(Courtesy of TheGlamourai.com)

Just dropping E.S. readers a note that we’re taking a mini-vacation starting tomorrow, but we’ll be back with all-new blog content on Wednesday, September 8.

In the meantime, here are some ways to say goodbye to summer and celebrate the beginning of fall:

• Thumb through every single page of ad and editorial content in the 726-page September issue of Vogue, featuring the first cover model of color in 20 years. Spend the rest of the weekend trying to copy Halle Berry’s perfect smoky eye.
• Purge your closet and take your rejects into the thrift or consignment store. Come home with a few new seasonal staples.
• Wash and pack away your summer clothing, but follow these tips to ensure safe storage of your favorite sundresses and summer-weight cashmere.
• Tackle a fun but time-consuming DIY project. Need inspiration? Check our archives.
• Forget outdated style rules, like the one that forbids the wearing of white after Labor Day. Hasn’t anyone heard of  ”winter white”? Come on!

(Courtesy of Harper's Bazaar U.K.)

Interesting data analysis of the makeup of models and celebrities on the September covers of the 29 mainstream fashion magazines currently on newsstands, courtesy of Jezebel.com:

Number of people on all the covers of these magazines: 48 (including six people with covers of LOVE, not pictured)
Number of covers featuring Gisele Bündchen: 2 (counting one cover of LOVE, not pictured)
Number of covers featuring Naomi Campbell: 2
Number of covers featuring Kate Moss: 2
Number of covers featuring Lady Gaga: 2
Number of covers featuring one or more people of color: 6
Total number of people of color on all of these magazines: 12
12 out of 48 makes: 25%

The data also shows that of the 48, ten of the cover girls (women?) are over 40 and the oldest star in the glossies is Lauren Hutton at age 66. Dakota Fanning, at 16, is the youngest. And there is only one man: Tom Cruise, on Harper’s Bazaar Japan. And as previously noted, this is the first time in 21 years that a black woman — Halle Berry, in this instance — scored the September cover of American Vogue.

So while there isn’t a ton of gender or racial diversity (and regrettably, zero plus-size models or celebrities made a cover this month), at least there’s some variety this year as compared to Septembers past. Progress is slow but it’s a-coming.

(Courtesy of Glamour.com)

I know I’m not the only one who delighted in DIY fashion starting around junior high.

Bedazzled cut-offs, Fimo necklaces, friendship bracelets, taking Sharpies to our Chuck Taylors — every summer and winter break, my friends and I were all over craft projects to customize our style. (Sometimes I still find glitter embedded in my parents’ living-room carpet.)

Now Seventeen magazine has an online DIY fashion feature to help tweens and teens make their own clutches, fringe-accented tanks, and beaded headbands à la Taylor Swift. It’s enough to make me wish we had the Internet when I was wee.

You have to love that the projects are age-appropriate and easy to follow, tapping into the creative spirit that surges during adolescence.

And I will even admit that the results look way better than my Puffy Paint jobs of yore.

(Courtesy of Vogue.com)

If you’ve ever watched the documentary The September Issue, you know just how important the fall fashion is at Vogue headquarters — and by extension, for fashion followers around the world.

So with Halle Berry gracing the cover of the biggest issue of the year, it’s somewhat mystifying why it’s been 21 years since a black woman had the honor. Naomi Campbell appeared on it in 1989, and since then? Nada.

Really, Vogue? No Beyoncé, no Rihanna, no Liya Kebede, not even Michelle Obama had the opportunity in the ’00s? Or going back into the ’90s: Tyra Banks, Alek Wek, and Ms. Berry herself, all blacklisted, as it were?

Speaking of Halle, even she acknowledged in the interview that it was long overdue:

The only reason she is submitting now, she says, is that Vogue made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: the September cover. ”What that means for a woman of color and what that means in the fashion world, what that means to pop culture, there was no way I could say, ‘No, I’m not going to be on the biggest issue of the year.’”

There’s no good reason for such a long drought, and with so many accomplished black women working in Hollywood and the fashion industry today, it would be shameful if we have to wait until 2030 for the next September cover girl of color to appear on the newsstands.

(via The Cut)

With the arrival of the phonebook-sized September issues of our favorite magazines, the fall fashion bug has officially bitten.

And after perusing the F/W 2010 lookbook posted by The Battalion Eco Couture on Facebook, we can’t wait to bust out the label’s take on the cozy layers, leggings, and luxe fur trims that are so in style.

Our favorite looks include this dolman-sleeved sweater over leggings and industrial boots, as well as a fur vest over an embellished tee with riding pants and wedges. (The Battalion uses “veggie fur,” but it reminds us of this vintage-inspired getup worn by Emma Watson in her boyfriend’s music video.)

Ever since discovering The Battalion last year, we’ve been continually impressed with how designers Chrys and Linda Wong seamlessly blend style and eco-sensibility in their collections, which focus on organic textiles and expert tailoring.

