 Because Symbols Mean Something
Why should French First Ladies have all the fun? Many Americans were outraged at the amount of attention paid to the Narciso Rodriguez dress Michelle Obama wore on election night, as if all that talk about her attire somehow trivialized the occasion. But we choose to see Mrs. O's fashion risk-taking as a small but potent sign that the next four (eight?) years won't be politics -- or pantsuits -- as usual. And if nothing else, Obama -- who sparked a run on yellow J.Crew pencil skirts and cardigans after an appearance on The Tonight Show -- could be a one-woman bailout package for one of the nation's key consumer sectors. Game on, Madame Bruni-Sarkozy.
 Because There's Heart Beneath the Commerce
For her 40th anniversary celebration, Sonia Rykiel didn't fly her fans halfway around the world or lay on three days of parties. Instead, she dragged them to the outskirts of Paris toward the end of a grueling fashion week for a sit-down dinner and runway show. But such was the love in the room (from Jean Paul Gaultier, Dita Von Teese, and Zoe Cassavetes, among others) and the exuberance on the catwalk (Raquel Zimmermann and Lily Donaldson sashaying out in matching headdresses and massive grins) that, by the end, Olivier Theyskens and his tablemates were tossing roses about the place. Just don't tell anyone about this spontaneous outbreak of warmth -- it could ruin fashion's reputation.
 Because Without Fashion, Mad Men Would Just Be a Bunch of Attractive People Smoking and Cheating
Not since the heyday of fashion television in the eighties -- the decade that gave us both Dynasty and Brideshead Revisited -- has style played such a leading role in a small-screen series. (In Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, clothes are decoration; here, they're character development.) Jon Hamm's Don Draper sheaths his ambition and guilty secrets in gray sharkskin, while wife Betty (January Jones), like Hitchcock's Marnie, trys to rein in her issues in icily chic equestrian gear. Fashion, meanwhile, has returned the compliment. Matthew Weiner's AMC show inspired self-avowed fan Michael Kors' best collection in years, for Fall 2008: all camel-hair balmacaans, pencil-slim silk floral sheaths, cashmere twinsets, and ocelot-print pants.
 Because Marc Jacobs Keeps Us Guessing
Jacobs was everywhere in 2007. Did that mean he'd lie low in 2008? Not a chance. First, there was the ongoing saga of his very public private life (this year's guessing game: Did he or didn't he get married to his Brazilian beau, Lorenzo Martone?). But all that falls away when the lights go down and the first model hits the runway. His Hall of Mirrors Spring 2009 collection gave New York a rare euphoric fashion high with its mad pileup of references, and he followed it up a few weeks later with another brilliantly dense show for Louis Vuitton. He ended the year by snagging Madonna for Vuitton's ads and showing up in a kilt in Miami.
 Because Runways and Magazines Finally Got (a Little) More Diverse
For an industry that prides itself on new ideas, fashion can sometimes be slow to change its ways. And while the consensus of a "Race on the Runway" panel in September was that there's a long way to go, 2008 at least saw an injection of color into the longtime whitewash. Some dismissed Vogue Italia's "A Black Issue" as tokenism, but Steven Meisel's images of veterans (Veronica Webb and Naomi Campbell), newly minted It girls (Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman), gorgeous unknowns (Arlenis Sosa and Sessilee Lopez), and even an America's Next Top Model (Toccara Jones) spoke louder than words. The issue, which quickly sold out and required a 10,000-magazine reprint, has had a (hopefully lasting) effect. Sosa was named the new face of Lancôme in September and Lopez recently posed for her first W magazine editorial.
 Because Prada Just Cut Down on the Need for Ironing
Some found it a touch less complex than Mrs. Prada's typical layered oeuvre, but the unironed allure of her Spring 2009 show somehow seemed in step with these unsettled times. Style.com's Sarah Mower described the collection -- archly feminine, purposefully rumpled shift dresses, pencil skirts, and bra-top twinsets, all ready to be undone at a moment's notice -- as "Cinecittà without cliché" and a "visceral temptation" that was sure to get us shopping. Just remember: If you insist on taking that fish-print sheath to the cleaners, take extra pains to point out that the wrinkles are intended.
