Why Was Bella Hadid Voted Best Dressed in 2022?

There are paparazzi’d celebrities every day on the wires. We see a steady rotation of names like Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and even Hadid’s own older sister, Gigi. But Bella seems to perpetually drive commerce and drive viral trends in an especially rabid way. The Hadid effect is that the 26-year-old model has nailed a street style algorithm that no other celebrity has been able to quite accomplish. She—or possibly her stylist/personal shopper/consultant—knows the art of the laissez-faire haphazardly chic dressing, which ultimately makes her seem approachable and her look feel attainable because it is. In that seemingly last-minute, pizza-chomping look, the sweet spot style recipe is present: There’s the vintage-or-can’t-get-it factor (that ole OC leather jacket and the retro graphic T-shirt), the insouciant, just-threw-this-on addition (tighty-whities), and the red hot big brand piece (those platform Uggs). The whole ensemble is the perfect concoction of both commercial accessibility and the rare items that are reproducible, at least in aesthetic. Anyone can find a great oversized leather jacket and a funky graphic T-shirt; anyone can nab some version of an Ugg, although it might not be the sold-out mini-platform iteration. 

Then there is the vintage facet. Like Hadid, the whole world can’t get enough of vintage right now, but there is a difference in how Hadid and other celebrities choose to wear vintage. Plenty of celebrities have been going to great lengths to nail a rare Galliano number or an archival Roberto Cavalli skirt. After all, vintage has become the way du jour for celebrities to announce that they now have a place in the fashion sphere. Now, we are seeing TikTok queen-turned-pop star Addison Rae, a relative newbie to the fashion world, attend a LACMA event where guests are in exclusively Gucci and she is in a vintage Jean-Louis Scherrer couture gown. We’ve seen similar moves from Kylie Jenner, Ariana Grande, Simi Haze, and more. Vintage has become a visual statement that celebrities use to signal “I’m different” and that they have a fashion point of view, when in reality, they are all starting to look the same. Ultimately, when many celebrities try to break into the fashion world via vintage, it feels vacant because they do not have any substantial connection to the clothes that they are wearing. Their vintage grails are starting to feel like everything and anything.