BS BULLETIN:

• New York Magazine has released its first standalone issue devoted entirely to men’s style.
• Transgender actor Elliot Page appears shirtless on one of four covers for the inaugural edition.
• The magazine’s debut men’s issue features a sprawling bathhouse photo shoot with Page and other celebrities and New Yorkers.

New York Magazine has spent nearly six decades covering fashion without ever publishing a standalone issue devoted exclusively to men’s style.

That changed this week.

And the magazine certainly found a way to make sure people noticed.

Transgender actor Elliot Page appears shirtless on one of four covers of New York’s inaugural Men’s Style issue, part of an extensive photo portfolio shot inside Manhattan’s Russian & Turkish Baths.

The special edition is an 89-page experiment by New York, which recently hired its first dedicated men’s-style editor and says interest from both readers and advertisers has exceeded expectations.

But don’t expect a conventional GQ-style parade of suits and watches.

The magazine describes the edition as “A Special Issue About Putting Clothes On and Taking Them Off Again,” while its centerpiece is a 20-page portfolio featuring 19 subjects photographed at the East Village bathhouse.

Page isn’t actually the edition’s singular “cover star,” as some early coverage suggested. New York produced four covers for the issue, with the bathhouse portfolio serving as its centerpiece.

Page told the magazine that bathhouses have become more appealing in recent years because of the freedom to simply sit comfortably in one’s body. The actor also revealed an unexpected shower-song repertoire that includes Cher and “The Sound of Music.”

The magazine’s social-media rollout immediately drew attention Monday, including plenty of predictable arguments over Page’s inclusion in an edition explicitly devoted to men’s style.

Whatever New York was hoping its first men’s edition would accomplish, being ignored doesn’t appear to be a problem.

MY QUICK TAKE

New York Magazine waited 58 years to produce an entire standalone issue about men’s style.

And somehow, before anybody could discuss the clothes, they managed to start an argument about what a man is.

The editors say advertisers were hungry for a men’s issue and they’re already talking about doing more.