Much like the boho charms and skinny jeans she famously slaps onto her clients, celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe Rosenzweig—ehrm, drop the Rosenzweig—was at first very in, then very out, and is now simply tolerated as an unavoidable Hollywood fixture. But wait! Recent developments show that Zoe, like a filly racing up from behind (and not on horse tranquilizers), is gaining momentum again. With Rosario Dawson and the New York Times newly on her side, she's making a valiant run at a second coming.

Zoe's decline began in November 2006, when Nicole Richie, her top client and close friend, suddenly dropped her. "Nicole didn't trust Rachel anymore," a source told Us Weekly of the affair. While Zoe managed to hold onto A-list clients Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton, she found herself dogged by rumors of distributing clenbuterol (aka equine steroids), promoting anorexia among her girls, and by blogs flooded with disparaging posts about her already aged and frail appearance at 35.

But the ever-resilient Zoe could not be broken, and her resurgence began in January 2007 with a fawning Marshall Heyman profile in W, in which the author named Zoe the "queen bee" of the L.A. fashion set. Now, in this month's Bust profile of Rosario Dawson, the actress gushes about Zoe's talent. "She makes me feel beautiful and she's known for that," Dawson effuses. "I don't think Rachel causes skinniness. I've never seen or felt any pressure to be thin coming from her. I'm a busty woman and she loves that. She says, 'Look at you, you're so lucky.'"

Sources say Zoe might get the ultimate vindication in a New York Times Magazine profile written by Lynn Hirshberg, who is famous for writing brutal celebrity takedowns. In Zoe's case however, insiders say that Hirshberg seems to have fallen in love, going so far as to compare Zoe with Anna Wintour in conversation. Just goes to show that you are never too old (or old-faced) for a second chance.