Fashion & Beauty

Fall Girls

ELLE

Pages: 606

(53 more than last year)

Price: $4.99

Hits: Katy Perry on the cover: Go on with your candy queen self. Love her and everything about this cover, including the Jesus tattoo. Creative Director Joe Zee’s lively A to Zee guide to fall trends, plus the always excellent First Look Trends section inspired by fairy tales. You’ll look like you’re at the court of Versailles. In their Elle Shops merchandise section, there’s plenty of guidance on more accessible trends like minimalism, leather and textures, though not as clear or comprehensive as usual. The Body of Work story offers edgy tailored looks for the office and the Youth in Revolt shoot works the crazy prints and platforms of the season. Nice to see model Frankie Rayder in fall’s new basics. Cool to have a shoot with the stars of “Bachelorette,” this year’s darker “Bridesmaids.”

Misses: Glossed over all the essays upfront; the one on clownsuit-size pants was funny, though. Shame there weren’t more photos of Ms. Perry.

PHOTOS: SEPTEMBER’S FALL FASHION MAGAZINES

News You Can Use: Insider piece on a new stealth boutique called Fivestory tucked away on the Upper East Side. Can’t miss the on-point Elle 25, everything you need to know to sound culturally savvy till the end of the year. Some interesting nonfashion reads: psychology piece on erasing traumatic memories; and an interview with Naomi Wolf about her new book. Sophistication meets style.

InStyle

Pages: 652 (16 more than last year)

Price: $4.99

Hits: Jennifer Lopez on the cover. Boring, but no matter, inside Jen answers readers’ questions. And there’s a reason this mag is dominating on newsstands with its formula: clearly presented trend information, solid how-to advice aplenty, accessible and price-point friendly fashion. Plus, Kristen Wiig on Opening Ceremony! Tom Ford on What I Learned From the Movies! Katie Couric models her Fall Musts! Julia Roberts’ beauty regimen! Plus, a shoot with all the old Bond Girls. Fun! In the comprehensive Clothes We Love runway trend section, the pictures are big enough to really see the detail — nice.

Misses: Can’t knock much, but the fashion shoots on young actresses are underwhelming. Why Chloe Moretz flew all the way to French Polynesia to do a beauty story with François Nars is unclear, but it’s pretty.

News You Can Use: Front to back. You can shop off these pages. 50 Under $150. How To Do Equestrian, Burgundy or the Varsity Jacket, How To Do Fall’s Shoe Styles. The Look section has a refreshing guide to 33 ways to go casual cool. Instant Style pages are focused on function, such as clothes for job interviews. 10 Ways to Style Hair Quickly. Yes, please. A Do They Really Work beauty product story. 10 Ways to Make Your Home Office Stylish. Great bag section and great boot section. What else do you need?

Marie Claire

Pages: 382 (54 more than last year)

Price: $3.99

Hits: Miley Cyrus on the cover, looking shiny and pretty. New emphasis on fashion with the editors on “Project Runway,” and the mag is on fire right now on the newsstand. But the old MC is still here: good Q&A with Naomi Wolf on “Vagina: A New Biography,” interviews with an Israeli girl in the army, a female Bain consultant, and girls who have been sex slaves in America. But fashion lovers can rejoice. Great pages devoted to sober and stylish fashion choices, the only mag to do a sweater trend call-out. Nice fashion shoots, among them ornamentation, tailored work wear and medieval themes. Shop the Shoot pages give you cheaper options for the designer trends.

Misses: A little early for a fur story?

News You Can Use: Nice kickoff with clear upfront trend pages, Instant classics and 50 Star Pieces for Fall. Nina Garcia’s excellent 30-page 101 Ideas, which includes a “Project Runway” guide to New York. Beauty pages include a piece on repairs for damaged skin and what products to buy for your hair type and cool health reads.

Harper’s Bazaar

Pages: 550 (40 more than

last year)

Price: $4.99

Hits: Gwen Stefani on the cover. Wish we saw more of her. How much do I love the layout of this magazine! And if you like your stuff crisp, clean, chic, the shopping pages upfront are for you — and you won’t look like you’ve run off to join the circus in the clothes. It’s a fat one, too — the biggest in the mag’s 145-year history. Upfront: a piece about looking better at 45 than at 25, Carine Roitfeld’s new line for MAC; weight loss supplements, Karl Lagerfeld on Antonio Lopez; Vanessa Paradis, post-Depp breakup. The fashion shoots are striking — I can see the clothes, and they are edited to the wearable. Among them: Where the Wild Things Are; Chic in the Street; Miranda Kerr in just boots! Gorgeous shoot with Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey.” Hilarious interview with Karl about his tweeting cat, Choupette (she’s a gas!)

Misses: Styling in New Hue and Clothes Horse is boring, the pitfall of the magazine’s keep-it-accessible aesthetic. Gwen’s story layout is a little cartoonish. Love Karl, but Karl, Karl everywhere.

