New York Times, Monday, September 6, 2021

Publishing my first puzzle in the NYT is a real pinch-me moment! I've been puzzling my whole life, but I only really got into crossword puzzles during medical school. I started constructing after the pandemic hit while I was completing my fellowship in Infectious Diseases. I currently live with my partner in NYC, where I recently started my first job out of training.

The theme for this puzzle came to me while watching The September Issue, the not-to-be-missed 2009 documentary about the making of Vogue. This puzzle was the first one I submitted, and not surprisingly, it has since gone through many iterations. A huge thank you to Joel for his help reworking the grid, and to the editing team for making some of the clues more Monday-friendly.

I was flummoxed on two levels today — not surprising given that my wardrobe, largely consists of t-shirts older than me, is certainly not IN VOGUE. Here's the intended sequence of revelations:

STEP 1. Enter the theme people. Not at all simple for me. Things started out well when I recognized CHLOE ZHAO, the recent Best Director Oscar winner. CELINE DION, yes!

CHANEL IMAN … I wavered, wondering if that was IMAN's full name? No, it turns out that they're two different people.

GUCCI MANE? I know old school rappers, but I lost touch in 1990 or so. The crossings were fair, though.

STEP 2. Read IN VOGUE's clue, indicating that the first name of these people is likely to be in VOGUE, the fashion magazine.

STEP 3. Ask my wife to explain.

STEP 3.5. Assist wife in dislodging eyeballs from rolled-up position.

STEP 4. Realize that those four first names are fashion brands. CHANEL and GUCCI, sure. I wondered, is CELINE Celine Dion's fashion brand? Confusingly (to those of us with zero fashion sense), no.

Although I found it a tough, multi-layered theme to grasp, I appreciated that it was different than what we usually see in the NYT crossword.

The tough grid accentuated the challenging nature of the theme, elements like WEI, KUGEL, AGGRO, RIATA slowing me down. Along with the confusion of wondering how PRISCILLA fit into the theme, this might have been my slowest Monday solve in years.

Although I wouldn't give this one to novice crossword friends, it's bold to do something so cutting edge. Appropriately iconoclastic, given that so much of fashion is daring to make a statement that will generate discussion.