Ultimate Style: The Best of the Best Dressed List

by Eleanor Lambert

Here, in this lavishly illustrated history of the Best Dressed List, is the story of how the list originated and grew into the world-famous event it is today. And, for the first time ever, fashion doyenne and Best Dressed List founder Ms. Lambert contributes her personal story on the subject. Founded in 1940, the Best Dressed List was her brilliant publicity ploy to boost the drooping American fashion industry at the outset of World War II. It quickly became a highly visible and respected barometer of style, a "who's who" of the most glamorous women in the world. Interestingly, the first lists were mostly wealthy society women who were famous for spending entire fortunes every year on haute couture, while movie stars were rarely named to it, as they were dressed by their studios. Today, the list has evolved into a highly coveted placement that includes every sort of public figure, from socialites and models to movie stars and politicians. Featuring four to six of the top women from each decade, this spectacular volume explores the personal style of such fashion icons as Babe Paley in the 40s; Grace Kelly and Diana Vreeland in the 50s; Jackie O. and Verushka in the 60s; Twiggy and Bianca Jagger in the 70s; Princess Di and Tina Chow in the 80s; Sharon Stone and the Miller sisters in the 90s; Chloe Sevigny and Nicole Kidman in the 21st century. The Best Dressed List will be reproduced in its entirety in the back of the book.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Night · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe a 2.5
To start the amount of pictures varied per person: some people just had the one picture others had several, and it wasn't that the more well known had fewer pictures or vice versa, it almost seemed arbitrary how many pictures each entrant had. Another issue I had was that the outfits described in the text were not the ones pictured. It made me wonder if the intention of the authors was tease the reader into doing more research. I also noticed that for a lot of the profiles, either the pictures used or the examples sited (or both) were not from the decade the woman was listed under. It made me think that the book would have been better served by removing the decade groupings all together. Finally, the majority of the pictures were in black and white even for some of the latter entrants of the list. Why? Part of the what made these women fashionable (at least according to the text) was the way they used colors and yet, very little of the book reflected it. Overall, I think the book did a poor job to showcasing exactly why these women were the best of the best. The names chosen, with few exceptions, are the people who appear on nearly every best dressed list ever, and the reasons for it have been better defended elsewhere. I gave the book 2.5 stars because of the addition of people I hadn't seen before and for the curiosity of the best dressed lists at the end of each section.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

- Many of the fashion icon early in the book rely on marrying for status and money

- The idea of projecting feminity and "chic" was predominant for many fashionisats

- While many of the style icon are socialites, there are also semi self made icons such as Coco Channel

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good reference of Iconic women of fashion.