bridget foley

And Candice Swanepoel makes some interesting campaign decisions.

And Ashley Benson wears a bow as a bandeau.

Kudos to Tom Ford for calling Zara out. We imagine most designers feel the same way.

There's much to be said about John Galliano and his return to fashion. Fashion industry leaders, like Anna Wintour and Oscar de la Renta are all for it (it was Wintour, after all, who asked de la Renta to host Galliano in his studio). A select few members of New York's Jewish community quoted in yesterday's reactionary New York Post story, are against it. But whatever camp you fall into, there's certainly a lot to discuss--and that's precisely what top fashion writers like WWD's Bridget Foley, the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes and the New York Times's Eric Wilson have done today.

To survive in this business, you've got to have more than talent. You've got to be shrewd, savvy, determined—and a crazy-hard worker.

The Fashionista 50 slideshow. Click through for a bio of each of our picks.

We look forward to Bridget Foley's WWD op-eds, mostly because it's one of the few times the industry trade offers up a real opinion. (It wasn't always so stale: read John Fairchild's Chic Savages to learn all about WWD's heyday in the 1970s.) But this morning, the Fashionista team was collectively turned off by "Fashion Pound Puppies," in which Foley lambastes Michelle Obama for requesting designers create inaugural outfits for her on-spec. "How does Michelle Obama get a pass on the ridiculousness surrounding her inaugural wardrobe selections?" she says. "The whole thing would be merely silly and undignified if it weren’t so disrespectful of the time and resources of others, some of whom have little of both at their disposal." We were so annoyed by her presumptions, in fact, that Leah and I spent like 15 minutes talking about it over Gchat:

And other things we learned at today's WWD CEO Summit.

Back in August, Barneys revealed that it would be collaborating with Disney for its holiday campaign--and that Minnie Mouse and her pals would be dropping a few dress sizes to fit into their designer frocks. Cue the outrage.