“J.Crew employees reveal themselves by the nakedness of their ankles. It’s as if the company’s uniform, ambiently dictated by Lyons, is enforced only from the knees down.”

How the author of Friday Night Lights spent more than half a million dollars over three years on “eighty-one leather jackets, seventy-five pairs of boots, forty-one pairs of leather pants, thirty-two pairs of haute couture jeans, ten evening jackets, and 115 pairs of leather gloves.”

The history of blue jeans, “America’s greatest contribution to the global closet.”

A profile of photographer Richard Avedon from early in his career.

A profile of Kermit Oliver, a reclusive, critically acclaimed artist who designs scarves for Hermès and works nights at the Waco post office.

Fame, fashion, and a trip to the zoo.

A profile of fashion designer Nudie Cohn, who made clothing for Elvis, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and others.

On fashion, gender, a finding oneself in a pair of drop-crotch pants.

The life of an A-list Hollywood stylist.

The unlikely story of Spanx.

A former colleague visits the ‘Fire Fiend’ in prison.

On designer Jean Paul Gaultier and his inspirations.

A profile of Andrej Pejic, a model who walks the runway in both men and women’s clothing.

For even a moderately vain female, spending time with Pejic is like losing a race to someone who’s not even running: If he were not a man, he would be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in the flesh—which, in his case, is flawless and poreless and has an English-rose luster.

A profile of Vogue Creative Director André Leon Talley.

From our guide to haute couture genius at Slate.

On Forever 21 and the rise of “fast fashion”:

They have changed fashion from a garment making to an information business, optimizing their supply chains to implement design tweaks on the fly.

The intertwining histories of two men who defined twentieth century European style.

There’s a price you have to pay for fame, and people who don’t want to pay that price can get in trouble. I accepted the idea of celebrity because of a French expression: “You cannot have the butter and the money for the butter.”

The rise, fall and stubborn survival of a teenage Internet celebrity who discovered that the real world can be a very scary place.

A profile of 14-year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson.

A profile of Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue and break-out star of The September Issue.

A profile of the (now former) director of the House of Dior, John Galliano.

A profile of of Courtney Love.

The man for whom the term “jet-setter” was coined left a bitterly fractured estate.

Christian Audigier is the man behind Von Dutch and Ed Hardy. The massive succes of his garish and expensive creations may say more about the power of celebrity than about fashion.

The number one item confiscated by U.S. customs for four years in a row: fake shoes. As brands continue to crack down, counterfeiters continue to up their game.