If you’ve been paying attention at all this year, you’ll have noticed that menswear is going through somewhat of a sea change. From Mr Jonathan Van Ness wearing a skirt and heeled boots to the Emmys to both Mr Ezra Miller’s embellished corset jacket and Mr Jared Leto’s red Gucci dress, accessorised with a model of his own head, as displayed at the Met Gala, never before have we seen such vibrance and creativity from men on the red carpet. They truly are challenging staid expectations of what it means to “dress like a man”, and from tuxedos to tutus, there’s a whole new world of sartorial experimentation opening up. A few guys, though, stood out more than most this year, and will be the ones we look back on in a few years as the guys who defined an era.

A perennial fan of a spangled cape, Mr Chadwick Boseman was one of the more outré dressers of the year. An actor who is sartorially versatile enough to be able to wear a sharp suit to one event, a hoodie and jeans to another, or a calf-length sequinned blazer, as he did at the Oscars, Mr Boseman is a veritable showman who manages to look both masculine and sophisticated with whatever he wears. Favouring brands such as Versace, Givenchy and Ermenegildo Zegna, if Mr Boseman doesn’t make the best-dressed list for any given event, you can bet that he probably wasn’t there in the first place.

The theme of the ball might have been camp, but when Mr Harry Styles showed up at this year’s Met Gala in May with a single pearl earring dangling from his ear (that he’d apparently pierced himself), a sheer black shirt and heels, it really hit the mark. Here’s a man who isn’t too fussed about fitting himself into the masculinity box, and instead wears whatever he wants. From the sheep-emblazoned sweater vest he wore to an SNL rehearsal to the glittering denim boiler suit he donned for London’s Jingle Bell Ball this month, Mr Styles is a sartorial force to be reckoned with.

It’s not a stretch to say that Mr Jeff Goldblum is possibly one of the most beloved style icons alive. At the ripe age of 67, the actor continues to delight and surprise with his love for bold Prada shirts, his statement spectacles and that perpetual grin, showing us that age is absolutely no excuse to kowtow to dowdy wardrobe conservatism. There are plenty of Mr Goldblum’s outfits to choose from that exemplify his commitment to the fashion cause, but our favourite from this year has to be the all-white fit he wore to the Sundance Film Festival. Wearing a white coat from Prada over a Gucci blazer and turtleneck, Acne Studios jeans and white-framed Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses with orange lenses, the term fashion plate was practically made for Mr Goldblum.

It always helps if your face has been carved by angels, of course, but even without that blessed bone structure, Mr Timothée Chalamet certainly has a way with clothes. Famously choosing to eschew a stylist, he worked closely with Mr Haider Ackermann this year to create some of his most memorable looks, and took tailoring in a loucher, more feminine direction. What really made the news, though, was the Louis Vuitton harness he wore to the Golden Globes – except that it wasn’t really a harness at all. According to a press release from the brand, it was actually… a bib? Either way, this will be remembered as one of the looks that launched Mr Chalamet from peach-fiddling youth to red-carpet royalty.

A fashion rebel without a cause, Tyler, the Creator purposefully flouted the black-tie dress code at the British Fashion Awards this month and instead wore a fake fur trapper hat, a varsity jacket, and a beige pair of wide-legged drill chinos. He looked so great, though, that nobody really cared he’d broken the rules. Consistently bringing great outfits to the red carpet with his trademark sense of humour, Tyler is one of the cleverest dressers out there, and we can’t wait to see how he’ll surprise us in 2020.