Looking flawless takes effort. Here are the style icons who put in the work and won.

There are some men who are blessed with all the graces. Luminous smiles, high cheek bones, eyes you could tread water in and hair so… well, you get the picture. These men are the gods that walk among us and for them such blessings are a birthright. These deities, your Mr Warren Beattys and your Mr Alain Delons, can wear anything, do anything, and still look first-rate.

Mr Beatty and My Delon-type genes are, alas, in short supply. The rest of us have to try. To look stylish, we have to put in the work, engage with the world and learn from our missteps. In many ways, it is like learning to ride a horse. And once you look like you ride beautifully, no one will ever think you couldn’t in the first instance. To help you get in the saddle, we present seven men who always looked pretty much perfect by making wise choices and dressing carefully. Read and be inspired, just as we are.

Mr Gay Talese has had a rather startling life, being both a genre-defining journalist – with stories such as “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold”, a feather in the cap of Esquire if ever there was one – litterateur and also a bona fide style icon. The 87-year-old has never lived a day without being well-turned out. Mr Talese’s father was a tailor, an “artist with a needle and thread” is how he remembers him. On a trip to Paris with the US Army in the 1950s, he fell for the same artistry. Here he is in 1992, in Ocean City, in a beautiful example of the tailoring. Note the wide-legged 1930s-style trousers which have been sharply pressed, the broad-lapelled overcoat and the luminous white cuffs punctuating the jacket and jet-black gloves. It is all so well-done, so exact. Now note the hat. The hat is a trademark and every style icon needs a trademark. We doubt Mr Talese has ever had a cold.

Mr Duke Ellington made his name in the 1920s raising the roof at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He was a gifted piano player, but considered his orchestra to be his true instrument. He embraced the term “beyond category” for his music. He was a jazz god all the same. He dressed like one, too. Here he is en famille, with his orchestra, on TV in 1961, wearing a beautiful dinner jacket. You might think a dinner jacket can’t communicate much about the man who wears it beyond that he finds himself in formal situations. But look a little harder and you’ll see the astrakhan lapels, the satin bow tie and the studs on the shirt. Mr Ellington takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary, perfectly.

Mr David Niven was one of the last great products of the Hollywood studio system. He was moulded and packaged and sold on at twice the price by Mr Samuel Goldwyn into the archetype of the upper-class Englishman. Admittedly, that wasn’t too difficult, given he was born in London’s Belgravia and had a knight of the realm as a stepfather, the author Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt. As well as exercising an ironclad grip on careers, the studios also controlled the image of their stars. Mr Niven probably didn’t need much of nudge towards Savile Row, but either way, he wears a suit like a prince. This photograph was taken in Rome at Ciampino Airport as he arrived with Mr Stewart Granger to shoot The Little Hut. Mr Granger looks like an accountant. Not Mr Niven, though, who is in beige, broad-legged pleated trousers flapping in the wind. Despite coming off a flight, his regimental tie is done up in a tiny knot, following the rule: thick knot, thick man. A white carnation is in his button hole while a pocket square peeks out from his pocket. He is the apotheosis of the man who makes an effort and wins the day.

It’s 1982 and Mr Harrison Ford owns the world. Or, at least, the parts of it that contain those that have seen Blade Runner, Raiders Of The Lost Ark or Star Wars. In fact, this could be during the filming of Return Of The Jedi which came out the following year. Anyway, he looks like a gold-plated movie star. Consider his face first, crowned with smartly coiffed hair, a pair of aviators (at night, it looks like) and megawatt smile. Very nice. He’s put in the effort with his clothes, too, and to fine effect. A well-cut, shoulder-announcing blazer in navy blue, which is leavened by a thin, elongating, blue-striped shirt and what looks like a Hermès duck-print tie. Indeed, he looks very well put together.

We all know Le Corbusier made an art of buildings and chairs, but did you know he dressed like royalty, too? The Swiss-French architect was a designer, painter, urban planner and a writer, a polymathic spree that makes you wonder when he had time to think of clothes. But think he did. Perhaps he got up really early? Who knows. What we do know is that he was an ardent enthusiast of pairing a bow tie with a lounge suit. In the wrong hands, this is a look that appears affected or plain absurd. It became a signature of Le Corbusier, though, especially as he grew older because he took great care. Here he is in 1959, at age 72, and how great does he look? The thick-rimmed glasses start a conversation which is continued by the wide-lapelled dark suit and bow tie. It is a discourse on cool.

It was said that the writer Mr Jean Cocteau’s heart stopped dead on 11 October 1963, after hearing of his friend Ms Edith Piaf’s death. He outlived her by a single day. The author of Les Enfants Terribles, Beauty And The Beast and Orpheus looks in good health here, in his broad 1950s-style Prince of Wales-check jacket, of which the hint of blue is picked out by the navy tie. The mini coronation-flower badge in his button hole is a nice detail that gives the outfit a touch of the wry.

Mr Cary Grant does not sweat. He radiates. You can see that just by looking at this picture. He is on the deck of Mr Aristotle Onassis’ yacht, the Christina O, in what looks like summer sun, and he is wearing what looks like a wool suit. Mr Grant’s hair is swept to the side in Brylcreemed precision. But it is not the only thing that is precise – just look at the peak lapel, and the broad cut of the shoulders, making him look even more like a colossus. Still, he is a colossus with style, so he shows a hint of his cuffs below his jacket sleeves. And he has his sunglasses in his top pocket for when the cameras go away.

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