The September issue of Vanity Fair magazine weighs in with the 68th annual version of the International Best-Dressed List. As usual, it's a melange of well-dressed women (I like Charlotte Gainsbourg), publicity hungry celebs, and men that make you wonder who is selecting these people.
I mean, Count Manfredi Della Gherardesca looks fine and Gay Talese belongs but some of the men are wearing clothes that look like they came straight off the rack. Though that's a mere bagatelle next to Lapo Elkann's attention-seeking approach to dress.
In a way, it's surprising that the list isn't exclusively comprised of politicians, models and actors. If you think about it, they are about the only people that have a professional incentive to study themselves in order to fine-tune every aspect of their appearance, and hours of video they can watch in order to do so. Unfortunately, too many of them take the Elkann/Johnny Depp approach of wearing something calculated to attract as much publicity as possible.
In an era where there are few rules about situationally appropriate clothing, the criteria for best dressed are becoming schizophrenic. On the one hand there is classic style, where the ideal is the quiet blend that turns no heads. On the other are the costumes designed to generate attention. Give me a List of one or the other, but I don't think it's rational to include both.
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2 comments:
What I find interesting is that the well-tailored stars of the golden era (well the men anyway) first drew attention to themselves, not just to their clothing.
Today's flashier aesthetic turns heads, but for all the wrong reasons. Maybe the list should be renamed the "Less Dressed"?
As always, thanks for the blog!
Chris
easyandelegantlife.com
Already knowing you disagree, I submit these comments in support of Lapo Elkann.
Perhaps it's just because it's him doing it, but the combination of his grandfather's suits, his own updated fashions, and his cool disregard for the very real (and embarassing) scandal in his life allows for his clothing to be over the top. In the US, that combination of clothes practically defines every preppy kid I went to school with.
Sure, he needs to grow up, but his fashion fits his age and we can just hope he'll refine himself as the years pass.
All this being said, if Johnny Depp were to try any of it, I would be physically ill.
Great Blog. Thank you!
John
Palm Beach, FL
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