Lady Gaga and NBC's Brian Williams among the style icons named to Vanity Fair's 2010 Best-Dressed List

Lady Gaga and NBC’s Brian Williams among the style icons named to Vanity Fair’s 2010 Best-Dressed List

Senior Features Writer

Aug. 4, 2010 6 AM PT

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Frankly, we’re kind of over Vanity Fair playing global fashion police, but when the magazine’s 2010 International Best-Dressed List was announced Tuesday, where did we find ourselves? You guessed it -- checking the list to see who made the cut.

We try hard to keep up with the planet’s most fashionable -- and fashion-forward -- folks. We really do. It’s in our job description. But this year’s crop has us a bit baffled. Among the names one might reasonably expect -- David Beckham, Charlotte Gainsbourg -- were a lot of European royalty we’d never heard of (including the Duchess of Alba, who is credited as having ‘more than 44 noble and 150 hereditary titles’ -- though we’re guessing ‘Jessica Alba’s grandmum’ isn’t one of them).

Here’s a link to a printable view of the whole list (the format’s not especially pretty, but it’ll save you if you don’t want to click through all 45 slides).

Among the ladies on this year’s list are First Lady Michelle Obama (whose husband failed to make the cut this year); fashion designer Tory Burch; actress Carey Mulligan; France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (again); and Samantha Cameron, wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron (she also happens to be a creative consultant for Smythson). Of course, Lady Gaga’s ‘just-gotta-be-me’ attitude -- and wardrobe -- earned her a spot as well (her look is described as ‘Dada Catholic girl’).

Notable new names on the men’s side include polo player and model Nacho Figueras (included as a twofer with his photographer-model wife, Delfina Blaquier), Lanvin designer and creative director Alber Elbaz, ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchorman Brian Williams, Alec Baldwin, jeweler-actor Waris Ahluwalia and Pharrell Williams.

-- Adam Tschorn

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Adam Tschorn

Senior features writer Adam Tschorn is a former small-town newspaper editor, game-show question-and-answer man and fashion scribe who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2007. He currently covers a wide range of pop-culture topics with a focus on cannabis culture. Holding a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in journalism, he feels perfectly suited to looking at things, asking “why?” and writing down the answers.