Ray, I´m not James, do not pretend to answer for him, but unless you are into fashion you will never understand. Simple as that; there can be no interpretation, no dictionary. You speak the language or you do not.
That´s why some can do it and others never will.
Some would never want to, myself included. I have never cared for fashion photos and as you say I never will. No great loss to me, its not art, its advertising of the basest sort. Good technique I'm sure and I'm also certain that it is difficult to reach such a level of technique. It is totally foreign to my world though, like porno.
