Vanity Fair's Best Dressed LOLs

Every year the endlessly pretentious Vanity Fair (just read the title: Vanity Fair? What, a carnival for the egocentric and narciccistic?) publishes an "International Best Dressed" list. This year was a joke.

Completely ignoring the idea that good style can be achieved without wealth--something The Sartorialist caught onto three years ago--the list is essentially a slow trinkling from the wealthiest American socialites at number 1 (the stunningly beautiful Ivanka Trump) to the less-wealthy (and bat-shiz crazy) on the tail end. And by crazy, I'm talking about Fran Lebowitz.

There are some inspired choices, however. Carla Bruni (images on right) is a perpetually tortured underdog, a true survivor in the poisonous web of 21st Century world politics. She's beautiful, married to the most intriguing national figure on the planet, and most importantly, she started out like any other girl. She was a model, a musician--she was not born the First Lady of France. But then again, where else could a former model become a First Lady?

Bruni is one of those women that has completely owned her physical silhouette. She knows her body, as any former model would, and dresses every inch of that body in clothing that clings in the right places and fits loosely in others. Extra points for keeping it simple and chic, too--lots of greys and blacks. (It's surprising how hard it is to actually pull off a darker, colorless look.)

Sarah-Jessica Parker also scored high on the list, which is kind of funny, because I'm not so sure the brilliant stylings of Carrie Bradshaw "carrie" (HA!) over into reality. In other words, SJP may not be so faaaabulous as her Sex & The City counterpart. Nevertheless, I'm a fan of SJP as a person--she's kind and down-to-earth, or so I've heard--and her husband is just as relaxed (I met him in NY two years ago).

Naturally, Vanity Fair has to kiss-[you know what...] to keep the editorial contributions coming (especially after such low sale numbers recently), so they throw in the odd fashion nut every five selections or so. Evelyn Lauder is one of those fashion nuts. Not in a good way. Estee Lauder, yeah, yeah, I get it--big deal. But the picture Vanity Fair selected to represent Ms. Evelyn (pictured left) is hilarious to me. If that is one of the thirty best-dressed women in the entire world, my grandmother could quite literally take the crown on a retirement pension from the University of Texas.

Of the male recipients, there was one truly deserved, and that was of Matt Lauer. I do watch Today on occasion, if the television is near me while I brew coffee, and I always notice Lauer's clothing choices. He keeps it classic but with touches of sartorial brilliance--like his ridiculously brown brown Oxfords and a midnight blue suit. The men around the office teased him, "Why aren't you wearing black shoes with a grey suit?" And he responded, "I just never liked the way it looked."

Spoken like Karl Lagerfield himself.

OH OH I'M SOOO EDUCATEDZ

I decided to take a little trip back into Xanga to see my last few posts there...I stopped in March of 2007, and I believe one of the posts was "OMG E-TYPE WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS? SWEDISH POP/HOUSE ARTIST." Oh, how little I've changed.

Today is a very, very strange day. An acquaintance of mine, from high school, is about to die from lymphoma. For a month he was completely healed--cancer-free--and 24 days later, his entire body is shutting down. When I read the news, on his blog, I started shaking and had to hang up the phone to read, and re-read, what would later send me into an emotional tailspin that began with "Wow, well I'm alive" and ended with, "But this could so easily happen to me."

He doesn't know me, but I hope he knows he's inspired me in ways I can't even put into words. My friend Emily and I traded confused texts all afternoon trying to figure out how we felt about the news. I love him, but I don't know how I can help him. Praying for healing at this point--his cancer is officially "terminal"--seems half-hearted, but praying for a peaceful death seems heartless.

In less dramatic news...TODAY IS OFFICIALLY THE WORST NEW MUSIC TUESDAY IN THE HISTORY OF NEW MUSIC TUESDAYS!

But Vanity Fair DID post their annual best dressed list. And you better believe it'll be popping up in a post near you...

Catharine Holstein

I don't usually pay attention to women's fashion during New York Fashion week (a show that is slowly gaining more and more style cred--"For the first time in my life, I'm proud of my country..."), but with the men's show this year basically boiling down to one thing--$$$$$--I diverted my attention to a few up-and-coming designers. Most notably, Catharine Holstein.

Holstein isn't so much new as new to me. Clearly she's a women's designer, but her Fall 2008 ready-to-wear is daring and avant-garde, and not because of being flashy or organic or anything pretentious at all. She's completely scaled back on the blacks and harsh silhouettes of other designers, simplifying the entire idea of what can be future-minded. As these shots below demonstrate, sometimes you don't have to be modern to be, well, modern; you just need to be unique. Holstein is borrowing inspiration from Katy Perry and Feist with the nerd-meets-sexpot looks, and while the individual pieces aren't anything you'd see outside of say, Urban Outfitters or (ugh) American Apparel, that is exactly what makes the collection so profound.