 Because Otherwise Belgium Would Only Be Known for Beer and Chocolate
Despite his best intentions, Dries Van Noten failed to stay under the radar this year. First, he received the CFDA's International Award in New York, and then a few months later in Paris, he sent out a Spring 2009 collection whose refined simplicity seemed to have perfectly intuited the world's suddenly sober mood. The Belgian designer's enduring success is all the more remarkable in that he has done it on his own terms. The corporates learned to stop knocking on the door of his Antwerp castle, because Van Noten politely yet steadfastly declines to hand over the financial reins to anyone who might ask that he change his way of working -- for example, he refuses to do pre-collections as it means handing work over to assistants. Looking ahead to next year, a new jewelry line threatens to raise his profile even higher.
Because Sometimes "Celebrity Designer" Isn't an Oxymoron
The only word pairing more terrifying than "celebrity designer" is "celebrity fragrance." But some brave souls -- Gwen Stefani, the Olsen twins -- have shown that it doesn't have to be that way, and now we can add another ultra-famous sartorialista to that list: Victoria Beckham. We admit we managed to avoid the sunglasses and jeans she previously launched under the name dVb, but Style.com's Nicole Phelps was quick to call Beckham's all-dress Spring 2009 collection "one of the hottest things going in New York this week." Sure they owe a debt to Roland Mouret, but the gorgeously simple slim sheaths are also the considered creation of a woman who spends her life in serious fashion (hence the grosgrain linings for perfect posture). And by all accounts, they're selling faster than Brangelina paparazzi pics at Bergdorf Goodman.
 Because No Other Industry Can Make a Boy's Dreams Come True
Before this summer, hockey player Sean Avery was known as a tough guy on the ice, a party boy off it (lately with his very own VIP area at the Beatrice Inn), and a ladies' man to boot (Elisha Cuthbert, Rachel Hunter). But what Avery -- who told an ESPN camera crew that he grew up playing with dolls -- really wanted to do was -- intern at Vogue. No word on how many coffees he actually fetched for editors during his much-publicized stint at the fashion magazine, but credit him with starting a trend. Now another modest chap, Kanye West, is gunning for his own fashion internship, and according to the blogosphere, only a post at Louis Vuitton or Jil Sander will do.
 Because a High-Low Collaboration Can Still Knock Our (Polka-Dotted) Socks Off
In the last couple of years, those collisions of mass and class have gone from rare high points on the calendar to what seem like almost weekly occurrences (we're half expecting to see Dennis Basso for Target any day now). But Comme des Garçons' collaboration with H&M got our hearts beating a little faster this November. The Rei-verent pored with building anticipation over the Peter Lindbergh ad campaign and lined up for days in Tokyo and New York. And with good reason: The boiled wool jackets, deconstructed skirts, drop-crotch pants, and polka-dotted pieces -- all made under the Japanese label's strict supervision -- truly raised the bar on fast-fashion merch. Did you expect any less from Ms. Kawakubo?
Because It Designers Spring Eternal
Fashion's ceaseless pursuit of the new can seem a bit extreme, but without it there would be no next big things for everyone else to rip off. How to tell Balmain's Christophe Decarnin is the latest anointed one? a) His name is on the lips, and his clothes are on the backs, of super-cool girls like Vanessa Traina. b) The drop-crotch dhoti pants he designed for his Spring 2007 collection were everywhere on the Spring 2009 runways. c) At a moment when 70 percent off sales are making Fifth Avenue department stores look like Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving, boutiques can't keep his five-figure, spangled eighties ultra-minidresses in stock. As Style.com's Sarah Mower wrote, "Balmain is a smack in the eye for fashion doom-mongering."
 Because It Girls Spring Eternal
The good thing about It girls is that just as you're getting sick of one, another pops up in her place. And while America has done its bit in the service of It over the years -- exporting Tinsley Mortimer's brand of platinum cutesiness to Japan, for example -- it was Little Britain that took up the cause this year. Alice Dellal, Alexa Chung, and the Geldofs, Peaches and Pixie, all put a scruffed-up English accent on the phenomenon in 2008. And while it's easy to sneer at these fun-loving lasses, they selflessly fill a vital role in society: persuading us working stiffs that a life of nonstop partying must be a shallow, empty existence.
