Is Sarah Jessica Parker a Style Icon?

I was reading Cocoperez when I came across an interesting piece about celebrities and whether they can be dubbed "style icons". Model Emily Sandberg dedicated an entire blog post on Sarah Jessica Parker and argued that celebrities should not be perceived as a style icons. Sandberg writes: 

How much money do you think the studios paid to put Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover of Vogue? I'll tell you why I ask, I'd like to know how little Vogue is willing to accept to give Sarah Jessica Parker the credit that Patricia Fields deserves.

Sarah Jessica Parker is not the fashion icon Anna Wintour and all the other fashion business heads want you to believe. See? This is back when she made her own fashion decisions.

Remember when she did the exclusive $38 million multi-season artistic director contract for Gap? Remember the financial disaster that ensued and how quickly Gap dropped her? Remember how Gap had to go back to using and paying supermodels 1/10th of their day rate to reshoot that season's White Jean campaign because Sarah had been given the majority of the advertising budget? The brand returned to it's good financial standing because of this move. Models bailing out celebrities again. 

Isn't it time to start paying models and stop wasting money chasing after US Weekly dollars? 

It's cheap. It's lame. It's obvious. And fashion isn't any of those things.

It's also a complete lie. The public already knows most celebrities don't dress themselves. Please stop calling them icons when the only thing they've done to deserve the title is fit into the sample size of a dress a stylist picked off a runway that the artistic director of say, Versace, decided to put on the runway in the first place. Not only is a celebrity last in a long chain of creative decisions; most of them don't even decide what goes on their bodies, Sarah Jessica Parker being one of them.

The artistic directors and stylists that make these decisions for brands should be given the praise. For instance, Patricia Fields, who created SJP's look and got the ball rolling on her. Sarah, please, please go back to squeaking at lacy Louboutins and man-childs who don't treat you right. I refuse to buy any more magazines with you on the cover promoting films. 

Is anyone else annoyed? 

Oh, and let me quickly answer the question on the cover: How does she do it? 

She employs a small army of people.

a photo of Emily Sandberg

At the end of the post Mr. Hilton puts in his two cents and states “sounds to us like Emily's just a bitter out of work model that's in desperate need of attention.” Wow. Mean much? But do you think Emily or Perez is right? What do you think? I agree with Emily. It is hard to really define a celebrity as a style icon when most of their fashion choices are chosen for them. For example, Perez Hilton often blames the stylist when celebrities are consistently featured on his site because of their fashion mishaps. He often states "it's time to hire a new stylist." Click here, here, here and here for numerous examples of Perez Hilton blaming bad fashion style on a stylist. Yet, when their outfits are flawlessly executed, the stylist is rarely mentioned. Should we then start focusing on the individuals that are overshadowed by the celebrity? Should we celebrate the stylists?

What do you think?