VIRGINIA POSTREL PRAISES SHOPPING MAGAZINES:

For all their blatant materialism, however, Lucky and its kin actually represent cultural progress. Their unabashed presentation of goods as material pleasures keeps materialism in its place. They don’t encourage readers to equate fashion with virtue or style with superiority. They’re sharing fun, not rationing status. . . . Reading Vogue or, worse, Harper’s Bazaar often feels, by contrast, like returning to the vicious status competition of middle school. Would-be authorities arbitrarily proclaim what–and, by implication, who–is in or out. “You are only as good as your last jacket,” explains an author in the August edition of Bazaar, telling readers how to dress for other women.

Interesting take.