and big diamonds, I say New York really needs to discover a new New York.