Three Letters: YSL
A crowd of nearly 800 people, including Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Catherine Deneuve, his mother, Lucienne Saint Laurent, and nearly every designer in Paris, arrived at the glise Saint-Roche on June 5 to say goodbye to Yves Saint Laurent, who passed away at the age of 71. But even before that magnificently chic outpouring of grief, the tributes to YSL's genius and immeasurable influence on today's fashion flooded in: La Saharienne! Le Smoking! Art as fashion! Street-influenced couture! In fact, in the rehashing you realized more than ever just how much current runway fare comes from the revolutionary school of Saint Laurent -- and will continue to do so. Not bad for a man who, in the words of his protector Pierre Berga, was "born with a nervous breakdown."
Because After 20 Years, Martin Margiela Still Provokes (and Because No, He's Not Retiring)
There was a packed house for Martin Margiela's 20th anniversary show on September 29 in Paris, an event Style.com's Sarah Mower called "a reminder of the continuing relevance of Margiela's sidelong contributions to stimulating fashion over two decades." Or in other words: a catalog of all the seemingly outlandish yet forward-thinking ideas that have begun on the Belgian designer's runway and rippled out to change the wider course of fashion vernacular -- the pointed shoulder pad, for instance. Here it was all capped off with a dancing satin birthday cake. Margiela's reps assure us that the enigmatic designer was smiling somewhere in the audience and that those retirement rumors are unfounded.
Because There's No Catfight Like a Fashion Catfight
Alessandra Facchinetti received mostly positive reviews for her first few collections at Valentino. Somewhere along the way, though, she crossed the Italian fashion mafia, and true to form they had her whacked. The execution was messy, even by the industry's notoriously messy standards. Facchinetti learned of her dismissal via press rumors as she was preparing to send the Spring 2009 line onto the catwalk, and her predecessors, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, added insult to injury by releasing a statement praising the "wise decision." Still, Gucci vet Facchinetti has already proved she's a survivor, and the rest of us get to watch as the old regime's handpicked subs, accessories designers Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, step into the fray.
 Because Soon There Will Be a Reason to Shop Again
The global economic meltdown put a crimp in even the most dedicated shopper's agenda. And the current spate of drastic department-store sales is only adding to our confusion (70 percent off? Seriously, is that the best you can do? What if I wait another day? Will you be paying me to take that dress off your hands? Where's the bottom of this market?). But for New Yorkers, at least, help is at hand. After a series of delays, Topshop insists that its first American footprint, a 40,000-square-foot flagship at 478 Broadway in Soho, is on track to bow in March 2009 -- just in time for our reduced clothing budget.
 Because Without Fashion, James Bond Would Be Just Another Jason Bourne Wannabe
OK, so no one would accuse Daniel "Buns of Steel" Craig of being a poor man's Matt Damon. But there was something rather too familiar about all that relentless running around in his latest Bond outing (like The Bourne Ultimatum, Quantum of Solace starts just seconds after the end of the previous installment in the franchise). What did set 007 apart was the cut of his thrillingly sober Tom Ford suits, which looked even better when splattered with a little blood and dust. Next up for Ford: his directorial debut, A Single Man, based on a Christopher Isherwood novel and starring Julianne Moore and Colin Firth. Aimed, we suspect, at a slightly different audience.
 Because Nobody, Except Mickey Rourke, Does Better Comebacks
The good news about fashion's revolving-door policy is that everyone gets a second chance. Phoebe Philo, the rare designer who left a major label of her own accord, quit Chloa in 2006 to spend more time with her young family. Now this critical darling is returning from self-imposed exile to helm the design studio at Celine, and the once merely obligatory show -- the house is owned by LVMH -- will be one of Paris' must-see collections in March. And Philo is doing it on her own terms: One of her conditions was that her design studio be based in her hometown of London.
 Because Without Fashion, We'd Be Lugging Around Ugly, Clunky Phones
Sure, the software's pretty nifty, but let's call the iPhone 3G what it is: a fashion accessory -- in the best sense of the term, an object that combines form and function to create something that makes everyday life a little easier and more enjoyable.
 Because Without Fashion, We Wouldn't Have This Guy
Coming to theaters in 2009: Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in Mesh T-Shirt.
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