The joy of lists

Daniel Craig was voted Best Dressed Man in Britain for the second year running by GQ magazine. The pic of Craig in his short shorts was for EJ's benefit...reports from other other people in the cinema showing of Casino Royale say she was actually salivating at this point in the film.

Eliza is passionate about lists, she writes lists for everything and through her passion I am a big fan of writing all kinds of lists. My favourite list is my 'Clothes of the Month' list which details any items that I need to complement my wardrobe. Of course there are times when I'm out shopping and the tempting shade of a shoe, or the cut of a shirt will catch my attention and make me forget the list, but I always have the list in the back of my mind and it helps me...list are great. However, when it comes to other peoples lists, I'm not so keen. I pick up GQ from time to time now, for me it has been surpassed by Esquire and Arena in the everymans (allbeit slightly wealthy and middle aged) market, it has become the male equivalent of everything that is wrong with Vogue, far too many adverts, lazy styling and leaning far too far to the right (I'm getting political this morning!) This little rant is after GQ has published their '50 Best Dressed Men in Britain in 2008', for a great run down of the list go here.

With regards to their number one, I have little to complain about, I've talked about Daniel Craig recently - Craig dresses in Savile Row, he is always sharp and crisp, not very adventurous but he knows how to wear clothes well. Noel Fielding (for anyone who doesn't know he is the chap above) at number 2? GQ isn't meant to be picking someone like Noel Fielding; he certainly is an interesting dresser (a man who's never been afraid to wear silver space shoes down the local cafe) but one of the best dressed men in Britain he is not. Apparently he got the female vote. Which is surprising to me because I thought they might be angry with him for stealing their jeans in Topshop.

Now onto James McAvoy, I like the Atonement actor a great deal but he should not be anywhere near the top 50 best dressed men solely because of the cover he did for W. I could go on and on in this fashion but I will try and keep this short...

4th best dressed man in Britain...I'm packing my bag and heading anywhere else...

The Royal Family also find themselves surprisingly well represented, with Princes Philip, Charles, Harry and Michael of Kent all making the list, which was voted for by a panel of international judges including Tom Ford, Giorgio Armani and Naomi Campbell. Conservative leader David Cameron made the top ten, while Gordon Brown fell (or climbed, depending on how you look at it) to third worst-dressed. Can the Conservativeness of this publication being any more subtle?

I will stick to writing my own lists and will be miffed by other peoples....so let's start our own list...recommendations welcome...this is a democratic blog after all.

Is it bad that I've not actually heard of a lot of people on their list? I can't understand how David Beckham can be one of the best dressed men in Britain largely because he doesn't really live here any more. It seems odd that at number one they have someone who dresses so classically, while at number two they have someone who dresses out of a manic 8 year old girl's dressing up box (sorry, in the past year for some reason I've grown to really dislike Noel Fielding).

It's funny though, as much as I love lists, I don't really have a list of stylish men in my head, just particular outfits, films, photographs and moods in a gigantic collage in my memory. I guess for me that's a large part of what this blog's about, trying to pin it all down. Still, I'd love to know who's our readers' number one, or if indeed they have anyone specifically in mind.