Even Models Are 50% off

And then, they came for the models, and there was no one left to speak.

It might to hard to muster up much sympathy for struggling models who are forced to accept bookings for half off this Fashion Week, but I'm not being facetious when I say my heart goes out to them. Anyone who's ever seen a group of aspiring models crowding into the subway, stoop-shouldered under the weight of their portfolios has to feel a little bad.

They're sort of like ballerinas when you see them en masse: Beautiful in an alien kind of way, but definitely not of this world, nor precisely attractive in a conventional sense. Well, OK, some of them are, but more than anything, models have a look: tallish, skeletally gaunt, large-eyed like dolls. The impression you get from them is that they're working hard, even when they're not doing anything. And it seems sort of mean to take food out of the mouths of the already under-nourished.

Models also aren't terrifically well-paid. The era of the Super Model is largely over, and very few of the girls you see on the runway at Bryant Park make much more than a hundred bucks or a free dress - which, as Jezebel's Tatiana the Anonymous Model points out, isn't exactly free, since they, you know, work for it.

Even if you can't summon up a proper boo-hoo, keep this in mind: this sort of thing, along with canceled shows, is one of the industry's primary economic indicators. Scary news for all us all.