PEOPLE Release on Michelle Obama, Palin Features

EXCLUSIVE: 'PEOPLE's' BEST & WORST DRESSED 2008

Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rihanna, Sarah Jessica Parker & Anne Hathaway

Among the "10 Best Dressed Women" of the Year

Plus: The Most Memorable Style Moments Of '08 (Including Lindsay Lohan's Mink Coat Mishap)

& Vice-Presidential Hopeful Sarah Palin's Changing Styles

(NEW YORK) - This week, PEOPLE releases its Best & Worst Dressed special double issue.  The annual issue opens with PEOPLE's exclusive list of "The 10 Best Dressed Women of 2008" and provides readers with tips on how to get each look.   The Best Dressed Women of the year, according to PEOPLE are, in alphabetical order:

Fergie - Refined Rocker                                               Michelle Obama - Classic and Confident

Anne Hathaway - Young and Glam                                Gwyneth Paltrow - Better Than Ever

Kate Hudson - Effortless Taste                                      Sarah Jessica Parker - Expert Eclectic

Heidi Klum - Model Chic                                              Rihanna - Sugar and Spice

Eva Mendes - Pretty and Polished                                Charlize Theron - Bold and Beautiful

PEOPLE reports that Rihanna transformed herself in 2008 from cookie cutter to couture.  "It's all about inspiration, expression and my mood. Whatever mood I'm in, that's how I dress," the singer tells PEOPLE. Michelle Obama believes in democratic fashion.  "Some of my favorite summer dresses are from Gap and H&M," says Obama.  "And my dress from White House/Black Market seemed to really make a splash."

Best Dressed singer Fergie takes PEOPLE inside her closets - two converted guest bedrooms, one for casual wear and one for glam.  "I don't like to throw anything away," she says.  "It's emotional."   Best Dressed Show, Gossip Girl also takes readers behind-the-scenes of their costume closet.  "They know their closets inside and out, and sometimes they'll ask to borrow stuff," says costume designer Eric Daman, of Leighton Meester, aka, Blair's "proper, prim and very glamorous" wardrobe.  Edgier looks are "tousled and thrown together" for Blake Lively's character Serena.

PEOPLE takes a look at vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin who is causing a run on rimless glasses, peep-toe pumps and sexy secretary-like updos across the country.  The demand for Kazuo Kawasaki frames has been "overwhelming" and "mostly from the middle states,"  according to the line's manufacturer.  Still, Palin would rather "play down her looks," says her hairstylist, "because she wants people to hear what she has to say."

The special issue also looks back at those fashion moment's we'd like to forget.  From the worst Red Carpet dresses of the year (Paula Abdul, Lucy Liu) to daring looks like short shorts with white platforms (Mariah Carey) and aqua and orange boots with braids and a fedora (Patricia Arquette), PEOPLE reports that even the most stylish stars make fashion mistakes.

Lindsay Lohan's mink coat mishap, Rachael Ray's scarf snafu and Katie Holmes's rolled jeans are named "Most Memorable Style Moments of the Year."

For more fashion highs and lows, check out PEOPLE's Best & Worst Dressed 2008 issue, on stands Friday, September 19, 2008.