Jessica Simpson is the cover girl for the new issue of New York Magazine. Thankfully, the piece isn’t all about her upcoming wedding, or her weight, or her Football K-Fed, or whatever else Farty usually ends up talking about. Instead, the focus is on Jessica’s success as the head of one of the most profitable fashion lines in America. The article states something odd: “Jessica Simpson’s fashion empire… clocked sales around $750 million last year. This year, Simpson, who is 30, will add both a full ready-to-wear collection as well as a “career separates” line to her docket, which should push sales past the billion-dollar mark. And Simpson—or Simpson’s top surrogate, her mother—will sit in a room just like this to approve every single thing that gets her label inside. To put that figure in context, it means Jessica Simpson is doing roughly the same volume in sales as Michael Kors.” Jessica = Michael Kors. Astonishing. The full NY Mag piece is worth a read, but here are some of the quotes from the piece:

Jessica on her line: “I never thought I’d be some fashion mogul!, ”she says, laughing her big, open-mouthed laugh. The unlikeliness of it all is probably the exact reason why it works so well.

Jessica’s business philosophy involves McDonalds: As her business manager, David Levin, explains, the original idea behind Simpson’s fashion brands was this: “A girl could go to the shopping mall with her mother and she’d have a great new outfit and still have some money left for lunch at McDonald’s. She can look like Jessica Simpson, smell like Jessica Simpson, and she can afford it.”

Jessica on the 2009 high-waisted jeans/weight gain incident at a chili cook-off: “I still thought I looked cute,” she says. “I wouldn’t have gone onstage if I didn’t.”

On trends versus basics: “I put everything in the line and then it just blows out,” she says. “We try not to set trends, but you need your trending pieces in every delivery. But those go fast: What you really need is your basics for every type of person. When it comes to other celebrity brands, I think a lot of people do a great job, but it can’t be all about them. Everybody doesn’t want to just look like the celebrity, because they can’t. They just want one element of that style.”

Jessica‘s Me-Maw wears jeggings: “I can fill all different kinds of genres in fashion, music, TV, film, personality,” she says. “I just relate to all of it. So we reach out to all ages. Like just the other day my nana asked for a pair of jeggings because we sent her a pair of boots that went up to her knee, and she was like, ‘For this I think I need a pair of jeggings.’ ”

On meeting Eric: “Was it love at first sight?” asks Simpson. “No. I don’t know if I believe in that. But it was definitely I could love this man. And maybe I already do.”

On the engagement and proposal: “It was a complete shock,” she says, “a beautiful shock. It felt great for somebody to be on his knee, and I had to sit on that knee because I was so excited and overwhelmed I couldn’t even stand. Knowing that I had his knee to sit on in that moment was very magical. The way I always wanted it to be. I think I have a lot of stuff to write now. Not that I’m using him as a muse, but it makes me feel very open to share.”

Oh, Jessica: Johnson is inspiring Simpson, in a New Age–y sort of way. Together they follow the “Artist’s Way” practice of writing down their thoughts free form for an hour each morning. “I just let it flow,” she says. “My fiancé taught me that. He’ll get up in the morning and just write, so nothing blocks his emotional life. It doesn’t even have to be in sentence form; he just gets everything out, and that way he can function without getting in the way of himself, without being aggressive or judgmental. We do that together. Sometimes he takes that hour just reading, we’ll get out of bed and just read aloud to each other. He has so many books. Like, just books and books and books and books.”

[From New York Magazine]

I was applauding her up until she started in with the Eric stuff. Goodness, she’s dumb as a box of hair… specifically when it comes to men. I have to admit, Jessica might have some business acumen, and obviously, she deserves some of the credit for her success in fashion. But on a personal level, about men and about relationships… I just want to sit her down and pat her head and say “No, Farty, you’re doing it wrong.”