How to Spend it works on the distinctly British (or at least specifically not early 21st century American) virtue of conspicuous consumption to the point of garishness. The May 2003 cover is a perfect case in point - the background is a muted gray, the focal piece an ivory marble statue of a woman, covering half her chest with a toga pulled above one breast, leaning slightly inwards, glancing over her shoulder, face shaded leaving only a profile, trying to protect modesty and perhaps escape. Across her arm, through the virtue of modern technology, has been draped the latest Bottega Veneta style breakthrough, the classic bag. The tag line on the cover states, "I'd Feel Naked Without It" : The Return of the Classic Bag."
Right. So you see their point. Classic is classic, it's the essence of style, dress, and individuality as so expressed. But there is no question that the delivery is crass. The woman is wearing nothing but a sheet, poorly covering her body and her body language indicates fear and danger. Her fear of being naked is not the abstract notion of being incompletely dressed, or inappropriately dressed for a social function- it is a literal fear of nakedness and the vulnerability it causes. Someone with too strong a sense of irony decided to mock her vulnerability and make it a triumph for the insouciance of the monied-classes. And that sums up the on-message FT Supplement.