During a year that has been defined by sheer dresses, there were some who used all that gossamer-fine fabric to make a statement (“Grow up, respect people,” said Valentino’s pink lady Florence Pugh), and others who simply showed just how fabulous they look in next to nothing (Kate Moss, the now-celestial beauty influencer, we’re looking at you).
While the girls have brought sexy back, the guys have been going their own way in linen skirts (hi Brad!), backless halters (has Timothée Chalamet been crushing on Mick Jagger?), and feathered ballgown skirts (it’s all industry, baby, for Lil Nas X).
It wouldn’t be a major looks list without the royals, who did Top Gun glamour, or Rihanna, who redefined maternity dressing, but a surprising contender also wormed their way into mainstream fashion with a little help of some artful prosthetics. Here’s to Heidi Klum, and everyone who dressed a little differently this year.
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis1/17Rihanna
By the time everyone’s favorite bad gal took her seat at the Dior fall 2022 show, Rihanna was playing a game of one upmanship with herself when it came to maternity wear. Taking the underwear as outerwear trend to its most literal point, Rih and her Gloss Bombed lips smized in the face of those who thought wearing a bralette this year was outré. When it came to shaking up the pregnancy fashion rulebook, we have one woman to thank for making us think outside the elasticated waistband box. Oh na na, what’s her name?
Photo: Getty Images2/17Timothée Chalamet
The best harness wearer in the business threw Chalamaniacs a curveball at Venice Film Festival in a blood-red Haider Ackermann halter-top with a useless skinny scarf and slinky low-back. It was Bowie – wait, Timmy – style done well: unexpected, androgynous and retro-yet-modern. Think Studio 54-meets-cannibal chic – or have we completely lost our marbles?
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images3/17Kate Moss
As part of the model’s rebrand into wellness guru, Kate Moss has been showing off the fruits of a life spent wafting incense and supping dawn and dusk elixirs, sorry, teas. Whispers of dresses laden with talisman jewellery and highlighting that lit-from-within-glow have become her calling card, such as this Grace Jones-inspired hooded Saint Laurent number at a memorable WSJ Innovator Awards. What’s a spot of VPL for the woman who unintentionally invented the naked slip dress in the ’90s?
Gotham/Getty Images4/17Kim Kardashian
Say what you want about Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala look, but her commitment to going the extra mile is unparalleled. Yes, her Marilyn Monroe transformation, for which she lost 16 pounds and spent 14 hours straight bleaching her hair, poses questions about role models, but she’s the only star with the power to persuade Ripley’s to unearth the multi-million dollar dress from its darkened 68°C vault. The fact she only wore the “Happy Birthday, Mr President” look embellished with 6,000 crystals for mere minutes, before changing into a less precious replica, did not matter. Kardashian had put her own stamp on the first “naked” dress in American history.
Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Getty Images5/17Jodie Turner-Smith
To say it’s been Jodie Turner-Smith’s year is an understatement. The Gucci ambassador single-handedly restored our faith in all-out Hollywood glamour with her chameleonic beauty, committed red-carpet character playing and fashion loaded with symbolism. While there have been almost too many gems to single out one, this custom chiffon and crystal Gucci number is a true treasure. “I wanted the gown to feel like it belonged [at Venice Film Festival],” she told Vogue. “I also really wanted the colours to reflect the pan-African flag – red, black and green – as a perfect statement about my pride in the African diaspora.” For everyone watching, it was a reminder that a dress, for Turner-Smith, is rarely just a dress.
Photo: Mike Coppola, Getty Images6/17Lizzo
Lizzo scored bonus points for her Met Gala look, because she accessorized all that sexy Thom Browne corsetry and gilded capery with a golden flute. Nothing says “I’ve arrived” quite like the first twinkling bars of Claude Debussy’s “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune”, right? The ornately embroidered look took a total of 22,000 hours to finesse with Lizzo telling Vogue that she was just excited to “sh*t all over” fashion’s big night. Mission accomplished for this one-of-a-kind entertainer.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images7/17Heidi Klum
Fright night aficionado Heidi Klum summed up a year of permacrisis with her “absurd but familiar” haute creepy-crawly costume. While the model said she had learned to find beauty in the worm species while cocooned in her brown prosthetic shell, the rest of the world squirmed with sheer delight at the Halloween queen’s apt metaphor for, well, just about everything.
Jeff Kravitz8/17Jada Pinkett-Smith
The Smith family set the internet ablaze well before The Slap on Oscars night. While Will was preoccupied in macho mode, Jada made hype beasts’ hearts soar in her quietly regal Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture fashioned by design star Glenn Martens. A total queen.
