It happens every year: Our ever-growing pile of fashion magazines inches higher with each passing month, and by the time December rolls around, we can barely sift through the hundreds of stylish images we bookmarked for inspiration. 2011 was no exception, and in a year that celebrated retro supermodels, androgyny, vivid colors, and plenty of experimentation in the beauty department, choosing our favorites was particularly difficult. The best editorials of the year ran the gamut from huge ensemble casts of blue-chip models styled by greats like Katie Grand and Carine Roitfeld, to intimate, one-on-one portraits of our favorite girls like Lindsey Wixson and Daria Werbowy. The acid brights that dominated the spring collections allowed for some pretty trippy trend stories last season, but the fall glossies featured much moodier imagery, with a number of gorgeous spreads in black and white. Here are the editorials from 2011 that will stay tacked up on our walls and fill our inspiration boards well into the new year—and beyond.

H&M's holiday campaign features Stella Tennant and her daughters Cecily and Jasmine, nine and seven. They're meant to embody the "spirit of togetherness" theme that H&M is pushing for the quickly-approaching holiday season. Of course, it's not the first time model mothers and their kids have worked together in campaigns and editorials. So we decided to round up some of our favorite mother-daughter moments. One of them may surprise you.

When Anna Wintour referred to relatively little-known model Arizona Muse in her last February's editor's letter as a "gorgeous, smart, grown-up" and compared her to the likes of modeling giants Linda Evangelista and Natalia Vodianova, we knew the modeling world was in for something big. It's been quite the landmark year for Muse. Top campaigns, extensive runway presence, big covers, and now another feather in her cap -- the number one model in Vogue. Hundreds of models are cast every year in the pages of international editions of Vogue, and when we tallied the results of their work it quickly became obvious who came out on top in 2011. Quantity and quality must be accounted for to make the top 10. Not only must a models' appearances be plentiful, but the quality of those appearances must be stellar as well. This includes factors like only-girl editorials, the caliber of photographers they work with and editions they're in, and their number of overall pages. Arizona's scoresheet was predictably well-rounded. She worked with the best photographers, scored the most solo editorials and graced enough pages to fill an entire August issue all on her own (that's about 220 for those of you keeping track). She started the year with a bang by starring in only-girl editorials for Vogue China, Italia, Paris, UK and US, and that was in just one month! It's an unusual feat for a model to skyrocket to the extent Arizona has since she hit the international scene last year, and while we're thrilled for her success, we wonder if it'll stick. While Muse has the novelty (and sometimes the curse) of it-girl status, it remains to be seen whether she'll be blessed with longevity, the true mark of a great and successful model. We are looking forward to what the new year will bring for her. For now, click through for the rest of the top 10.

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has just announced the finalists for the 2012 National Magazine Awards, and among the usual suspects (The New Yorker and New York), there were a few surprises. For one, Vice received it's first ASME nom, for General Excellence no less, alongside The New Yorker, New York, Bloomberg Businessweek and GQ in the General-Interest Magazine category, which is kind of the equivalent for getting nominated for "Best Picture" at the Oscars. It's certainly a feat for the magazine which started out as an underground publication that prided itself on being anything but mainstream. We'd like to think it's all thanks to the mag's fascinating exploration of canine bondage, or their coverage of London fashion week on acid, but you know, that could be just us. Also of note is that only two fashion titles--Glamour and W--got nods for General Excellence. W received more ASME nominations than any other fashion mag in 2011, and 2012's list confirms that EIC Stefano Tonchi is indeed on a roll--much to the chagrin of competitor Vogue, no doubt.