And we’re back early! I went to Berlin last week for a friend’s wedding, and I came away in a state of perplexion about the local devotion to full-sleeve single-leg tattoos over there. The protected bike lanes were AWESOME though, as was the Tyler Mitchell show at C/O Berlin if you happen to be in town!

I wanted to save this thought spiral for next week but figured it’d be more interesting to discuss now as we observe the fall magazine cover roll-out, which begs a certain question: What’s the upper limit on cover stars?

Just this week, I’ve counted two (Chloë Sevigny and Usher) for The Cut’s splashy big stand-alone print issue (which I will note is leagues ahead design-wise compared to their previous double issues that came on the back of the usual New York mag); two (Marc Jacobs and Rosalía) for Willa Bennett’s swan song at Highsnobriety; three for W (Sabrina Carpenter, Zoë Kravitz, Hunter Schafer); four (Travis Scott, Grace Coddington, Adria Arjona, and Rachel Sennott) for CULTURED mag (*where disclaimer, I’m doing a new monthly column); at least two (including Madeline Argy, plus ummm watch this space) for THE FACE; and at least two for Paper (Doechii and The Dare, in some kind of 40th anniversary fold-out zine, in addition to Xtina for the normal issue?).

This is all on top of Vogue cramming all those uncanny iterations of Blake Lively with Wolverine down our faces for September, and GQ putting both George and Brad (which at least made sense as a combo) on theirs (with GQ you also have to sort of not really keep track of whatever those “hype” covers are?? Are they just digital covers? Just say they are digital covers, guys). None of these tactics are new, but this season’s crop indicate an obvious general inflation on the real estate value of a magazine cover. Which makes sense: digital outlets don’t even have to pretend to deal with spatial scarcity, and everyone’s pretty much competing with Skims campaigns anyway. Also, celebs really don’t have to deal with traditional media at all if they don’t feel like it anymore, so I’m sure very few A- and B+listers are rolling out of bed for anything less than a cover, even if it’s digital.

I don’t think ~more covers all the time~ is necessarily bad. The lifespan of a single static image on the internet is probably 0.005 seconds; at this point you’ve got to keep surprising people with something fresh to flick eyeballs at and probably can’t assume most readers have even seen a measly single cover (Can you even recall who Interview, Vanity Fair, or ELLE had this month? No? Is it because they all chose to stick with one?). Still, one imagines how insanely competitive (and cannibalistic?) the mandate is now for a modern magazine to try to meet the demand for producing an infinite amount of instantly iconic images. (And that’s without using generative AI….right? right??) But if everything must needs become a Moment, what actually breaks through? Seems that we’re just living in a state of Constant Launch now. Generate hype or die!!!

BTW: Classified ads will be running again in Deez Links for $200 apiece. Get in touch if you want in!