From ugly sneakers to the power donut – the trends that only the brave should follow.

How do you define an era? With fashion, music, and war of course! We at MR PORTER prefer to focus on the former, as you know, so we’ve compiled a list of all the things good, bad, and weird that hit our style radar in 2017, so that you can wistfully look back on the mouldy mankles, buzzcuts, and ugly sneakers that defined the year.

Mr Zayn Malik shaved his head to mixed reactions, and Messrs Robert Pattinson, Ezra Miller and Brooklyn Beckham debuted a few rather raffish buzz cuts. The go-to hairstyle this year, apparently, was to have as little hair as possible. Or, if you were Mr Alexander Skarsgård to go wild, shave the top of your head, and rock a half-bald power donut. That was, of course, for a role, but it’s still refreshing to see baldness being a choice, rather than just a middle-aged inevitability.

If Forbes did a list for 30 best-dressed under 30, we already know five kids who would be at the top of the list. Messrs Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, and Ms Millie Bobby Brown (don’t they all have fantastic names, too?) have covered magazines and dominated red carpets over the past few months, and have generally been raising the bar of how stylish a teenager can possibly be while being drubbed through the puberty mangle. Unfortunately for those of us who went through a sartorially awkward phase as a teenager, it turns out that said bar is now pretty high.

Fashion, as we at MR PORTER can testify, is at its best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Which is why this year’s obsession with “ugly” style (clumpy PE trainers, eccentric prints, gawky sihouettes) was really quite attractive. The Balenciaga Triple S sneakers (now sold out of course) were a highlight, but we’re hoping there’ll be even more inelegance to emulate in 2018.

This year’s Met Gala theme was Comme des Garçons, giving celebrities the creative freedom characteristic of Ms Rei Kawakubo to go to town with their outfits. The strangest moment, though, happened not in the clothes, but in the hair. The wackiest hairdo on this year’s cream carpet wasn’t strange because the hairstyle itself was particularly out there, but because it was detached. Detached from Mr Jaden Smith’s head, to be precise, and clutched in his hand and jangling at the cameras like a hirsute jellyfish.

Anyone who has been to England will be familiar with perennial north/south divide. There are countless BuzzFeed quizzes dedicated to the phenomenon and the differences between northerners when it comes to things like accents, if you can put gravy on chips, and whether or not you should ignore strangers when you walk past them on the street. What did happen this year, though, was an appreciation of Northern style. From the renaissance of Mr Liam Gallagher to the North: Fashioning Identity exhibition that is currently running at Somerset House, 2017 saw the north snatch the style crown from those fancy London types.

While American politics may not be the most obvious place to look for style trends, last year’s watershed election dominated the news, and the fashion industry reacted accordingly. Enter Balenciaga’s AW17 collection inspired by Mr Bernie Sanders’ campaign logo, which appeared on scarves, backpacks, and bomber jackets. Take two, the furore generated by Mr Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, who made headlines for his questionable sartorial choice to wear two button-up shirts at once. Who knows – perhaps we’ll see it on the runway at next year’s menswear collections.

In October, news broke that the number of men eschewing socks had caused the number of cases of athlete’s foot to rocket. Not quite the sun-kissed-on-the-Riviera bent that we had in mind, of course, but when so many designers are making such wonderful socks – whether patterned, plain or cashmere, they’re covetable enough to make sure that we’ve sworn ourselves off the mankle look, at least until next summer. And when that finally comes around, we’ll have our pop socks at the ready.

It’s been said that politics is just show business for ugly people, but that doesn’t mean our world leaders scrimp on personal aesthetics. According to Le Point, Mr Emmanuel Macron spent €26,000 on makeup in three months. That’s really rather a lot of money – consider the foundations, primers, concealers, and whatever other stuff Mr Macron must have painted onto his visage each day. Still, given current world events, Mr Macron’s petit penchant for concealer is perhaps the cover-up we should be least concerned with.

From making music under the Childish Gambino moniker to producing and starring in his hit TV series Atlanta, Mr Donald Glover is infuriatingly good at everything, but strikes a particular note with us for his ineffable style. Invariably turned out, the polymathic Mr Glover somehow knows how to rock a vibrant suit, a graphic cardigan, and a Hawaiian shirt. In 2018, MR PORTER’s goal is to take Mr Glover captive and distil his style expertise into a limited-edition wearable essence (which will be available from our grooming section as soon as our fashion science team has perfected the formula).