News You Can Use: Lots. Great shopping pages, particularly The Style, and The Look, and The Extras — I only wish there were more of them — great wearable fashion basics. A leather pants test-drive, yay!

W

Pages: 412 (same as last year)

Price: $4.99

Hits: Penelope Cruz on the cover, naturally beautiful and bejeweled. Love the bite-size photo-heavy front section celebrating the mag’s 40th year, fall’s runway moments and influential illustrator Antonio Lopez. Appealing upfront accessory and must-have pages. Cool journalism on a fashion school in Saudi Arabia (where they can’t wear the clothes in public). Interesting insight on Karl Lagerfeld from the women who work with him. Awesome warrior queen fashion story, Dame of Thrones, on model Kristen McMenamy; super supe Linda Evangelista in a tongue-in-cheek superhero story. Can’t wear any of this, but fun to look at.

Misses: No clothes in the Penelope Cruz photos, though there’s a styling credit. The fantastical fairy-tale-themed fashion stories, like Spellbound, are overly obscure. The pictures are cool, but you can’t see any clothes. This is a fashion magazine, right? Linda in a cartoon boob suit.

News You Can Use: Original bits and pieces on Belstaff opening this month on Madison Avenue, Anna Dello Russo’s collection for H&M and the Diana Vreeland documentary.

Lucky

Pages: 238 (36 less than last year)

Price: $3.99

Hits: Eva Longoria on the cover: Why? Well, still not sure. Among her favorite things, she reads nonfiction on vacation, but she’s going to read “50 Shades of Grey,” too, because she met the author on “The View.” Sure, Eva. An oral history on the 30th anniversary of the Guess Girl is cute, though I don’t know what it’s doing in here.

Misses: The styling here is just not what it used to be. Nor is the service journalism. Even their signature City Guide is gone; instead there are four cities through the eyes of fashion insiders. The Free Range story trumpets bold colors and wild patterns, but turn the page and the outfit is a plain blazer, pants and a white shirt.

News You Can Use: The fall shoe guide is OK, but the pictures are too small: I can’t tell the difference between a $159 boot and a $1,059 boot. Style Spy has some good items under $50. Oh, and there was a cool lip gloss from Givenchy.

People Stylewatch

Pages: 322 (26 more than last year)

Price: $3.99

Hits: Emma Stone on the cover again (same as last year), but love her and all her looks. This magazine really rules the under $100 category. And it does get-the-celebrity-look so well. Stories such as What Works at Work, Five Universally Flattering Pieces and Find Your Perfect Sheath Dress are all working it out for the working girl too often ignored in fashion books. Clarity here: from Five Fall Beauty Trends to 10 Fall Must-Haves, which distills the season down to trends you can understand such as hunter green, military, brocade and voluminous coats. Favorite story of the issue: a toss-up between Shop Your Style, updating your style with a current trend, and 13 Quick and Easy Styling Tricks, for ideas to mix up what you own.

Misses: The 10 best booties is uncharacteristically meh. What Kind of Shopper Are You? Don’t care.

News You Can Use: They have the first looks at all the masstige (mass prestige) and fast fashion lines of the month: Nicole Richie for Macy’s, Kirna Zabete for Target, Rachel Zoe’s new jewelry line. How to save big, how to care for fabrics and a guide to belts? Bring it on!

Vogue

Pages: 916 (158 more than last year!)

Price: $5.99

Hits: Will batting 1.000 be next? Biggest issue in the magazine’s 120-year history, so lots and lots of ads to look at. Inside photos of Lady Gaga are girly and gorgeous, on the occasion of her new perfume. Highbrow reads on a New York ’80s socialite, Giacometti, and losing one’s beloved dog. A first look at Prada’s costumes for “The Great Gatsby.” Several great picture sections marking the mag’s 120th anniversary, including one about models, a terrific one on designers and a new book about Vogue editors. Beautiful layered texture and embellishment story on Stella Tennant in Peru (left). These people know how to style a tricky trend. Ditto on the Bauhaus trend and the futuristic take on the military/equestrian. Blame “Downton Abbey” for the Edith Wharton story shot on her estate, but aptly illustrates the feeling the mag is a bit above it all, in its own world. That said, an interview with the controversially employed Chelsea Clinton with stunning pictures keeps the book rooted in a topical reality.

Misses: The cover shot? Weird. And strangely, in 916 pages, not a lot in the way of merchandise to buy, besides the fab David Sims shoot: Her Brilliant Career. Cool It girls’ picks in the Index, though the stuff itself is boring.

News You Can Use: A new night collection from Carolina Herrera, Balmain’s first handbag and J.W. Anderson’s new line for Topshop. A nice looking, digestible beauty section, including a condition affecting face recognition and fall’s edgy beauty look.