A Grab Bag of Fashion News IT'S cruel April indeed. Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have reportedly hooked up. That bombshell may finally ignite Mr. West's fashion career, though it means the rest of us will have to hear from him what a design innovator he is and why he doesn't get enough respect, as I heard myself one evening last fall in Paris. The Kardashian-West date supplied the gaudy trim to a strange bag of fashion news, including H & M's plan to jump into the luxury arena with a chain of shops obliquely called & Other Stories, more pert dolly substitutes for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (thanks to Madame Tussaud's and Mattel) and American Apparel's indefensibly creepy ads. Also, Tom Ford's plan to open an outlet at Woodbury Common, another embarrassing fashion sidebar on "Morning Joe" and an Internet roar caused by Samantha Brick's Mail Online column, in which she attempted to stick it to jealous girls everywhere and then savored the negative response even as she claimed to be surprised and stung by it. Of course, she writes her columns to provoke. She's simply winding people up. In a piece last year, Ms. Brick wrote that she learned early in her career to "clock within seconds who the important male was in any room and pander to him accordingly." She boasts that she has a wardrobe that Carrie Bradshaw would envy, as if this were a real achievement. (Somehow, these admissions make me think of the Doris Day movies running this week on TCM, although I think her characters didn't feel the need to announce their cunning. They didn't share everything.) And in her latest column Ms. Brick says that women don't like her because she's good looking. I thought the column was a hoax. It read like one, anyway. It's hard to stomach people talking talk about themselves, or boldly failing to resist the self back pat (a habit of Joe Scarborough). Pretension takes pluck, to quote Alan Bennett, but the levels now feel almost toxic. Melissa Kite, in Friday's Mail Online, asked, "What's eating us?" To her, the interesting thing about the Brick flap was that it gave a glimpse "into how angry people are right now." On one news-media site, people expressed glee that Mr. Ford was opening an outlet, as though it were a sign of failure. But many luxury brands, including Prada and Bottega Veneta, are at Woodbury. For all the fashion judgments being offered today, for all the avatars, there is actually a narrowing of informed opinion. And that is cringe-making. I happened to catch the "Morning Joe" episode in which Mike Barnicle was taken to task for wearing a sports top. I saw a replay of this week's show with Donny Deutsch, who was mildly chided for his dapper blazer and half-moon glasses. Although Mr. Barnicle should have worn his usual blazer, the fuss made about his too-casual attire was worse. As for Mr. Deutsch, he looked just fine. Never complain, never explain - it's a good style point to remember. Please, don't share.