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The 2008 Image Index: coups and snafus

Image is a slippery creature, and one month’s style sensation is the next month’s tasteless trend. For those keeping score, we offer the 2008 Image Index, a sliding scale of the people, places, ideas and trends that moved up — and down — the pop culture barometer this year. — The Image staff UP: BRITNEY SPEARS At the beginning of the year she was a mess, having just lost custody of her sons and been hospitalized for mental-health issues. But all that melted away, thanks to a few well-chosen TV appearances, an MTV documentary, her new hit album “Circus” and a European comeback tour. Pop music’s favorite fashion train wreck is blond again, and looking better than she has in years, thanks in part to über-stylist Marjan Malakpour, who has been dressing her onstage and in photo shoots. We’re even digging Brit’s new ringmaster persona.

Image is a slippery creature, and one month’s style sensation is the next month’s tasteless trend. For those keeping score, we offer the 2008 Image Index, a sliding scale of the people, places, ideas and trends that moved up — and down — the pop culture barometer this year.

— The Image staff

UP: BRITNEY SPEARS

At the beginning of the year she was a mess, having just lost custody of her sons and been hospitalized for mental-health issues. But all that melted away, thanks to a few well-chosen TV appearances, an MTV documentary, her new hit album “Circus” and a European comeback tour. Pop music’s favorite fashion train wreck is blond again, and looking better than she has in years, thanks in part to über-stylist Marjan Malakpour, who has been dressing her onstage and in photo shoots. We’re even digging Brit’s new ringmaster persona.  (Peter Kramer / Associated Press)

The 2008 Image Index: Unisex fashion

UP: UNISEX-Y

East Side guys in skinny jeans. Shrunken blazers with suspenders on gals. Gender-bending fashion was an equal-opportunity trend, and Fall Out Boy pop star Pete Wentz — who reportedly prefers DKNY women’s denim — even launched a unisex line in April. Hey, we’re all for any fad that opens up new closets.  (Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times)

The 2008 Image Index: Rachel Maddow

UP: RACHEL MADDOW

How refreshing to see a TV pundit — and Rhodes scholar — who’s loyal to her signature style. Rachel Maddow, 35, waxes poetic about politics and takes on the GOP on her daily eponymous show on MSNBC. This month she appears in Vogue, and the self-described butch lesbian didn’t succumb to a glitzy glam makeover; she’s wearing a Jil Sander suit and black Converse high-tops.  (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

The 2008 Image Index: The moustache

UP: THE ‘STACHE

Not since Burt Reynolds popularized thick upper-lip fringe has the mustache been so hot, thanks to Brad Pitt’s latest look. But really, he’s no facial hair visionary. Shia LaBeouf showed some fuzz in “Eagle Eye” earlier this year, and a coterie of ‘stache-ophiles meet downtown monthly for Mustache Mondays.  (Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times)

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The 2008 Image Index: Christian Audigier

DOWN: CHRISTIAN AUDIGIER

There’s no doubt Audigier’s brand-building wizardry has made his stable of labels (Ed Hardy, Christian Audigier and Smet among them) a hit on the street, but this year he came close to flogging his lifestyle brands to death by expanding into watches, children’s clothes, animal accessories and a Las Vegas nightclub, not to mention those billboards with his likeness all over town. It can’t do much to burnish the brand when Ed Hardy pillow shams turn up in the window of the local Linen Outlet.  (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)

The 2008 Image Index: The iPhone

DOWN: THE iPHONE

Skinny, expensive, easy on the eyes and known to play hard to get — the iPhone is the gadget world’s version of the runway model. With the continual rollout of new versions, and dropping prices, its cachet is teetering like a model on 8-inch heels. And that recent blast of cold air got us thinking: Does that touch screen really seem as cool when you’re suddenly wearing mittens?  (Apple Inc./Associated Press)

The 2008 Image Index: Premium denim

DOWN: PREMIUM DENIM

You could pay $300 for elaborate pocket embroidery or 24-karat gold side stitching. Or you could buy simple, flattering, reasonably priced jeans. Suddenly, the choice was easy. And the news wasn’t good for the boutique brands.  (Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times)

The 2008 Image Index: Older models

UP: OLDER MODELS

There were so many ’90s supermodels gracing the pages of fashion magazines this fall, you’d suspect a George Michael and RuPaul comeback tour was in the works. Linda Evangelista wore Prada’s lace head to toe, Naomi Campbell (left) looked as lithe as ever in the YSL ads, Christy Turlington gave her yoga togs a rest and posed for Escada, and Claudia Schiffer was the season’s most ubiquitous face as the main mannequin for Chanel and Ferragamo. All are well into their late 30s and early 40s, and in an industry where 24 is over the hill, it’s refreshing to see that getting older is actually in fashion.  (Lynne Sladky/Associated Press)

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The 2008 Image Index: Gadget makeup

UP: GADGET MAKEUP

Vibrating mascara. Super lip-plumping balm. Wrinkle-filling foundation. High-tech makeup scored with customers looking for a fresh variety of magic in a tube or bottle — and an alternative to plastic surgery’s needles and knives.  (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

The 2008 Image Index: Madonna

DOWN: MADONNA

Her recent tour may have sold out and her arms still look like chiseled alabaster, but the 50-year-old Material Girl is trying too hard to fight Mother Nature. Sure, she can still sport hot pants better than any 20-year-old, but the taut, gaunt look of her face and that A-Rod business make us wish she’d stop trying to fit into the pop princess mold at middle age.  (Simela Pantzartzi/EPA)

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