The Best Dressed List 2009

The results are in! With the economy in the gutter, it was an open playing field for a spot on Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed list this year. Amid lots of perfectly groomed but really very obscure royalty, the list was clogged with regulars, like Agnelli-heir Lapo Elkann, Carla Bruni, and Daniel Craig. Dark horses included Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Kelly Ripa—who was widely voted down on Vanity Fair.com’s new interactive site—and health writer Kathy Freston. Other surprises included Brad Pitt, who made the list surprisingly solo—with Angelina Jolie notably missing. A slew of designers, like Rachel Roy, Tory Burch, and Georgina Chapman, also made the list—all, of course, in their own designs. The stars of the class of 2009, however, were President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. Vanity Fair honored Michelle for her controversial Lanvin sneakers, bargain-hunting at J. Crew, and for the veil she wore to meet Pope Benedict XVI. The president, on the other hand, got props for his Hart Schaffner Marx suits, which, on the inside pockets, read: “Made Exclusively for Barack Obama.”