When Marc Jacobs somehow convinced Victoria Beckham to pose spread-eagle in an MJ shopping bag for his spring ad campaign (her head nowhere to be seen) we thought it was pure genius. Just imagine the scene as Posh Spice endured hours of hair and makeup, only to get on set and realize that for the most memorable shot only her skinny little legs would be shown. Well today fashion critic Cathy Horyn, usually a prickly sort, is also lauding the images, which were shot by indy fashion photographer Juergen Teller. But how did Teller bag Becks? Flattery, naturally.

The arty shutterbug told Posh, "You're the most photographed woman in the world ... fashion nowadays is about product ... and you're kind of a product yourself, aren't you?" Victoria apparently concurred, enduring the headless shot as well as one in which her head pops out of the bag and she resembles one of Anne Geddes's creepy babies emerging from a plant pot. In other words, awesome.

The skeptics out there might be wondering what the hell a fashion ad with no clothes in it has to do with fashion, but thankfully Horyn gets shmancy art dealer Barbara Gladstone to explain: "The ads are really for people who get it, and I think Marc and Juergen happily dispense with those who don't."

In other words, as Horyn puts it, "Buying something from Marc Jacobs is like joining a club." If you're dumb enough to think the ads have to be beautiful well, you're just wrapped up in "banality" and to hell with you.