Downright Elegant

Lovely. Thanks, Capn. :D

Thanks for your 21D comment, Darth.

The title is quite apt!

EXC ELLE NT!

Nicely done

Very ELLE-gant!

Very cool.

Oh cripes -- was looking for a 5-letter "word" description. Wouldn't have wasted so much time if I had just read properly. Thanks for the puzzle, Cap'n!

Would have had it with my first submission if it weren't for autocorrect. Thanks for the Sunday fun!

Saw the ELLE right away - then it took a while to see the edgewise description.

I'd call it a W!

Down right but not diagonal.

Got it. Declaring myself a complete whiff on this.

I guessed ELLE based on the nina cluephrase on the west and south edges, with the LETTER L clue as confirmation. Then I looked at the names with the "el" sound in the grid, noticed the acronym, and eventually worked out that the clue entries were supposed to correspond to those issues. But I couldn't figure out what the five-letter description could be if it weren't COVER... I started looking at the hints, then suddenly realized at the last one that it had said "5-word" the whole time! D'oh!

C'est bon!...Cap'n Rick! I'll admit, I misread part 2) as 5-letter not 5-word for my first submission...doh!

Needed the nudges because I was stuck on trying to do something with COVER. Great puzzle, thanks!

Groan! I needed all of those nudges. I was trying to make an L by starting from the first letter of each woman's name, down one and right one: ISH, GER, APO, MAP, MSE. That didn't spell anything, so next I tried the same with the entry starting at the number of the month associated with each woman: ABA, EDW, HIG, ELL, NHT. Still didn't spell anything so I resorted to the nudges.

Forgot that I had tested this very fun puzzle, and of course made EXACTLY the same mistakes as I did the first time. I had HIALEYGSS...??? and then LOVES ASHION. LIGHT BULB, this was the one I even tried to help change!!! Like "Shawshank Redemption" or "Star Wars:Episode IV", enjoyable every time! Thanks Cap.

For some reason, so mightily wanted it to be THIS ... IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING! Another meta, another time? Thanks as always, Cap'n!

Great one-two splash this week, Capn! With the accessible publication providing an encouraging and helpful steppingstone, it was a gleeful "aha" moment (bordering on EL-ATION) when I discovered the tailor-made five-word description!

Great stuff. Thank you for the hints!

A meta I can understand the solution to; Thanks!

Great meta. Thank you for hints and solution. I liked 28D, 62A, 49A