The designs are urban, not hippie, and we count them as a must-buy for the discerning shopper who wants to do good while staying on-trend.

A reader took us to task this week for blaming photographer Nicholas Routzen for Crystal Renn’s strangely thin physique in the new Passion for Fashion ads.

A few days after the brouhaha broke out, Mr. Routzen took to his blog to defend himself from the photoshop-happy criticism. He writes:

Below are 6 untouched images of Crystal moving around, shifting hips, working chin angles, etc.

It’s important to note that, if you watch her thigh, closest to the left side of the screen, as it shifts from a vertical position to a downward – there is a drastic change in body size. This is one of the most basic lessons, when studying either photography or film: lower angles give you a wider subject and the closest thing to the lens will look the largest. As I said in a previous interview, this series that I shot with Crystal was done from a higher angle and with a wider lens. …

I want to reiterate that I feel Crystal looks amazing in both images and the minimal retouching that I did do — it’s nothing you wouldn’t see in any magazine today. There is nothing hidden about this.

In our opinion, he lets himself off the hook a bit with the last part, about airbrushing being standard in magazines.

But what do you think, E.S. readers? Is Mr. Routzen’s evidence compelling to you?

Can’t photo editors leave Crystal Renn alone?

As you can see in this unedited photo, there is nothing wrong with the model-of-the-moment’s body. Ms. Renn is now a size 10 but in her own words, she’s far healthier than she was in her anorexic days. And she’s getting more work than she knows what to do with.

Big-name labels aren’t hiring her despite her curves, but because of them. So why would photographer Nicholas Routzen make the editorial decision to digitally shave several dress sizes off her frame for the Passion for Fashion charity campaign?

Ms. Renn herself has no idea, as she tells Glamour of her reaction to seeing the finished product:

I was shocked. When I saw the pictures, I think I was silent for a good five minutes, staring with my mouth open. I don’t know what was done to those photos or who did it, but they look retouched to me. And listen, everybody retouches, but don’t make me into something I’m not. …

But in the new pictures…well, that body doesn’t look like my body. It doesn’t. Having had an eating disorder, I know what that very thin body looks like on me, and it’s not something I find attractive. It’s not something I aspire to.

I feel completely confident in my own health because I know I don’t look like that, but even to see it in an image was really disturbing to me.

(Photo comparison courtesy of The Cut)

We love Christina Hendricks for so many reasons, but now we have a new one: She has enough body confidence that she doesn’t let the fashion critics get her down with insensitive, body-shaming comments.

The 35-year-old star of Mad Men tells the July/August issue of Health magazine:

“I made the grave mistake after one awards show of reading comments online about what I wore, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, people are so mean!’” Hendricks reveals. “I still remember all those negative comments, despite all the wonderful positivity. That’s why we’re all in therapy!”

Because of the criticism, the newlywed admits she’s surprised to learn she’s often cited as one of the most desirable bodies in Hollywood.

“Really? They dont say Jessica Alba? ‘Cause that’s what I say!” she laughs. “It’s such a compliment, because of all those times I had agents who were like, “You have to lose some weight,” and all of a sudden, people are celebrating it.”

We understand why she doesn’t read blog comments about her looks anymore, but we hope she wouldn’t mind ours. We are big fans of any intelligent, confident actress who is willing to stand up and say she’s healthy and proud of her body, damn the torpedoes.

Fashion photographer Terry Richardson was accused of sexual harassment by a number of models earlier this year, but that didn’t stop Vogue’s creative staff from hiring him to shoot a fashion spread starring a half-naked Doutzen Kroes modeling swimwear in the June issue.

Even worse, the top brass at Condé Nast knew about the allegations; CEO Charles Townsend reportedly said in March he was “appalled” at the evidence against Richardson, yet he was hired for the June issue anyway.

What’s the deal, Vogue? Is this another example of Roman Polanski-style blanket forgiveness because the man accused is an artist? Because quite honestly, Doutzen Kroes is more of a draw than Richardson at this point. Deciding to put a supermodel of her popularity in what they knew to be a potentially dangerous situation could come back to haunt the editorial board, and what’s the justification for that?

(via Jezebel)

We squealed with delight when we saw how lovely model Liya Kebede looks in the June issue of Vogue – not just because everything in her ensemble is eco.

She is seen here wearing a dress of her own design that was crafted by a fair-trade cooperative in her native Ethiopia, and flats by E.S. fan favorite Olsen Haus. Of trying her hand at design and her seamstresses in Addis Ababa, she says:

“We’re employing them so they can be self-sufficient, so they can send their children to school or rise from poverty,” says Kebede, whose namesake foundation promotes maternal health in developing countries, especially in Africa. “It’s always better to teach people to sustain themselves.”

Keep the conscious fashion coming, Vogue!