Mad Sexy

In late April when I was in New York City with my girfriend Lucie, my feet ailing from a broken shoe and miles of walking in it, we stopped for relief at a drugstore and there I saw...the May 2011 issue of W magazine featuring a stunning Ms. January Jones on the cover. W is a fashion mag that I used to subscribe to in high school, ridiculously and incomprehensibly (someone must have told me it was cool), as the magazine and its articles and all-around inspiration usually disappoints me. However, Ms. Jones never does (correction: her appearance never does; her Mad Men character, Betty Draper - now Betty Francis - went from profoundly sad to profoundly bitchy somewhere in season 2, which sucks, but anyway). I love these photos because it exemplifies the undeniable truth about her beauty: that it needs no color - she can be outfitted simply in black, and those burning cornflower blue eyes, creamy white skin and pale blonde hair do all the illustrating. Not to mention her enviable and worshippable body, which, like her face, always looks effortless, as if a creature that dream-like simply exists.

Of course, I identify more with Christina Hendricks's brand of beauty and sex appeal, all ample curves and redheaded ferocity (plus Joan Holloway is SO much cooler than Betty), but it's nice to recognize aesthetic perfection when you see it... and here it is.

all photos = my scans. and for the record, I am posting only as an attempt to distract myself from the painful truth that Amy Winehouse died yesterday, at 27 years of age, eerily like so many other great artists I admire. So forlorn about this.