They may have always thought of themselves as extremely fashionable, but now Kanye West and Gwen Stefani have empirical proof that they're style leaders — the pair have been named to Vanity Fair's 2006 International Best-Dressed List for the first time.
Stefani, whose funky L.A.M.B. line has snagged many a teen's allowance since its inception two years ago, shares her honor with Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Selma Blair, Sofia Coppola and Renee Zellweger. West is the only musician/producer among the best-dressed men, who also include David Beckham, George Clooney, news anchor Anderson Cooper, gossip columnist Richard Johnson and Count Manfredi Della Gherardesca.
"Gwen and Kanye are big-time style leaders," said Amy Fine Collins, social correspondent for Vanity Fair. "They both have such distinct, strong styles and are completely visible and influential.
"[Gwen] is fearless," Collins continued. "She can go drop-dead glamorous and pull it off better than anyone else. She goes to extremes of glamour, partly by channeling old-time movie stars like Jean Harlow and by looking to artists for inspiration like Frida Kahlo, who she named her as one of her style influences. She is not afraid of looking like someone else, being glamorous in an elegant way and sexy and risqué without looking trashy. She understands fashion from the inside out because she's a designer too. She's also in touch with her masculine side and gets inspiration from her husband's [Gavin Rossdale] closet. She experiments and she succeeds."
West was chosen for his "fresh," "poetic" and "cutting-edge" style, and for being "outspoken, not only in his beliefs, but also in his style," noted Collins.
"I love what he does with color," she said. "He loves pale pastels and nice sugary colors. He has a beautiful way with language, but also with appearance. There's no one else that's doing what he's doing. He goes far in new directions and is very watched, imitated and admired. He feels good about himself and it shows. Kanye is a college boy. He knows about the Lacoste preppy collegiate look, but he's not going to leave it at that. Instead, he takes elements of that and almost makes inside jokes on it. He never looks like a slob, even if he's in jeans."
This year marks the 67th anniversary of Vanity Fair's best-dressed list (the list appears in the September issue, which hits newsstands on August 8). The verdicts are made by more than 1,000 fashion insiders who send ballots with their selections to the magazine. Landing on the list is a huge honor in the fashion world and a badge of glory that usually nets invitations to the most luxurious events in the world.
An individual must be on the best-dressed list four times in order to be inducted into the hall of fame, which includes Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Tina Turner, Bianca Jagger, Iman, Sophia Lauren and Queen Noor of Jordan, along with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, David Bowie, Fred Astaire and Bryan Ferry. This year Kate Moss joins the hall of fame and appears on the cover of the magazine wearing only patent-leather stiletto boots and white gloves.
Surprisingly, Gwen beat out Madonna this year, who has been on the best-dressed list before. Collins said starlets like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are far from making the best-dressed list because they are way too "overstyled."
"You have a sense that someone is dressing them like they are a paper doll," she said. "We look for people whose personality is coming through in their clothes. You can see inside their soul with what they wear."
