Coco Chanel
best dressed,Chanel,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon
coco chanel
Possibly the chicest women ever. Gabrielle \"Coco\" Chanel, re-wrote the book on fashion. She ripped the linings out of jackets, ran them up in jersey (back then considered a \'poor\' fabric) and teamed them with slim-fitting skirts - not quite Mary Quant minis but shorter than anything before. Or boyish trousers. She believed women could be comfortable and elegant if they would only keep it simple. Many thought Coco was a bit \'loco\' because she only wore black or navy, a string of pearls, red lipstick and a cloche hat pulled down over her bobbed hairdo. She proved critics wrong, pooling her talents as a seamstress and distilling her philosophy into the first global fashion brand responsible for a string of firsts including the little black dress (1926) and mass produced perfume (Chanel No 5 in 1921). Next year two movies are due out based on her rags to riches life. One will star Audrey Tautou the other Demi Moore. Who do we feel is more Coco?
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By Julia Robson
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What\'s it like to play a fashion icon? Watch our Audrey Tautou interview
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Audrey Tautou wows at the Coco Before Chanel premiere. See more...
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See why Audrey Tautou is a celebrity beauty icon
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Marlene Dietrich
best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon,Marlene Dietrich
marlene dietrich
No one ever suited androgyny more or wore it better than Dietrich (not even Madonna). She was acutely aware of image. Although she towered over most pint-sized actresses she felt her legs weren\'t great so came up with a style that would make her stand out and keep her pins hidden. When she first appeared in a severe mannish suit and beret, Paris society booed her - then they copied her. Wide shouldered masculine suits became a signature, along with full-on almost drag queen make-up. Here was a woman being a man being a woman. Many of her suits were designed by Elsa Schiaparelli who exaggerated the shoulder line starting a new trend. \"Her masculinity appeals to women and her sexuality to men,\" the British theatre critic, Kenneth Tynan, once said. Feather boas, plucked eyebrows, lip gloss, back satin and sweeping floor length coats are still considered ‘very Marlene\'.
Katharine Hepburn
best dressed,Fashion icon,Katharine Hepburn
katharine hepburn
Trend alert: Woman in trousers! Headstrong Hepburn scandalised 1930s Hollywood by wearing what was considered shocking! Immoral even! She made boy-girl chic look just so incredible it caught on, giving women a fashion option other than cleavage, curves and spangly frocks. \"Stockings are the invention of the Devil,\" roared the feisty actress and refused to wear them. She didn\'t just kick start the trouser gig, she became a role model for independent women proving you could be confident and individual with your style. She hated red carpet shenanigans and never went to award shows despite winning Best Actress Oscar four times. When she collected a Lifetime Of Style achievement from the council of American designers just before she died (aged 96) she joked about being the \"original bag lady\". Er, don\'t think so.
Wallis Simpson
best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon,Wallis Simpson
wallis simpson
She wasn\'t a conventional beauty but her impeccable dress sense more than made up for it. Wallis Simpson got it in the neck for causing constitutional crises by making the heir to the throne abdicate. Perhaps the dapper Duke felt he had met his match - style-wise - with the thrice-divorced, raven-haired American socialite who, like him, followed fashion ferociously. Throughout each decade Wallis carefully adapted the silhouette of the day to suit her birdlike frame and understated, crucially elegant look. She wore Dior\'s New Look in the early \'50s. In the \'60s she moved on to A-line dresses with cut-outs. In the \'70s she somehow made bejewelled kaftans and bell-bottoms look chic. Edward, showered Wallis with money and jewels to make up for her lack of title. Her famous one-liner, you can never be too rich or too thin, still applies.
