What’s hot and what’s not, bargainista style

Fabulously frugal: Michelle Obama

The subject of Sarah Palin and her $150,000 wardrobe must surely be exhausted by now; so let’s hear it for Michelle Obama who got it right when she appeared on the Jay Leno show in J Crew, as flagged up on the retailer’s website here. Grand total? A credit crunch-tastic $337.98.

False economy: shopping in the States

Cancel that flight to New York: now that the pound has tumbled against the dollar, can we really justify those transatlantic Christmas shopping trips (or even shopping from American websites) any more? Still, let’s look on the bright side. If you are headed Stateside, you can at least enjoy a holiday without the usual shopping list for friends back home. And no more breaking into a cold sweat at the airport on the way back - when there is not a bargain to be had in the whole of NYC, you really will have nothing to declare.

It’s that time of year again boys and girls, time to see how many celebs, socialites and Royal members have squeezed their way into the Vanity Fair Best Dressed list 2008. The epitome of style, to be ‘crowned’ (hint hint) at the top spot is to cement your standing in the fashion world. Of course on the flip side, to be removed from the list can be social suicide. To some this is a very big deal.

There are a few surprises in this years list and of course a few obvious choices, with the womens top ten saturated with the likes of model/actress/first lady of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, New York heiress and socialite Ivanka Trump, fashion pariah Sarah Jessica Parker, quirky Brit actress Tilda Swinton and potential US first lady Michelle Obama.

The elusive top spot may surprise you when it comes in the form of HRH Crown Princess Mathilde of Belgium - but simply imagine her wardrobe, European Royalty surely have it the best?

As for the men, the British contingent are doing us proud with a rather stylish Mr Beckham snagging the top spot (I wonder what Mrs Beckham will have to say about this), with Mr Daniel Craig filling up the second spot and Zac Goldsmith squeezing into the top ten too. Fellow list-ees include Europeans, Count Manfredi della Gherardesca (uhuh i knew who he was too) and H.S.H. Prince Heinrich von und zu Fürstenberg.

Maybe a surprising addition to this years top ten includes music industry mogul Kanye West, but maybe this is not so surprising as Mr West has declared himself for years as ‘the Louis Vuitton don’ - enough said.

Who could forget the most recent ‘official visit’ of Carla Bruni and what’s-his-name to our very own shores, or river banks? Her daily outfits caused quite a furore in our papers with pap-rats drawn to her like moths around a candle. The perfect shots showed Miss Bruni’s look for that time in the day, cropping out less relevant bits like the Queen or Nicolas Sarkozy. I won’t even go into the rather below-the-belt timing on auction-house Christie’s part as they put up a nude photograph of Bruni in her younger years.

I had to snigger yesterday as I read about Bruni’s ability to ‘flirt with even inanimate objects’ and promise to never upstage the Queen. After getting her stylish self into Glamour’s list of the 50 most stylish people (Queenie, not Bruni) earlier this year, I should certainly hope not. And I was reminded of that brief ’situation’ when Annie Leibowitz declared the Queen’s tiara a little ‘dressy’. One could not have been less amused.

So I’m not surprised to see in this morning’s Metro that Carla Bruni has been named in Vanity Fair’s International Best-dressed list. She shares the title with the likes of Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama, Barack’s leading lady. For the entire list you’ll need to buy the mag - and you’ll notice Carla is in fact lounging across the cover. Her once stylish hubbie, perhaps now over-shadowed, has been bumped down from the list.

And while I congratulate her on her clear poise and natural beauty. I can’t help but twitch with envy. Clearly smart and beautiful, a singer, marrying an ambitious and powerful figure. Where is the balance in the world? So I seek comfort in hoping that she’s got hideous toes. And go about my day.