From Mr Jeff Goldblum to Mr Pharrell Williams, here are eight men who wore eveningwear well this year.

Eveningwear is a category in which a little goes a very long way. By which we mean it’s not all that easy, when adhering to a black-tie dress code, to deliver sophistication, smartness and a little bit of personal flair without breaking all the rules. Especially on that last count. Let’s take a moment, then, to bow down to all the men who did the due diligence, but also made their tuxedos that little bit special in 2018. If MR PORTER were to, off the cuff, throw some big, ritzy, red-carpet bash to mark the end of the year, this is whom we’d want to turn up.

We think, thanks to Mr Donald Glover, we’ve come up with a new black-tie rule: velvet jackets should always be matched with slip-on shoes and a big, droopy bow tie. It gives the whole tuxedo thing a louche and extravagant feel that is perfect for those who don’t want their eveningwear to come across as stuffy and penguin-like. This is just one of many excellent tuxedos the actor wore in 2018. There was the purple example he wore to the Met Gala. There was the all-white number he wore to the Grammys. And there was the eye-poppingly orange, defiantly shiny tuxedo he wore to the Black Panther premiere. This man can do no wrong at a photocall.

In this all-white number, actor Mr Jeff Goldblum looks like someone who might welcome you into the front lobby of the afterlife, as long as you’ve been generally good, and that the afterlife is as thoroughly stylish and amenity-packed as you might expect. The all-white look is an especially good choice for those with silvery hair. The two together look clean and crisp, which is what eveningwear is all about.

Yes, any kind of tailoring tends to look better if you’re as tall and handsome as Mr Alexander Skarsgård, but the actor’s red-carpet appearances throughout 2018 – in which he generally looked as if he’d been designed in cinema 4D XL, 3D-printed, varnished and lacquered so not a hair or fold was out of place – give us a benchmark to aspire to. Print out this picture and stick it on the inside door of your wardrobe when referring to just how a tuxedo should look and fit.

This is the tuxedo that fully reflects Mr Gary Oldman’s national-treasure and Oscar-winner status. Not only is there something decidedly Churchillian about the spotted bow tie (the UK’s wartime prime minister was seldom seen without this accessory), there’s also a charmingly Gatsby-esque feel to the swooping, shawl-necked dinner jacket and natty patent Oxfords. It’s artsy, but well fitted, understated, but decidedly special. Give him a round of applause.

Former Spider-Man actor Mr Andrew Garfield had two major tuxedo moments this year, within a month of each other. The first was at the Met Gala, when he wore this handsome, shawl-collared velvet dinner jacket. Showing that he could also go understated, he wore a navy shawl-collared tux for his appearance at the Tony awards in June. Why the shawl collar? We’re not psychic, but we’ll assume Mr Garfield happened upon the fact that this slimmer, sleeker type of collar accentuates a slimmer, sleeker type of gentleman. A fact, dear readers, that we can all store neatly in our style toolbox right away.

It’s not easy looking good in eveningwear when you’re on the Gen-Z side of 30, but here actor Mr Joe Alwyn shows how a youngster (he’s 27) can do it in a fun, contemporary way, opting for a tuxedo with slim-cut trousers but a relatively long, boxy fit in the jacket to bulk him out a little. The decision to keep it all black and white is a wise one. With eveningwear, there’s a certain amount of stripe-earning to be done, in our humble opinion. Save the jazzy details for when you’re scooping up your Oscar. (See Mr Oldman above.)

No, you can’t wear shorts to your next black-tie bash but Mr Pharrell Williams can. To be honest, he’s the kind of star who can wear anything he wants and still look good. But there’s something particularly classy about how he’s exhaustively stretched the rules of black tie here. It’s bold, but simple, with the less than formal bottoms offset by the more than formal satin of the suit. May he continue to turn up to dos in such a manner in 2019.

This is another man who has tried many things, tuxedo-wise this year, from a red jacquard three-piece at the MTV Movie Awards in June to a white dinner jacket at the Emmys in September. We’ve chosen this navy tux as the highlight. It’s probably the easiest of actor/rapper Mr Lakeith Stanfield’s looks to replicate, but what’s really remarkable about all his eveningwear is the exactitude and precision with which he has had his trousers tailored in all three. See how they just – just – scrape the top of his shoes, hanging straight (no fold) without looking what you might call “trendily cropped”. And while you’re here, if you haven’t yet seen Mr Stanfield in his hit 2018 comedy Sorry To Bother You, perhaps it’s time to make that your New Year’s resolution.

Shop what to wear to a black-tie event here

The men featured in this story are not associated with and do not endorse MR PORTER or the products shown