Taking the mirror’s role, Vanity Fair answered: Michelle Obama! The wife of the Democratic presidential candidate topped the magazine’s 2008 Best Dressed List, and was described as “our commander-in-sheath.”

Michelle had some serious competition, with the list populated by French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, cosmetics queen Evelyn Lauder and “Sex and The City” star Sarah Jessica Parker. Actually, fashion icon Parker was the only actress on the list, which left aside the Hollywood stars this year.

Five of the ten best-dressed women in the world live in New York. Along with Sarah Jessica Parker, the other four are Diana Taylor, Ivanka Trump, Evelyn Lauder and Julia Koch.

Vanity Fair special correspondent Amy Fine Collins says the fact that the list is topped by New York women “was not intentional, but it’s not surprising.”

“New York women may be over-represented on the list just because New York women rule. We have access and we have the contacts that can't be duplicated anywhere else in the world. And we've got visibility - a great stage on which to perform,” Collins explained the result.

Brains are as important as beauty, Collins adds. That is why the ladies voted as best-dressed do more in life than just care about the way they clothe. In order to be elegant, Collins says, you need to have a very independent mind, because “you're the person that people imitate, not a person who follows.”

That is why all the ladies on the list are very intelligent, educated and influential.

Occupying the first place on the list, Michelle Obama, 44, is not just an elegant lady. She is also the vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, and her causes are, as Vanity Fair quotes her, “youth leadership programs, education, talking with women about work/family life balance.”

Even though she is only 26 years old, Ivanka Trump made her way to the top places of the list because her personal style is, like she says, “a mix of the classic and modern with a feminine twist,” and her style icon is Grace Kelly. Trump is vice president of development and acquisitions, at the Trump Organization, and president of Ivanka Trump Jewelry. And she loves five-inch heels.

France’s First lady, Carla Bruni, charmed Britain with her style and grace when she visited Great Britain together with her husband Nicolas Sarkozy. Instead of high heels, she prefers flat shoes, or she often chooses to go barefoot in her videos. But she emanates sensuality and femininity through all her pores. She works for the White Ribbon Alliance, and amfAR, when she is not busy composing sweet and sensuous music.

Diana Taylor, Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend, is the managing director of the investment firm Wolfensohn & Co., and she was educated at Dartmouth College and Columbia Business School.

Julia Koch was chosen for her charity, Sarah Jessica Parker for her influence over women’s way of dressing around the world.

All in all, the women who made the list are the ones who “dominate the clothes,” they don’t “have the clothes dominate them,” Collins says.