Model as Muse: Did Joe Zee give a fresh twist to this piece of non-news?

My August Elle finally arrived over the weekend. I was so excited that I probably would have hugged the mailman had he been there. Explanation: I finished reading and admiring the July issues of all my mags so long ago (they only last so long when I read them on the stationary bike for 30 minutes every other day, and that's not even factoring in leisure reading) that I've made a significant dent in my novel du jour.

Anyway, I'm the kind of OCD that has to read things in order, front-to-back, left-to-right. That's just the way it goes (everything from the the Sunday funnies to my Elle subscription to, well, everything else). I flipped through the ads, making mental notes as to which ones I'd go back to later, admired the masthead, table of contents and all the other beginning-of-the-magazine offerings when I got to Elle's Style A to Zee. Ahh, the tip of the iceberg. Reading a copy of Elle is practically a religious experience for me. I got comfortable and began to absorb some of the best fashion journalism magazines have to offer.

For August Joe Zee chose to write about models as designer muses. Instead of having his article read like every other model-as-muse piece out there, he found a really appealing angle. I found myself looking at the polaroids alongside his story for the better part of 45 minutes. I don't want to ruin the article for anyone yet to crack their copy; all I can say is don't let the first paragraph let you stop reading, he has a point. It's fresh and exciting, like a 'Street Chic' update on the Elle News Blog crossed with a go-see.

Here are a few models who double as muses. Better yet, they're wearing a design by the designer they inspire!

Chanel Iman (Phillip Lim)
Lily Donaldson (Alber Elbaz)
Coco Rocha (Jean Paul Gautier)