It's been a strange year for personal style. Sweatpants were in—unless you decided to wear exclusively hard clothes. Red carpets were largely shut down—but even celebrities have to get dressed to
go grocery shopping. And so, in a year that seemed destined to be devoid of the big fits we know, love, and breathlessly catalog, there were still plenty of serious outfits making the rounds.
For a few months, the big looks were at movie premieres and afterparties. They were at fashion week events and on late-night couches. And then they went into lockdown. The big fits were at home. They were on Instagram. They were peering through a laptop camera into a Zoom call. Soon enough, the big fits were in Orlando, inside the NBA bubble. Or in the tunnel before an NFL game. They were at Erewhon, and they were delivering groceries to those in need. They adapted. The big fits, it turns out, were all over the place. You just had to know where to look.
And so, as we reach the end of the year, we're asking you to help us pick the year's most stylish man, in a contest that will run on GQ's Instagram all week long. The field is deep, a concentrated batch of 16 of the planet's most elite celebrity dressers. Some rely on tailoring, others on streetwear, a blessed few on a savvy union of the two. What unites them is a commitment to getting dressed, even when getting dressed ceased to be a requirement. May the biggest fit win.
Meet the contenders below, and head to GQ's Instagram to cast your vote ▸
LeBron James
Moving to Florida does funny things to personal style. So it would have been entirely understandable if LeBron James, after relocating to the NBA bubble in Orlando this summer, had started wearing, like, sarongs and flip flops. But the King is the King for a reason, and LBJ used his time at Disney World to test-drive some new style concepts: matching sets, totally unbuttoned shirts, and even a little Grateful Dead merch. Many of us turned to soft clothes during these long, homebound pandemic months. LeBron did, too—but he reminded us that wearing them doesn’t have to mean giving up.