The International Best-Dressed List might seem like an elite and
peripheral phenomenon to the average stylish American, but it lies at the
heart of our modern fashion industry. Founded in 1940 by Eleanor Lambert,
who was behind the Met Gal, Fashion Week, and who established the Council
of Fashion Designers of America, it was intended to stimulate the business
of buying fashion during a wartime slump. The concept of fashion as a
competitive sport proved successful, and in 2002 the List was bequeathed by
Lambert to Amy Fine Collins who last week appeared at The RealReal’s Soho
flagship to launch “The International Best-Dressed List,” book and to chat
about Lambert’s archives which contained letters from Audrey Hepburn.
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Former Geoffrey Beene muse and current favorite of Thom Browne, Collins
is a witty raconteur, bubbling with anecdotes. She begins the evening late,
drawing attention to one of the perils of looking the epitome of chic in
her head to toe trompe-l’oeil Thom Browne outfit: there was nowhere to clip
her microphone.“All the pockets and lapels are an illusion.”
The style-makers chronicled within the book go back to oil heiress
Millicent Rogers who appeared on the first list, and was famous for
changing outfits three times during dinner accessorized with an arm full of
Southwestern jewelry, or Rosalind Russell who was its first Hollywood
figure. Wallace Simpson, the Baltimore divorcée behind King Edward VIII’s
abdication of the British throne, is included for her penchant for
head-to-toe matching color, and Grace Kelly, Hollywood’s Hitchcock blond,
who paved the way for Megan Markle by flitting to Europe to marry a prince.
Says Collins of Babe Paley, “She was considered the paragon of chic, and
they saidof her, ‘She had only one flaw, and that was that she was
perfect.’”
New book celebrates glamorous fashion icons of the past
Joining Collins for the chat is fashion commentator/author/TV
personality, Simon Doonan, who makes the contrast between the power of
female sophistication associated with the 30s and 40s and today’s
prevailing trend to dress young, with teenagers and their grandmothers
wearing the same clothes. This prompts Collins to quote Edith Head, “Your
clothes have to be tight enough to show you’re a woman and loose enough to
show you’re a lady.” In her opinion women of those glamorous eras “weren’t
trying to look hot. Wasn’t it Mainbocher who said he could not only make a
woman look like a lady, but like her mother had been one as well.”
The tome’s other style icons include Pat Cleveland dressed in Halston;
Austine Hearst, wife of the magazine tycoon, in Charles James; C Z Guest
famous for her understated American sensibility who popularized the jeweled
sweater and said “Clothes will last if you hang them up;” Marlene Dietrich
who only made it onto the list in her 50s; and Diahann Carroll who became
the list’s first African American woman. “Everybody had to up their
sartorial game around Diahann Carroll,” says Collins who also describes
Jackie Kennedy as “The most influential woman that ever existed.”
Inspiring others to want to look like you is what unifies all those
selected for the Best-Dressed List but it’s not always about what you wear,
remarks Collins, pointing to an image of Liza Minnelli in an unbuttoned
shirt, with that distinctive hair and make-up: “If you have real boobs,
show them.” Fashion’s tragic muses are also featured, Tina Chow who threw
on vintage clothes so glamorously long before vintage became popular, or
Isabella Blow who wore a real lobster on her head and when it started
putrefying throughout the day delighted in its people-repelling
qualities.
These remote, arch figures who boasted a string of husbands, high
connections and financial misdeeds, eccentricity and the utmost
self-involvement still somehow seem more fabulous than our modern-day
fashion influencers. What is their secret?
“Looking chic is also looking cruel,” offers Doonan, who believes
Rihanna has the same qualities as those fascinating females of the past.
“It’s having what the French call le chien, which means a certain
toughness and makes one very mysterious.”
“I subscribe to that,’ agrees Collins. “Because you’re not dressing to
please, it’s not an act of desperation.” Then she lifts her Thom Browne
leather dog-shaped purse, and says playfully, “This is le
chien.”
Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk for
the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.
Photos FashionUnited