The magazine arrived with a splash: Best-Dressed List 2008 emblazoned across the top. Tatler had pipped Vanity Fair, which inherited the first International BDL, started by the American fashion pioneer Eleanor Lambert and published in September, and Harpers Bazaar, which releases its picks in December, to the gilded sartorial post. Oooh goody, went the magazine consumers. Judgment time.

But here’s the thing: of the 50 women pictured in the supplement, almost half were fashion professionals (models, stylists and designers), and none were from the art world.