The NY Post's primer for fall fashion magazine madness

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Sadly, the end of summer always means saying goodbye to carefree days of beaching, bbq-ing, and spotting bare chested men jogging around the city (at least if you live in New York City). But, thankfully, it also heralds the arrival of the annual cavalcade of two-inch thick fall fashion magazines. Though we wish we had the time to sprawl out on our chaise lounge with a highball full of lemonade and thumb through each and every issue that made eyes at us from the newsstand racks, there simply isn't enough time.

Using a scale from one to four lips, the New York Post's Maureen Callahan gives a CliffsNotes blow-by-blow of what you can't miss -- Vogue's interview with Alexander McQueen (above with Janet Jackson) "with five pages of looks from his new collection inspired by the super-knotty 16th century elm tree on his property and Elle's fashionable threesome featuring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale from the High School Musical series -- and what you should skip -- Callahan says "the styling and photos in [InStyle's] features, including the Uma Thurman story, are a bore" and she isn't "a fan of the lingering Olsen-twin bag-lady eclecticism" found in this issue of Elle.

Does Callahan get everything right? Of course not -- she finds the stunning W shoot with former Out cover girl Tilda Swinton "arty" and "weird." We disagree! But for those of us with not nearly enough time on our hands to make it through the combined 3,420 pages awaiting us if we were to buy all six issues, her handy two-page primer delivers a surefire head start to cure the end of the summer blues with a little -- or a lot of -- fall fashion.

-- NOAH MICHELSON