The Best Dressed List was created in 1940 by Eleanor Lambert, the legendary fashion publicist and arbiter of style. Ms. Lambert began the list as a press release for the New York Dress Institute, which was founded to raise awareness of American designers. The beginning of another world war had induced both anxiety and limits on fabric yardage (which also explains why the skirts of the time were slim and short), and the garment industry urgently needed to encourage public interest in clothing. It looked to Ms. Lambert, who was already known in the industry for her skilled work in publicity, to make sure people didn’t stop buying clothes because of the war.

The Best Dressed List was created in 1940 by Eleanor Lambert, the legendary fashion publicist and arbiter of style. Ms. Lambert began the list as a press release for the New York Dress Institute, which was founded to raise awareness of American designers. The beginning of another world war had induced both anxiety and limits on fabric yardage (which also explains why the skirts of the time were slim and short), and the garment industry urgently needed to encourage public interest in clothing. It looked to Ms. Lambert, who was already known in the industry for her skilled work in publicity, to make sure people didn’t stop buying clothes because of the war.

And she succeeded well. The Best Dressed List kept fashion at the forefront of people’s minds by offering a steady stream of familiar faces who personified the great styles of the time. Being fashionable,though, was not enough to get one on the Best Dressed List. One also had to be seen. If a woman was well dressed and had a sense of style, but no one knew she existed, she could not be "influential?’ As Ms. Lambert put it, "It is not just the clothes you buy, but who you are and why you’re well known?’Ms. Lambert would often get letters from gentlemen who claimed their wives were as well dressed as certain people on the list, and she would write back to say, eeMake your wife more visible."

This book was conceived with the help and guidance of the irreplaceable Eleanor Lambert. The women highlighted in these pages were her choices as the most enduring fashion icons, whose personal style looks as fresh and original today as when they were elected to the list. In 2002, after 62 years of commanding this influential record, Ms. Lambert decided it was time to retire from her duties as "coordinator?’ She passed the mantle on to the editors at Fanity Fair, knowing it would be in the best hands possible.

Sadly, Eleanor Lambert died on October 7, 2003, at age 100, before she was able to see this chronicle of her marvelous invention in print. She was an extraordinary lady, and she will be greatly missed.

The Duchess of Windsor

Babe Paley

Slim Keith

Gene Tierney

Millicent Rogers

Grace Kelly

Diana Vreeland

C.Z. Guest

Claudette Colbert

Mona yon Bismarck

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Marella Caracciolo Agnelli

"Audrey Hepburn

Marisa Berenson

Gloria Guinness

Veruschka

Twiggy

Carolina Herrera

Diane von Furstenberg

Bianca Jagger

Mary McFadden

Diana, Princess of Wales

Raquel Welch

Tina Chow

Anjelica Huston

Naomi Campbell

Ines de la Fressange

Sharon Stone

Blaine Trump

Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer

Nicole Kidman

Chloe Sevigny

Gwyneth Paltrow