Style editor: Sizing up People's best and worst dressed list

People magazine west coast style editor Steven Cojocaru spoke to CNN anchor Carol Lin about their latest issue featuring the best and worst dressed stars of 2001 as well as a fashion review of Thursday night's Video Music Awards (VMA).

LIN: All right, let's go for the easy one, best dressed female.

COJOCARU: Best dressed female, Nicole Kidman. We have to start with her. Here is somebody who had such a horrible year but still had the ability to accessorize. That's quite a staggering feat as far as I'm concerned.

LIN: Yes, but doesn't she get her accessories from Harry Winston? Doesn't that make it a lot easier?

RESOURCES People.com: Best & worst dressed 2001

COJOCARU: It makes it a lot easier, yes. If you're getting, you know, plastic zirconia, no. That's hard to work. But, yes, when you have the best of the best -- but she wears it very well. She puts her own spin on it. She's no mannequin. We're really impressed with Nicole Kidman.

LIN: And of course you had Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, love those dresses, at the Oscars. But in the meantime, did anybody take any risks?

COJOCARU: Oh, yes, absolutely. We have a whole section on risk takers this year. Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez. We felt that Sarah Jessica Parker is obviously very influential and she has a lot of variations in style. One minute she can be a Hollywood princess, the next minute she's Miss. Downtown. So we felt she's pretty gusty in her choices.

LIN: Or our society. ...What about the guys?

COJOCARU: The guys? We picked a lot of guys who we felt were sharp shooters. Those are the best dressed guys, men like George Clooney and Brad Pitt. But it's not just about a man putting on a nice suit. Anybody can do that. It's how you wear it. And we felt that Brad Pitt and George Clooney and Mark Walhberg, that they really have panache. They're classic but yet modern at the same time. So they got a lot of kudos.

LIN: But what did you see? I mean you go to a formal event, you wear a tux. You go to a movie premiere and maybe you wear a pullover.

COJOCARU: No, but it's how you put your stamp on it. Brad Pitt has a lot of flair. He looks very young and kind of trendy. Whereas George Clooney, to me, he kind of has a Cary Grant feel. I think it's all in the way you wear your clothes. It's all about personal style and we feel these men really have personal style.

LIN: Worst dressed, I mean the worst thing you have seen out there this year?

COJOCARU: There's so many. Where do we begin? Well, we felt Juliette Binoche, the star from "Chocolat," her Oscars outfit this year, that '20s flapper girl look, I kind of feel bad for her because this outfit was universally panned and I think it's going to haunt her for years to come.

LIN: Yes, it doesn't even really look like her. But you know, she is at least dressed. I mean it wasn't like Lil' Kim at the last year's MTV awards.

COJOCARU: Well, I agree. I mean Lil' Kim, you know, really took pasties and took them to a whole other level.

LIN: We're going to get to the VMA Awards that were last night. But who else? I mean something really...

COJOCARU: You know what? We have this new section of the worst dressed, a section we call 'Time Warp.' We felt there were certain stars or certain famous people who are absolutely stuck in a look. Like, for instance, Queen Elizabeth.

LIN: What about someone like Bjork? Does she make the list anywhere?

COJOCARU: Someone like Bjork -- yes, of course she did. You know, she made our worst dressed list for that swan or chicken or duck or whatever you want to call that outfit that she made a splash in at the Oscars. Again, we felt that was costumy and much like Juliette Binoche. That is an outfit that is going to haunt her for the rest of her life. Every time somebody runs a picture of Bjork, you're going to see that swan costume.

LIN: ...let's go to the VMA Awards.

COJOCARU: OK, let's go to the VMA Awards.

LIN: So, beyond animal and animal prints, what did you see out there last night?

COJOCARU: A lot of retro looks. It looks like everybody got together and shared one stylist. I really wasn't impressed with the fashions last night, to be honest with you. I judge things on originality and I didn't think people were that original. Everybody wore the thigh high boots. Everybody did that kind of '70s look, you know, with the groovy hats or the denim. There wasn't that much -- and Jennifer Lopez had her clothes on.

LIN: It's a new thing.

COJOCARU: What does somebody like me do? I mean, you know, we were all expecting her to come in dental floss and high heels. But you see, that's good about Jennifer Lopez. She always keeps you guessing.

LIN: Maybe she's taken a few cues from Madonna.

COJOCARU: Indeed. Many guises. I thought she joined the witness protection program. I didn't recognize her.

LIN: Oh...

COJOCARU: It was very staid.

LIN: Any other dish out of there last night?

COJOCARU: Yes, Destiny's Child, those abs, I mean you can throw a dime at it and it'll hit you back in the eye.