International Best Dressed Guru Talks Houston Fashion Stars and List Drama: Making This Cut Is No Easy Matter

Oh, how the ladies swoon at the possibility of landing on the Houston Chronicle‘s Best Dressed list. Imagine how they might feel if the swells at Vanity Fair, who run the International Best-Dressed List, came calling.

Among them would be VF special correspondent and author Amy Fine Collins. The nation’s leading style scribe swept through Houston recently to discuss the coveted list at an intimate dinner, held in the midst of Saks Fifth Avenue‘s smashing couture salon. Saks is a partner with Vanity Fair in the best dressed polling adventure.

The tastemakers and style influencers in attendance were invited to submit their nominations to the International Best-Dressed Poll in the categories of women, men, fashion professionals, fashion originals and couples.

There are a number of native Houstonians who dwell in these heady ranks of sartorial stardom. Allison Sarofim holds her own while Lauren Bush Lauren and hubby David and power duo Beyoncé and Jay Z are represented in the couples arena. And, no surprise, the city’s grande dame Lynn Wyatt has reigned in the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame since being anointed in 1977.

That means that Wyatt earned Best Dressed honors three times. (Wyatt was the first member of the Houston Chronicle Best Dressed Hall of Fame, some 30 years ago.)

Tireless promoter of American fashion, Eleanor Lambert, aka “the Empress of Seventh Avenue,” founded the International Best-Dressed List in 1940. For more than six decades, she would make or break the year for fashion divas the world over. A year before her death, at the age of 100, Lambert bequeathed the “historical record of style and fashion” to a quartet of fashion insiders — then-Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, then-VF deputy editor Amiée Bell; Reinaldo Herrera, husband of designer Carolina Herrera who entered Hall of Fame ranks in 1980; and Collins.

Since that time, the magazine has annually published the list in a wave of color photos and editorial snippets. This year, the winners will be revealed in the October issue, timed to coincide with the extravaganza of the fall fashion weeks from New York to Paris to Milan.

The results of the poll, Collins says, leave some people “jubilant” and “Some are furious.”

The ballots are sent to some 2,000 individuals, “People,” Collins explains, “who are in a position to see fashion at its best: retailers, editors, bloggers.”

The list, she adds, is “a snapshot of culture as seen one year at a time through the lens of fashion.”

And what was the style scribe and member of the International Best-Dressed club wearing on this night? Dress by Azzedine Alaïa, handbag by Prada, shoes by Manolo Blahnik, earrings by Marina B.