Andre Leon Talley

"Be kind. Smile. I read this somewhere -- if you smile, it means you are in control of your destiny. I think smiling helps people break a kind of tension. I will sit in the car on the way to a meeting and just smile. I really mean that. It helps you get through life. If you have nothing to say, smile. Look up at the sky and smile. Just be grateful. It sounds simplistic, but it's my mantra," explains Talley, editor at large at Vogue, to Media Bistro on his everyday motto.

Hockey Players as Fashionist...OOHs?!

Turns out the most hated hockey player, Sean Avery of the Rangers, will be interning for Vogue this summer. Avery's $2 million contract with the hockey team actually allows him to get the summers off, so the 28 year old can pursue his leisurely interests.

Good thing Anna Wintour accepted him after he sent her a letter asking for the internship, otherwise he would probably have to duke it out with someone in the Vogue accessories closet for their slot.

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covers of magazines... airbrushed?!

Really... like we didn't know that every single magazine in the world was properly airbrushed or digitally altered... but I guess it's all the young impressionable minds that don't know.

According to WWD, The British Fashion Council says that airbrushing "images play in perpetuating an "unachievable aesthetic," digitally enhanced images." They started to question this in December. The Periodical Publishers Association is going to have a meeting with BFC to work on the issue, but no date has been set in stone yet. "No guidelines have been drawn up governing the magazines' use of airbrushing... rather than limiting magazines' use of digital manipulation, publications could instead be asked to declare if an image had been altered... [by] declar[ing] if an image had been altered."

BFC already had a Model Health Inquiry during fashion week last season, when a model died from starving herself. Is it going to make a difference? Maybe... but even photos on Myspace are altered to look better in order to get more hits and "friends" on their list. Do people just need to be reminded of that? Even the cover of British Vogue this month (above) has Victoria Beckham that has had plastic surgery to enhance her looks. The rest of the celebrity machine does it too... some just hide it better than others.

So, does it matter? Or does the world want to see what it looks like to be flawless, even though there's digital altering?

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