Maureen Dowd‘s burqua notwithstanding, no one has ever accused the New York Times op-ed page of being either fashion-conscious or fashionable. But today’s top piece, correlating the appearance of platform shoes for women with economic distress is kind of fashion-clueless. “Economic distress causes distinctions between male and female dress to widen among the fashion-conscious,” the paper informs us, showing platforms from the Depression, World War II, 1974 and now in support of a claim that women don platforms to lift their moods. Have they never heard of The New York Dolls (shown circa 1974, above)?