Best-Dressed List: August 2012

See the 10 chicest looks from the week, and then vote on your favorite.

Rihanna in Brood

I was thinking about Rihanna just the other day. I was listening to my iPod and her song “We Found Love,” which debuted on the charts last summer, came on. I was sort of surprised that I love the song as much today as I did a year ago, and it made me think of what a cultural presence the Barbadian singer has become. A lot of it has to do with her own unmistakable fashion choices. Take a look at this Brood dress she wore on the streets of St. Tropez. I saw the dress when it debuted in New York. I would never have pegged it for an island-hopping look, but with Rihanna, you never know what you’re going to get.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, in Roksanda Ilincic

Olympics? What Olympics? While the world had its eyes on London for the sporting events taking place there this week, Kate Middleton stole some of the torch’s spotlight when she showed up at the Creative Industries Reception in this stunning Roksanda Ilincic dress. If fashion were a sport, she would have won the gold.

Bar Refaeli at the 2012 London Olympics

It’s a style conundrum I didn’t think about till the Olympics started this summer: What does a chic lady wear to watch a bunch of strangers sweating for their country? Surely a skirt is out of the question. And athletic gear, even if it’s on point for the occasion, seems a little lazy. So I liked what Bar Refaeli put together when she went to the swimming finals: a funky shirt that hinted at her fashionable status but with tailored khakis and tried-and-true Converse trainers to show that she knew she was far from a runway. Not to mention that she looked delightful.

Ashley Greene in Pucci

Full confession: I haven’t seen any of the Twilight films. (And I’m not in any rush to either, since we’re hitting a media saturation point with all this drama about Kristen Stewart’s wandering eye and all.) Anyway, I bring this up because I’m not entirely sure which character Ashley Greene plays. I’d imagine she’s a vampire. I’m much more familiar with her style, which I like because it’s a good mix of adult and age-appropriate junior. I loved this Pucci dress she wore at a cocktail party in Los Angeles because it’s high fashion yet a wee-bit conservative.

Rachel Weisz in Dior Couture

Another red carpet, another Dior couture moment. While reviews of Raf Simons’s debut at the French fashion house were mixed, if his first collection’s presence on the red carpet has been any indication, he has a hit on his hands. Last week, Marion Cotillard, who is a face of the house and presumably had first dibs, wore not one but two of the looks, and now here’s Oscar winner Rachel Weisz looking absolutely divine in a strapless column dress from the same collection. Dare I say, with Rachel’s full bust and lived-in curves, I think the dress looks better here than it did when I saw it on the runway.

Pat Cleveland at HBO’s About Face Screening

Before Joan Smalls, before Tyra Banks, even before Naomi Campbell, there was Pat Cleveland. The African-American beauty helped define fashion in the 1960s and ’70s with her outgoing demeanor and take-no-prisoners method of modeling. And at a party celebrating the new HBO documentary About Face, which I wrote about for the March issue, she showed that she’s still got it. Here she is twirling around at the after-party at the Gramercy Park Hotel looking as if she’s just stepped off Halston’s runway

Michelle-Williams in A.P.C.

This week was heavy on red-carpet moments, but lest we forget: We’re still in summer. (Actually, we’re nearing the end of it, which is slightly depressing, no?) So when I saw Michelle Williams in this charming polka-dot top and short shorts from A.P.C., I had no choice but to include her. This look‹with her cropped hair and sense of frivolity encapsulates the summer for me. Or, more specifically, the summer I wish I were having!

Jessica Biel in Dior Couture

What has gotten into Jessica Biel’s closet? I have to be honest: For a few years, I thought her style was just a little vanilla. I found her wholesome American virtues adorable, but she never wowed me with her style choices. Until recently. Last week she showed up in a subversive, sexy Mugler skirt, and this week she stomped down the red carpet in a fresh-off-the-runway Dior couture strapless dress. With her swept-back hair and an oversize necklace, she looked like a movie star.