Donna Tartt makes Vanity Fair’s best-dressed list

Here’s something that doesn’t happen every day: An author has made a best-dressed list.

The author is Donna Tartt; the list comes from Vanity Fair, perhaps the most highbrow of best-dressed-listmakers. Its list included votes from readers, who liked Tartt’s taste in gloves.

Tartt, as avid readers know, is the author of “The Goldfinch,” a literary bestseller from 2013. The 784-page novel is about a young man who survives a bomb explosion in a museum, during which he loses his mother and secretly acquires a valuable painting. His fortunes rise and fall as he grows up in New York and Las Vegas and winds up in Europe.

“‘The Goldfinch’ both describes and understands the arbitrariness of life and never makes it seem simpler or more orderly than the fascinating, troubling mess it is,” wrote Geoff Nicholson in our review.

Tartt landed on the Best Dressed list with plenty of the usual suspects. There are actresses -- Lupita Nyong’o, Cate Blanchett, Michelle Dockery, Emmy Rossum, Emma Watson -- and royalty, including Kate Middleton (the duchess of Cambridge) and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. There are fashion business heavyweights, such as Natalie Massenet, founder and executive chairman, Net-a-Porter, and several models. The list includes socialite Vanessa Getty and musician St. Vincent.

Where does Tartt fit in? She cuts a striking figure with her sharp black haircut and exacting fasion sense. According to Vanity Fair, her favorite item of clothing is a “blue velvet jacket with grosgrain edging and emerald satin lining, Duncan Quinn bespoke,” while her favorite accessory is “vintage kidskin gloves in buttercup yellow.”

Who are her fashion icons? Louise Brooks and Harold from “Harold and Maude,” both of whom also had distinctive hairstyles.

Like passing notes in class; I’m @paperhaus on Twitter