THE ballots for the 2008 International Best-Dressed List have gone out. The tension mounts! Will Lapo Elkann, the zany Fiat heir, make the list again and line himself up for a place in the Hall of the Forgotten — oops, the Hall of Fame? Will Nicolas Sarkozy be joined by his bride, the former model Carla Bruni? She’s been looking so fabulous in her new Dior clothes.
Since 2004, the Best-Dressed List has been organized and published by Vanity Fair, and the field of possible choices is perhaps more narrow, more media-addicted than it was in the day of Eleanor Lambert, the fashion publicist who mothered the list for 63 years.
Many of the names offered for consideration — the final list will appear in the September issue of Vanity Fair — have been mentioned in the magazine in recent months. They include Demi Moore, Tory Burch, Gwen Stefani, Carine Roitfeld, Cate Blanchett and Natalia Vodianova, who was in the March issue. Some of these individuals have publicists and stylists who help them look good.
Is there ever a poor (but stylish) person on the list? Running through the possible choices, it seems not. And though it’s an international list, most of the names are from the United States and Western Europe. What about India, China and Brazil?
Aimee Bell, a deputy editor of Vanity Fair, who serves on the selection committee, said the magazine has “maintained Eleanor’s legacy, but we’ve brought the list into the 21st century.” By that she means it has more people who thrive at the intersection of fashion, pop culture and the media, like Ms. Stefani and Victoria Beckham, who made the list in 2007.
Ms. Lambert would likely have frowned on such choices.
About 7,000 ballots were sent out this spring, far more than in Ms. Lambert’s time. Ms. Bell said that she and the other members of the committee, which includes her boss, Graydon Carter, try to keep their mission separate from the interests of the magazine. Given Vanity Fair’s reach into fashion and celebrity — and that many actresses and socialites have fashion labels — that won’t be so easy.