As for the men's show, I was far more impressed with what happened off the runway. Granted, as I wrote a few weeks ago, I like what Burberry is doing for casual menswear, but photographer Scott Shuman and a few of the editors at Details (Magazine) had freaking awesome ensembles. I'm definitely feeling the suede loafers of the moment, and as soon as they are on sale for less than $200.00 they're in my closet.

A confession...

...I saw a video earlier of Miley Cyrus making fun of fellow Disney stars, and every opinion of her I ever had completely changed. She's a bigger bad-ass than ANY other teen in the 21st century pop lexicon.

Essentially, Cyrus has performed the teenage pop star equivalent of dog-humping Disney's newest little gnomes.

In a nod to her, and with advice from the Los Angeles Times, I downloaded "Fly On The Wall" and ran 5 miles.

The end.

Music: It's that bad

Now that my Dark Knight haze has lifted, I can talk about some new music. Be forewarned, however, that I'm still getting over a cold and my writing is suffering.

Anyone who's been sick the week before an essay's due in school knows what I'm talking about.

Ryan Leslie's an emerging R&B artist I've had my eye on for a while now. I picked up his single "Diamond Girl" a few months ago (as in, 170 iTunes songs back), and was impressed by the swirling production and Leslie's raspy voice. It's great to hear an artist not being sucked into the Usher/Ne-Yo black hole of "modern R&B crooners." His newest single "Addiction," is a bit more generic, but is once again saved by innovative production. I use "innovative" in the loosest sense of the word; Leslie is a talented producer himself, but he's more Timbaland than Bjork.

The track checks all the necessary boxes for radio in 2008: Unknown rapper with a 30 second solo? Check. A hooky chorus with a female accompaniment? Check. "Subtle" references to pop culture? Holy crap check. If we're going to talk about name dropping, "Addiction" features more than enough. Lindsey Lohan, Amy Winehouse, Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, Kevin Federline...and all in three verses. It's more than I can take. When Fabolous (the "unknown" rapper, who is technically more "known" than Leslie) references Cobain, he ties it in with "suicides," a nickname for the doors to his sports car. If that isn't crossing the line, than I'll shut down this blog right now.

On the positive side, though, it's well-orchestrated hip hop, and Cassie's vocals, devoid of personality or even sex appeal, sound appropriately blank in contrast to the blippy production and Leslie's own vocal track.

Another song that has recently gotten my attention--and I wish it hadn't--is Robin Thicke's "Magic." Ew. It's just not a good song. The instrumentals in the first fifteen seconds are a strong build up, a la Snoop Dogg's "Sensual Seduction," but they turn out to be the only decent part of the song. Thicke sounds like a young Justin Timberlake, or worse, like an Other from N*Sync or 98 Degrees, whining about having "the magic." The seventies musical rehash has been played out for a year now, so "Magic" loses any points for originality. I tried hard to love this song, but I can't hear the track without wincing now.

To close, I'd like to talk about CSS. I have been a fan of CSS since "Alala" was on a videogame three years ago, and I don't hate their new album ("Donkey"). BUT, if you're in the mood for music with a little spunk, download "Meeting Paris Hilton." I never did until recently, and it's satirical perfection.

The Dark Knight: Review Quickie

The Dark Knight is the new reason I love the movies. Without a doubt, it is the greatest film--animated, action, drama or otherwise--of the twenty-first century. Pitch-perfect acting, innovative cinematography, and a plot that grows darker and darker until the

final line of dialogue.

Better than a weekend at sea. Better than the best meal you've ever eaten. The Dark Knight is sublime.

Gossip Girl has done it again

As you may remember from a post I wrote back in April, I'm a huge fan of the racy Gossip Girl adverts. They're sexy, they're bold, and unlike the show, they take serious risks. Sex sells, I get it. But America has slipped into a strange cultural phase as of late, and this is indicative in the way girls dress. (If you ask me, the fashion trends started this whole thing, but let's pretend the fashion houses reacted to the consumer for once) Skirt hems are being lowered, bellies are most certainly 'out,' and most desired silhouette in clothing right now seems to be slimmer rather than curvy. Big breasts are big breasts, and beauty itself will never go out of style, but with Hillary Clinton just barely missing the opportunity to lead this country, there's an air of female empowerment floating around--and that's a great thing.

I read about the newest Gossip Girl ads this morning at work in The New York Post, and though I don't think they're quite as good as the "OMFG" ads, they are once again a shining example of creative advertising for the 21st century. "A Nasty Piece of Work" is my favorite ad, simply because "Nasty" is one of those words that is as slinky as it sounds. The Parent's Television Council advert is the weakest of the bunch. It's just an awkward image. Awkward is definitely one way to describe the Chicago Tribune ad as well, but it's still stronger than the former.