Style was as weird as you would expect in a year that saw most of us locked down. Hazmat suits, feral scruffiness and gender twists led to some memorable looks Hannah Marriott, Priya Elan, Jess Cartner-Morley and Morwenna Ferrier Thu 17 Dec 2020 06.01 GMT 32 Naomi Campbell This would have been a Halloween costume in 2019. In 2020, it was what supermodels wore to travel by air. Noted germophobe Naomi Campbell was photographed in this hazmat suit, with goggles, face mask and surgical gloves, on 11 March, months before face masks were commonplace in the UK. The reaction encapsulated the angst of those doomscrolling days, ranging from celebration, for a moment’s light relief, to ire, at a time when so many medics were short of PPE (“They were acting like I was stealing supplies from the hospital … I got it on Amazon,” Campbell later said). Since donated to the Fashion Museum in Bath, it is certainly an outfit for the history books. Hannah Marriott Paapa Essiedu As a brown man, I have never expected to see the way I dress reflected on TV shows. Sure, bits of clothing here and there, but nothing that really mirrors my wardrobe. So it was with my mouth in an “O” of surprise that I took in Paapa Essiedu’s wardrobe as he played Kwame in I May Destroy You. Some items were exact replicas of mine (striped short-sleeved top, caramel teddy bear jacket) and others (beanie hats, long sleeved T-shirts) that had a familiarity. But more than seeing myself reflected in Kwame’s outfits was the fact that here was a character whose wardrobe felt less costume and more, along with the rest of the show, brutally honest and authentic. The soft fabrics his character wore in early episodes gave way to more mature tones, such as mustard and teal, as his character unravelled and finally matured. Priya Elan Jay-Z Around the time of his “I’m sorry I cheated on Beyoncé” album 4:44, Jay-Z’s style did a 360-degree pivot. He effortlessly changed to suiting and bright colours. His switch from streetwear symbol to older gentleman embraced the riskier end of the style spectrum. In Beyoncé’s Black Is King film, he wore polo necks, draped Dior suits, polo necks and statement necklaces with no hint of midlife crisis. This was a rapper growing up in public with a dapper sense of maturity rarely seen before. My favourite bit of this evolution was his hair. He grew out dreadlocks and the result was one of the best hair makeovers of the last few years: relaxed locks with a slight nod to his hero, Jean-Michel Basquiat. It was symbolic of the ease he felt in this new style, which he totally owned. PE Nigella Lawson Along with Strictly Come Dancing, the return of Nigella to our TV screens brought a much-needed dose of glamour into our homes, during what has been a long, dark and extraordinarily tedious autumn. Just like Strictly, Nigella is two-parts wholesome radiance to one-part wink-to-camera mischief. Chez Nigella is a temple of books and fairy lights, and she dishes out her generously salted nuggets of wisdom in shiny copper measuring spoons, while wearing fitted sweaters worthy of 1950s pin-ups and talking about Proust. What would we do without her? Jess Cartner-Morley Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez I could have gone for the fringed Loewe power suit, as seen in Vanity Fair. Or the many white jackets, razor-sharp shift dresses, crisp shirts, rose-gold spectacles, gold hoops, Stila’s liquid lipstick in Beso red and Gabriela Hearst teal suits tworn by the congresswoman and – let’s be honest – future first socialist female president of the US. Instead, it was AOC’s snappy, possibly-but-probably-not electioneering campaign merch – and in particular her “Tax the rich” sweatshirt, made by unionised workers in the US that did it for me. In a year in which everyone from Nick Cave to Yuval Noah Harari brought out merch, and the wealthy escaped lockdown by decamping to their second homes, this slogan said it all, for a pretty reasonable $58 (£42). Morwenna Ferrier Robert Pattinson Speaking personally, 2020 fashion was all about slob-core. Forget Dominic Cummings and his misbuttoned rose garden linens, this year’s poster boy was Robert Pattinson in his self-styled, self-photographed shoot for GQ magazine. It was not the clothes that did it for me – a “price on request” shirt by Dior Men? In 2020? – but the mood. Here was the summer issue of a men’s fashion magazine and what did we have but the hottest star in Hollywood, cooped up (like us) in a rented flat with no garden (like us), long overdue a haircut (like us), eating cornflakes and cheese. OK, the last bit wasn’t quite us, but the poor guy had only a microwave to hand. MF Brad Pitt You might think the inclusion of a suntanned Brad Pitt in an old green T-shirt is a dubious objectification of his evergreen Californian looks, but you would be wrong. Time and again, Pitt has proved himself a valuable player on team 2020 by his ability to make the feral-adjacent scruffiness that has defined this year look … quite hot. See here: not having had a haircut since lockdown. And if you haven’t yet done a deep dive on Pitt volunteering in Los Angeles, in a mask and an old checked shirt, then I direct you here immediately. JCM Princess Anne People-watching was not exactly a thing this year, but TV-watching was, and many took style inspiration where they could find it. Thanks to The Crown, the obsession with Princess Diana’s wardrobe has reached such a fever pitch that I would say we should get out more, if only it were that simple. It’s depiction of Princess Anne, however, was the real standout, layering checked shirts under olive-coloured knits, a look that spoke of no-nonsense cold-weather walks, which was handy. HM Harry Styles Harry Styles’s evolution from a Simon Cowell-farmed boyband cash cow of pop to generation Z’s premier gender iconoclast is perhaps the most pleasing twist of 21st-century pop culture to date. This year, he has changed the rules of dressing up for men: why be hemmed in to the tired old tropes of the tuxedo (for suave) or leather jacket (for rebels) when you can be both, in a pearl necklace and a pretty lace blouse, as seen on Styles at the Brits? Or in a Gucci chiffon gown, on the cover of Vogue? Last month, the V&A museum announced that it had acquired for its permanent collection the JW Anderson patchwork cardigan that Styles made a TikTok sensation. Harry 1 Toxic Masculinity 0. JCM Anna Wintour With many workers stuck at home this year, connecting with colleagues via Zoom, only their top halves visible, sweatpant sales rocketed, with some brands turning fabric once destined for party dresses into trousers with elasticated waistbands. In April, when the meticulously turned-out Anna Wintour – former friend of Karl “sweatpants are a sign of defeat” Lagerfeld – wore a pair, it was clear that even the professionally glossy were on board, and sweatpants would become the defining clothing item of the pandemic. HM