[Editor's note: Flavorwire is counting down our most popular features of 2010. This post comes in at position number 6. It was originally published August 4, 2010.] If you’re the kind of person who’s into transformational mid-life journeys told with self-deprecating charisma, the you’re probably pretty psyched about the forthcoming film version of Eat Pray Love. And you may also have some of the film’s myriad product tie-ins on your shopping list: The adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s wildly popular memoir has been franchised into everything from candles to tea to perfume. Designer Sue Wong has even launched a line of Eat Pray Love-branded clothing. But since her costume-y designs are leaving us a bit cold, we couldn’t help but thinking about which of our favorite literary characters might provide better sartorial inspiration. After the jump, peruse our list of literature’s best-dressed figures and leave your own suggestions in the comments.
Lily Bart, The House of Mirth
Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart in 2000′s The House of Mirth
This aging society girl was always a vision in beautiful dresses and jewels. But because she wasn’t as wealthy as her friends, she was always running up dress-maker debt.
Edith Wharton writes: “The remaining dresses, though they had lost their freshness, still kept the long unerring lines, the sweep and amplitude of the great artist’s stroke, and as she spread them out on the bed the scenes in which they had been worn rose vividly before her. An association lurked in every fold: each fall of lace and gleam of embroidery was like a letter in the record of her past.”
Comments (30)
How could you possibly leave out Charles Swann and even more so Oriane de Guermantes and her Fortuny gowns? Or Madame Chrysantheme?
Oh,yeAH! Ben Barnes ROCKS!Dark,steamy hot,drop dead sexy and r-e-al BAD,
just the way I like ‘em!
So long as you include “Orlando” (which you did, at Number 4), I’m happy.
Holly Golightly a “socialite”? I thought she was a hooker? The two aren’t always synonymous…
Dorothy (Judy Garland) from the Wizard of Oz may not have been the best dressed, but those Ruby Red Slippers were fabulous!
Prince Fabrizio Salina from the Leopard?
I love that Genet is mentioned, his descriptions are always so lush. I’d add Dorothea from Middlemarch… her clothes (though simple) are described gorgeously, and she in them.
I vote for Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited.
Hmmm. Sebastian Flyte should be on this list…
Confession: Sebastian Flyte totally would have made the list if the text of Brideshead were available online.
A socialite is a hooker that you cannot afford.
Indeed. Holly grew up on a farm and earns her living as a prostitute (“any gent with the slightest chic will give you fifty for the girl’s john, and I always ask for cab fare too, that’s another fifty”). It’s true that’s glossed over in the movie, but it’s clear enough in the book.
I think someone’s missing. I’d say Flemming’s James Bond. He is an epiphany of elegance and grooming!
This list is sorely lacking some Patrick Bateman.
Alas, no Count Fosco – how can white mice as an accoutrement possibly be topped? Not to mention his tiny feet!
What about Hercule Poirot?
No Auntie Mame? Really?
How about Irene Adler in the Carole Nelson Douglas series. I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed reading about clothing quite so much!
[...] Flavorwire runs down Literature’s 10 Best-Dressed Characters. [...]
This list means nothing without P. Bateman.
Re: Lori- Dorothy didn’t have ruby red slippers in the original Frank L. Baum novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” They were silver. Does this alter your opinion?
[...] Read Flavorwire’s Literature’s 10 Best-Dressed. [...]
no Ana Karenina? wtf?
The Count of Monte Cristo!
Artemis Fowl
[...] just read a fun list on Flavorwire of their 10 favorite fashionable literary characters. Allow me to [...]
[...] just read a fun list on Flavorwire of their 10 favorite fashionable literary characters. Allow me to [...]
Anna Karenina. Where is she?
This list is awful and was clearly thrown together over the course of a half-hour. Fail.
[...] for their stylistic sensibilities as for their literary skills. We’ve already explored the glamorous lives of fictional characters, but after the jump, check out ten great authors with equally distinctive personal [...]
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