beautiful girls.

Byline: Anna Wintour

Every month we receive letters from readers wondering why models rarely appear on our covers. There are, needless to say, journalistic reasons-chiefly, that celebrated artists these days (actresses, usually) have a greater and more immediate appeal than models. The interesting question is, why so? It was not long ago, during the supermodel era, that Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington spoke to the public in a language of glamour that needed no translation. Each was Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston, and Nicole Kidman all rolled into one. We knew their boyfriends, their wardrobes, and even the amount of money it took to rouse them out of their beds in the morning. As Sally Singer reports, the new generation of models is a different breed of women working in very different times. They do not aspire to rule the world, or even the world's nightclubs. Nonetheless, we have devoted the cover of our biggest fashion issue ever to nine girls who represent the future of the business.

We feature such photographs very rarely, and only in order to mark what seems to us a significant cultural shift (our last was the millennium issue). What's changing now-and here, as so often, fashion is the first to register the tremors-is that our appreciation of fame is being revised. Whereas, in the past, the ascent into celebrity (indeed, notoriety) of, say, Kate Moss was a riveting and rarefied spectacle, nowadays the pursuit of stardom seems a tawdrier affair. Reality television has made it possible for practically anyone to capture mass attention overnight. This cheapening of fame-hitherto a precious commodity associated with substantial achievement or charisma-has, I think, diminished the luster of the red carpet and other forums of fabulousness. Although we will never tire of following famous women with distinctive personal style-for example, Cameron Diaz or Kirsten Dunst-I think that we're already fed up with the pseudo-fashion parades that take place at countless award shows and premieres. The effect is numbing: The personality

of both the clothes and their wearers is lost.

What's so refreshing about this month's still relatively unknown cover girls (Gi-

sele Bundchen, of course, you'll be familiar with) is that they allow us to think

creatively again about fashion and only fashion. When a model wears clothes, one is free to engage imaginatively with the looks and the narratives they suggest; when an actress wears clothes, the pleasure very often lies in thinking about her. This fall, we encourage you to think about clothes and how you will wear them: boyish tweeds, jeweled brocades, whimsical brooches, gorgeous pumps, and cocktail numbers. To organize your thoughts, we offer a cheeky ten commandments; but, ironically, if there were one rule that must be followed, it would be to ignore all directives and regulations and to ...