From our Fashion & Style Desk (slogan: “Got Mirror?”)

The Cut, New York magazine’s fashion blog (hat tip to the Missus), informs us that “Levi’s Attempts Convict-Chic,” which is to say that the jeansmaker’s 2009 Vintage collection (Lookbook here) is “inspired by prison.” (Presumably they’ll all be getting jailhouse tats at Levi’s Central sometime soon.)

The Cut reports:

Apparently, in the twenties and thirties, between eras of black-and-white stripes and orange jumpsuits, convicts wore denim. Uniforms included overalls, white vests, T-shirts, sack coats, and chambray shirts. So timing-wise, if we’re in the worst economic downturn since the Depression, bringing prison denim back makes perfect sense.

Yeah – makes perfect sense if you’re part of the PoMo Irony Brigade that also brought us Heroin Chic and Homeless Chic.

To be fair, The Cut does arrive at this conclusion:

Except it might not be (and maybe this is just us) the best way to sell jeans. Levi’s makes some cute stuff that’s affordable and of good quality. But this silly idea may just ruin the clothes for us.

But not for everyone, we’re guessing.

Also from The Cut: “Barneys Removes Bloody Mannequins from Windows.”

This week, Barneys unveiled windows of bloodied mannequins. The idea was probably to showcase clothes that shoppers would want to be caught dead in, as the saying goes.

This fashion victim, however, pleaded mitigating circumstances: “the displays . . . looked not onto the street but the vestibule.” Regardless, Barneys creative director Simon Doonan, who says he was out of town when the displays were installed, had them removed “after reporters called to ask him about them.”

As for The Cut, this time it’s foursquare behind murder and mayhem:

After all, we see more appalling things just walking around New York every day. Like window displays in sex shops, piles of garbage that are bigger than our entire apartment, random dudes shamelessly ogling the breasts of strangers, and toe rings (why?). Some red paint splatters on a vestibule window? That’s nothing.

That’s nothing?

That’s something, as the saying goes.