California Apparel News

Award-winning journalist and longtime Vanity Fair correspondent Amy Fine Collins recently joined Julie Wainwright, The RealReal founder and chief executive officer, at the resale retailer's Los Angeles location for an intimate discussion on the writer's new book "The International Best Dressed List: The Official Story.” Prior to her death in 2003, the list's creator, Eleanor Lambert, selected Collins and three other fashion-editorial veterans—Graydon Carter, Aimeé Bell and Reinaldo Herrera—serve a caretakers of the annual register of the best dressed. An International Best Dressed List honoree, inducted in 1996, and Geoffrey Beene muse, Collins shared details of the fashion world and how the list reflected culture throughout its 80 years in existence, which began December 27, 1940, prior to the United States' entrance into World War II.

"People were panicking. Dress manufacturers were terrified about selling dresses. They hired Eleanor Lambert, who was the inventor of fashion publicity, to come up with an idea to help stimulate the buying and wearing of clothing. One of the devices she came up with was the International Best Dressed List," Collins explained, during the Jan. 13 event. "It has endured until this day, and no one was more surprised than she that it lasted her entire life."

The connection between the book from Collins and The RealReal lies in their respective abilities of linking fashion to history. As The RealReal allows fashion enthusiasts to explore a timeline of fashion through its vintage inventory, Collins's book encourages this audience to examine the recognizable faces who first set these trends and the influence on fashion during the periods in which they lived. From 1940s inductees, which included Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton and dancer Adele Astaire, to modern honorees such as Oprah Winfrey, and Amal and George Clooney, the list's influence and representation of culture is outlined in great detail within the book.

"Fashion is a cultural touchstone through the ages. Women in the 1940s—they were strong and powerful, then they got really feminized with all that material in the 50s and in the 60s all hell broke loose," Wainwright said. "It’s a reflection of our society. It’s fascinating."

Published by Rizzoli, "The International Best Dressed List: The Official Story," was released in late 2019. After 2 1/2 years spent creating the book, Collins is hopeful that readers will be touched by her work and, when reading it, feel the same happiness she felt writing it.

"It was written with a lot of joy," Collins said. "I would like to transmit the pleasure I had creating the book to the reader, and hope that the words and photos uplift and inspire them in some way."