Jackie O
best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon,Jackie O
jackie o
The sunglasses, the bags, the hair! First you think. Wow, she\'s pretty! Then, it clicks. It\'s Jackie O, the all-time trendsetter. Where to start with this style icon? Let\'s go for the most made-in-heaven fashion union ever, the pastel geometric Oleg Cassini dresses and pillbox hats worn during her First Lady era. But you know even when she became Mrs Onassis in 1968, her gypsy skirts, kaftans, tight white jeans and oversize sunglasses were really cool too. It wasn\'t what she wore but how she wore it: matchy-matchy single colour schemes, paired down glamour, always groomed, teaming Dior or Givenchy bottom-halves with simple black turtle-necks, white fitted T-shirts (latterly from Gap) and priceless jewels. Long before it became fashionable she was wearing jeans with Chanel jackets and picking out new names like Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rogers sandals, which went straight on the fashion radar. She also put us all onto accessories. And for this we are eternally grateful
Grace Kelly
best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon,Grace Kelly
grace kelly
She had ‘it\'. Everything. All-American beauty, model proportions, great movie roles, glacial sex appeal, fairytale marriage to Prince of a minor monarchy and a Hermès bag named after her. But most of all she had style. Whatever she wore both on and off-screen, she adapted to her own unique look - uptown preppy-meets-smouldering siren. Kelly, a former model, loved clothes. Director Alfred Hitchcock hired Edith Head, Hollywood\'s most elite costume designer, to lure her away from doing a Broadway show playing opposite Marlon Brando, in order to star in Rear Window. Best Kelly onscreen fashion moments include The Philadelphia Story, Mogambo, and To Catch A Thief. And she never looked less than perfect off screen wearing casual Dior white shirt and jodhpurs or Chanel twinset and suit. The Hermès Kelly bag still has a legendary waiting list five decades on. Mika sang a song about her. Was there was ever a more apt title than, her serene highness Princess Grace? Just one: fashion icon.
Bianca Jagger
best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,Bianca Jagger,style icon
bianca jagger
The beautiful Nicaraguan human rights campaigner is still one of, if not the most stylish women alive. During the 1970s and early \'80s, Bianca was the pin-up girl of the jet-set, working the rock chick androgyny look with her floppy hat, skinny mannish jackets and boot-cut flares. She famously rode a white horse to the trendy nightclub Studio 54 (she was wearing Halston) for her 30th birthday in 1977 but is most famous for the ivory Yves Saint Laurent trouser suit she wore to marry Mick Jagger, in St Tropez, in 1971. Without a bra. \"Everyone thinks I was making a deliberate fashion statement by wearing the jacket without a shirt, but they didn\'t realise I was pregnant with Jade (Jagger, the jewellery designer). The shirt was too tight.\"
Debbie Harry
best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,debbie harry,Fashion icon,style icon
debbie harry
Punk was grubby. All that body piercing, bondage and bad DIY attempts with safety pins stopped it ever becoming a serious fashion movement. Perhaps if it had ever had a poster girl like Debbie Harry music history would have been different? Instead, Harry adapted her band - and wardrobe -to fit an emerging genre known as new wave. Although Harry looked a bit top shelf with her bleached hair, black roots and sexy pout, her gritty style which put a glamorous spin on artsy New York streetwear caught the pointy end of the zeitgeist. Result? She became a fashion as well as music pin-up kick-starting the pop video genre. Harry\'s tough girl femininity and fashion forward look has not dated. Rarely a season goes by without Parallel Lines being referenced by a designer. Problem is nothing and nobody can ever look as good as she did.
Carine Roitfeld
Carine Roitfeld,best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon
carine roitfeld
This smouldering sex kitten is considered the most stylish woman in fashion. Being editor of French Vogue she gets first pick of the best designer gear but not before giving it a bit of a seeing to, Roitfeld-style. Famous for flashing flesh (cleavage/legs), wearing staggeringly high heels (always), smoky eye make-up and an Iggy Pop hairdo, she invented luxe grunge glamour. Whatever label she might be wearing you are struck by her presence, which is why she is the highest paid stylist in the world. Whether she\'s wearing a yeti coat sitting front row of Givenchy couture, or a Balmain lace micro dress backstage she looks fabulous. Can you believe she is 54? Yes, if you look at her resume. She was behind those awesome Gucci campaigns photographed by Mario Testino when Tom Ford was designer. Is Carine being groomed for Anna Wintour\'s job at American Vogue?
Kate Moss
Kate Moss,best dressed,celebrity fashion,celebrity style,Fashion icon,style icon
kate moss
Watch the (incredibly long) YouTube photo tribute of Mossy featuring paparazzi shots of the model\'s off-duty wardrobe and it\'s hard to pin-point why Kate looks great. Is it the tight jeans, the dishevelled hair, the way she wears jackets falling off her shoulders, the eclectic way she throws it all together? Or is it just her? Bleached hair, beautiful Bardot-like face and teeny flat-chested frame which makes everything look chic and boyish? The most predictable thing about her style is how unpredictable it is. She is without a doubt the trendsetter of our times. Thanks to Kate\'s extraordinary clothing whims we now have fast fashion. Even when she wore gumboots with (micro) shorts (remember Glastonbury) it looked super cool. Which of course explains why she can command six figure shoot fees and party every night. The rumour is that she\'s going to be the next judge on X Factor. Kate vs Cheryl every Saturday night. Frock off!
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See the best-dressed celebrities of 2008