Photo: Getty Images9/17Hoyeon Jung
It takes guts to wear a 19th-century bustle on the red carpet, but Squid Game star Hoyeon Jung is used to delivering drama. The Louis Vuitton ambassador, who last year convinced us to revisit grandpa’s floral tie collectsion, assembled an all-female Asian team – Jenny Cho, Nina Park, and Yoko Sakakura – to help her put a modern twist on Old Hollywood glamour for the Critics’ Choice Awards. “I just love the idea of looking back to create something new and unexpected,” said Jung, whose ritual of pre-red carpet burritos made us love her even more while unpacking 12 months of nostalgic fashion.
Photo: David M. Benett, Getty Images10/17Adele
Adele later revealed that the dress she wore to the BAFTAs and to float down a river, glass of rosé glued to her hand, in her “I Drink Wine” video weighed a not insubstantial 70 pounds, while the singer’s stylist, Jamie Mizrahi, detailed the “patience, laughter, hysterics and love” required to blow-dry the sequins – created in a just-so shade of green by Pierpaolo Piccioli – between each take. The Valentino creative director said the dress had a “very special aura, making the whole experience unique”. Only in Adele’s world does this sort of magical organised chaos happen.
Photo: Getty Images11/17Lil Nas X
The 2022 VMAs found its answer to Gaga’s meat dress and Lil Kim’s nipple pasty (singular) in Lil Nas X’s tiered feather skirt and matching headdress by rising star Harris Reed. Delivering the kind of campy pop glamour the awards show demands, the theatrical fashion fan gave both Beyoncé and Iman (two Reed plumage enthusiasts) a run for their money and cemented his status as a progressive fashion player.
salmahayek/instagrams12/17Salma Hayek
We’d like to make it resolutely clear that Salma Hayek is a goddess who has had plenty more going for her than this leopard-print swimsuit. But boy did this one-piece make a splash on January 4. While the rest of us languished in a Quality Street-induced slump, Salma’s body-positive bombshell beauty set the tone for her sensational fashion to come. Let this be a case for making new year’s resolutions – and sticking to them.
Photo: Getty Images13/17Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train was shot down for its ludicrous plot line, but the actor’s promo tour fashion was bang on target. Reframing himself as a linen skirt influencer, with a sideline in impossibly soft cashmere, the actor encouraged us all to “wear what’s fun, do it and get on with it!” Wise words from a man who professes he’s not a hype master, but inspired more than a few editors to consider cantaloupe tailoring this year.
Jacopo Raule/Getty Images14/17Florence Pugh
No one wore Valentino’s Pink PP better than Florence Pugh, who turned #Barbiecore into a lesson on body-shaming, after multiple trolls highlighted the fact her breasts were visible in her fantasy fluoro gown. “Thankfully, I’ve come to terms with the intricacies of my body that make me, me… I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it,” she said before staging her own mini #FreeTheNipple movement on Instagram. Pugh’s mission to put two fingers up to anyone who expects her to stay silent continued during the Don’t Worry Darling promo trail, with multiple major Valentino moments that made us love “Miss Flo” even more.
Instagram: @Katieholmes15/17Katie Holmes
Ok Katie! The Dawson’s Creek star cast aside all those girl-next-door connotations with a pair of black knickers and a power stance that proved she’s Joey Potter no more. This brief encounter with the “naked” trend reinstated her status as an unassuming expert of traffic-stopping fashion. Consider those pants 2022’s cashmere bra.
Mark Cuthbert/Getty Images16/17The Princess of Wales
The newly minted Princess’s year has been defined by thoughtful fashion that reflects her senior position in the royal family, but give her a red carpet and she’ll knock it out of the park. As Tom Cruise’s date to the Top Gun: Maverick premiere, Kate wore an off-the-shoulder Roland Mouret gown glamorous enough for any Bond girl. Forget Goose, the former Duchess of Cambridge played the part of Maverick’s wingwoman well.
Photo: Getty Images17/17Sarah Jessica Parker
Yes it’s a bold move to have two creatures in a style recap, but it’s been one of those years when the absurd is more palatable than the actual. When pictures emerged of SJP swapping Carrie’s Baguettes and Saddle bags for JW Anderson’s Pigeon clutch in series two of And Just Like That…, we knew she was also championing the ridiculous over reality. That little resin-cast bird, with its cheerful purple collar, has become something of a mascot for the times. We could, and have done, worse…
