In 1960 Richard Blackwell, more commonly known as Mr. Blackwell, launched his Ten Worst Dressed Women’s List, a list which would garner great media attention on the second Tuesday of every January for three decades. Born Richard Sylvan Selzer, Mr. Blackwell was raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where he attended school until dropping out in the third grade. As an adult he acted and designed dresses, but he was best known for his caustic criticisms of celebrity fashion. He wrote two books, Mr. Blackwell: 30 Years of Fashion Fiascos and From Rags to Bitches. Mr. Blackwell died yesterday following complications from an intestinal infection.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.

Blackwell died Sunday of complications from an intestinal infection, publicist Harlan Boll said.

Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 — long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair.
Year after year, he would take Hollywood's reigning stars and other celebrities to task for failing to dress in what he thought was the way they should.

Being dowdy was bad enough, but the more outrageous clothing a woman wore, the more biting his criticism. He once said a reigning Miss America looked "like an armadillo with cornpads."

In honor of the critic, CollegeOTR's Top 10 Most Biting Mr. Blackwellisms:

1) On The Dixies Chicks: “They look like a trio of truckstop fashion tragedies trapped in a typhoon… tacky, tacky, tacky.”

2) On Paris Hilton: “The Burger Queen Sensation may be very rich— but she still looks like yesterday’s cheesecake… with a side of kitsch.”

3) On Ann Margaret: “A Hells Angel escapee who invaded the Ziegfeld Follies on a rainy night.”

4) On Mary-Kate Olsen circa the NYU era (or two minutes): “In bag lady rags that look depressingly decayed— forget the accessories and buy some Raid.”

5) On Glenn Close: “Forget Sunset Boulevard. Glenn’s taken a detour down Nightmare Alley.”

6) On Brigitte Bardot: “An unruly child who has acquired the bad habit of taking off her nightie before the bathroom door has been closed.”

7) On Donatella Versace: “Resembles a flash-fried Venus stuck in a Miami strip mall.”

8) Jayne Manfield: “After appearing like a stuffed sausage for many years, Jayne has resorted to the baby pink look... Has she in confusion borrowed her young daughter’s wardrobe? Watch out, Mother Mansfeld.”

9) On Barbara Streisand: “What can I say? Yentl’s gone mental!”

10) On Zsa Zsa Gabor: “Queen of the international set, she reminds me of the elephant in Jumbo with all its glittering trappings. Her outlandish entrances are a real farce.”