Fugliful Stranger

I present to you the cover illustration for Madonna’s new children’s book, The Velveteen Footman:

The new gentrified Madge continues to fascinate and confuse me. She’s half-Joan Collins, half-saucy livery lad.

Although I do think this particular outfit would make the 1980s’ jelly-bracelets-and-corsets Madonna a bit less suicidal than, say, English Country Living Esther, she of the horse accident and the tweed suits and the heartwarming kiddie moralizing and the ladylike laughing while strolling her palatial, rough-hewn British back lawn. Because although Madam Ritchie is all into being Ms. Lotsa de Casha, it’s occasionally comforting to see that her lotsa de crassa side hasn’t completely died.