1. Edie Campbell and Otis Ferry

Campbell, the mullet-haired model, equestrian and art history graduate has always stayed true to her tomboy style — she even wore trousers and flats to the British Fashion Awards. Together with boyfriend Ferry, a suave fashion flâneur (and fan of velvet smoking jackets), the duo cut quite the dash on the town: taking turns, it seems, to add eccentricity to their ensembles.

Olivia Palermo
Olivia Palermo © Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment

2. Olivia Palermo

Ask anyone aged under 25 to name their style idol and they’re likely to choose this 28-year-old former reality-star-come-model-come-actress-come-nobody-quite-knows-what. The American internet phenomenon wears clothes magnificently well: in June, in a Carolina Herrera two-piece and with a loose ponytail, she married German model Johannes Huebl: in wedding-dress world, it was a game-changer.

3. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey

The double act of the year: they shared the small screen in the mumblecore marvel True Detective, and the stage at the Emmys, where they wore co-ordinated his’n’his tuxedos. A fine bromance — in matching black lapels.

4. Gaia Repossi

The 28-year-old creative director and heiress of venerable Italian jewellery house Repossi relies on a spare canvas of Céline separates on which to showcase her modern designs: tribal-chic earcuffs, diamond-studded stacking rings, squiggly arm armour. She understands the power of the perfect shirt.

5. Antoine Arnault (and Natalia Vodianova)

If his father, Bernard, is the “wolf in cashmere”, Antoine must be the “lion in Loro Piana”. Similarly lofty, with dazzling blue eyes, the 37-year-old chief executive and LVMH heir is immaculately handsome. When you’ve got model Natalia Vodianova on your arm, with whom he celebrated the birth of a son in May, you hardly need additional ornament.

6. Tavi Gevinson

Like Chicago’s own Benjamin Button, Gevinson’s transformation from bespectacled, grey-haired blogger to blonde-bobbed beauty has been stunning. This summer, the Chanel muse and Rookie editor turned 18, left school and immediately started rehearsals for her Broadway debut in This is Our Youth. As with all her endeavours, she aced it. These days, she champions feminism rather than fashion, and has ditched her idiosyncratic teen style for something subtler and sweeter.

Lupita Nyong'o
Lupita Nyong'o © Getty

7. Lupita Nyong’o

The fashion world first started falling for the 31-year-old star of 12 Years a Slave when she stepped out in a crimson caped gown by Ralph Lauren at the Golden Globes. By the time she arrived at the Academy Awards in baby-blue Prada, the industry was enraptured. An Oscar, a Miu Miu campaign and countless editorial offers followed.

8. Gia Coppola

Like her aunt Sofia, the 27-year-old film director displays a casual disdain for high-octane glamour and shares the same biddably lustrous hair. She promoted her debut film Palo Alto across red carpets globally, mostly wearing Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane, the year’s go-to designer for those too cool for school.

9. Emmanuel Macron

Putting the polish in Euro-politics, the 36-year-old Frenchman was appointed the minister of economy, industrial renewal and information technology in August, making him the youngest member of François Hollande’s cabinet. His plans for socialist reform are making him unpopular. But his terrific teal and navy suits get the yes vote from us.

10. Giovanna Battaglia

The honey-limbed Italian fashion editor and stylist illuminates the frowny front row with her sunny disposition and colourful style. A true fashion chameleon who wears Fendi fur one moment, then Prada checks or Valentino florals the next, she looks her radiant best in Dolce & Gabbana, for whom she is something of a house mascot.

Roy Keane
Roy Keane © Action Images

11. Roy Keane

In the field of facial topiary, Keane claimed victory for beard of the year on account of its sheer size and colouration — fading from dark grey to Gandalf-white. It has since been shaven but not before inspiring internet memes, debate and imitations.

12. Prince George

Doing for Rachel Riley romper suits what his mother did for the LK Bennett wedge, Prince George is the youngest star in our annual round-up. But what a debut! A truly metropolitan infant, he’s not afraid to embrace the more feminine looks — smocking, pastel-pink, dungarees, Peter Pan collars. He pulls them off with panache and a certain butch swagger.

