We aren’t ones to gush over Alexa Chung and her dreary little pilgrims frocks, we don’t think fashion begins and ends with Kate Moss, and there will be no mention of any Delevigne sisters here. And while we sometimes rhapsodize over Iris Apfel and her maximalist approach to life, she’s not on our 2012 Best Dressed List because, frankly, we find her a little overexposed.
As always, the WOW Best Dressed list honors those individuals who truly take it to the edge of fashion… the rule-breakers, style-makers, and no-hostage-takers who make us sit up and take notice. Celebrities, sublebrities, and celebutantes who live without stylists, without fear, and are without QUESTION the most interesting people in pop culture.
Each year we celebrate the STAUNCH individuals whose personalities ACTUALLY INFORM their look – a novel idea, I know – and the style icons who make us question the very nature of style. It’s about the semiotics of clothing as costume, as emotional armor, as socio-political statements that gets our juices running. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the men and women of the WOW 2012 BEST DRESSED LIST!
RDR winner Sharon Needles, of course, and British designer/nightlife personality Daniel Lismore
Performance artist Justin Vivian Bond and artist Terrance Koh
K-Pop superstar T.O.P. and NYC clubkid Dylan Monroe
Stylish celebuspawn Romeo Beckham and the ever-iconic Fran Lebowitz
Harry Styles for his nutty wig-in-a-windstorm hairdo, the tiny blazers that fall just above his hips, and his formidable accessorizing ability; And Harry Brandt, because YES he’s a brat, and YES the things he says are just CONTEMPTABLE, but I was once a young it boy, and quite the terror too, so I believe that there’s something in him that can rise above the snitty cliché I see now. The kid’s got a sharp eye for fashion, and I have faith that will lead him to big things.
Lana Del Rey and Kelly Osbourne for their retro-girly looks that somehow seem so fashion-forward
Michelle Harper, the uptown socialite with the decidedly downtown aesthetic, and Seapunk icons Zombelle and Ultrademon (YES, I read the New York Times)
British performance artist/party girl Pandemonia and Turner Award winning artist Grayson Perry
New York street style legend Oswald Gomez, whose everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aesthetic embodies everything I love about New York.