Prince George
Prince George © Getty

13. Joan Didion

The subject of an upcoming documentary, We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live, produced by her nephew Griffin Dunne, Didion’s singular style has become a subject of increasing fetishism this year. She’s most often depicted as her 1960s self, smoking (literally and metaphorically) in a sheath dress before her Stingray Corvette, but even now, at 80, she’s still the greatest essayist of clear-eyed cool.

14. Armand Marie Leroi

Some might say that being professor of evolutionary developmental biology at Imperial College, London, is elegant enough. The New Zealand-born author (and Jerry Hall’s partner) stunned the literary world with The Lagoon, his thesis that Aristotle was the world’s first systematic biologist, and style editors with his evolved attitude towards male-pattern baldness.

Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson © Getty

15. Gillian Anderson

From Streetcar’s Blanche DuBois on stage to DSI Stella Gibson in TV’s The Fall, the actress inhabited two extremes of femininity this year, and did both in needle-spiked stilettos. Out of character, her preference for form-fitting gowns and smart, sharp tailoring is a clever hybrid of sensual and serious. Not that anything could upstage that patrician bone structure.

16. Tom Stoppard and Sabrina Guinness

In May, the 76-year-old playwright married his long-term partner and brewery heiress wearing periwinkle blue and a big grin. She, rather sweetly, opted for the full bridal experience in a white wedding gown with floral embroidery, rosy posy and ballet flats.

17. Skye Gyngell

The Australian Michelin-starred chef moved into a new restaurant, Spring, at Somerset House, London, in October where she generated as much debate about her choice of Egg and Trager Delaney-designed staff uniforms as she did her food (we’re fans of both). Her unfussy style informs both her palette and her dress sense — a combination of three-quarter length skirts, stripes and simple flats. No seasoning required.

18. Queen Letizia of Spain

The newly crowned 42-year-old Queen Letizia loves leopard-print, pencil skirts and lace. She also likes skin-tight leather trousers and Chanel suits. But will this most fashion-forward of royals wear JW Anderson’s new collection for Spanish luxury house Loewe? We can hardly wait to find out.

Caroline de Maigret
Caroline de Maigret © Getty

19. Caroline de Maigret

This year’s Parisienne pin-up, the 39-year-old even wrote a book on how to imitate her brand of insouciant glamour. Flat shoes, oversized jackets and mannish trousers are key to her look — all framed by an eye-skimming, self-snipped fringe.

20. Jenny Slate

The stand-up comedian and star of “abortion comedy” Obvious Child, the 32-year-old actress channels the same sartorial independence as fellow funny women Tina Fey and Lena Dunham. Her style — brunette bombshell meets 1960s secretary — is savvy, smart and a little bit risqué, just like her ballsy humour.

21. Pharrell Williams

Short and sweet: when Williams arrived at the Academy Awards in Lanvin cut-offs and grey brogues, he offered us an object lesson in how to turn a height disadvantage into a sartorial statement (his wife towered over him in matching white). Just as you’d expect from the dapperest chap in rap.

22. Taylor Swift

She stopped touring Red, sheared her hair, said goodbye to country music and shook off her detractors. Swift’s musical reincarnation coincided with a physical transformation: these days, the 25-year-old favours flippy miniskirts, stack- heeled stilettos and 1950s-style structured handbags: the very picture of an all-American sweetheart.

Victoria and Romeo Beckham
Victoria and Romeo Beckham © Xposure Photos

23. Lord Browne

The pristine 66-year-old fellow of the Royal Society published a book in May, The Glass Closet, in which he wrote of his regret at not coming out as gay earlier in his tenure as chief executive at BP. An extremely stylish statement.

24. The Beckhams

The return to Britain has been good for Team Beckham. Victoria’s first flagship store and a win at the British Fashion Industry Awards (all accompanied by a shift towards chic minimalism) has elevated her standing within the industry. Meanwhile, her sons’ good looks have made them much in demand as models: 12-year-old Romeo played Cupid in Burberry’s Christmas campaign. Add elfin-faced Cruz, Bonpoint-clad infant-in-arms Harper and David, and you have fashion’s most telegenic family of 2014.

Photographs: Getty Images; WireImage; Action Images; India Hobson; Dorothy Hong/The Guardian; Xposure Photos; PA Photos; Alan Davidson; John Stillwell/AFP/Getty; Les Wilson/Mail on Sunday/Solo Syndication

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