This list of stylish people is not merely an appreciation of really great clothes, though there are plenty of those involved.
It is also a snapshot of pop culture, viral moments and figures who commanded the public’s attention (and dressed the part).
Some ignited discourse, and discord, with a single look.
Others used fashion to manifest some element of their identity – think John Travolta and his berets, a tribute to his notion of what a director should look like – or as an exuberant expression of their personality.
Who but Bjork, for instance, could be seen wearing a fiberglass-fringed Pepto Bismol-pink Bottega Veneta ensemble behind a DJ booth?
The great fashion writer Kennedy Fraser once argued that style, and stylishness, differed from ideas like taste and elegance.
Taste, she wrote, “never makes mistakes”. Elegance is “static and hermetic”.
Style, though, is a moving target; it is also “individualistic” and “reckless”, she said.
That’s how you get singer Jack Harlow’s toquelike hat and director Chloe Zhao’s regal red dress paired with pigtails. They may not be for you, but that’s the point.
Teyana Taylor
The key to wearing a serpentine gown just barely brushing one’s breast and a shaggy tinsel confection requiring constant movement? Supreme confidence.
Renate Reinsve
Few but Renate Reinsve have the range to pull off a statuesque gown and a louche suit.
Bad Bunny
This Puerto Rican musician’s Super Bowl performance became a political flashpoint.
As The New York Time's menswear critic Jacob Gallagher put it in February, Bad Bunny’s all-cream look suggested an “above-it-all poise, an image orchestrated to counter critics”.
The crew members who moved the sets during the performance did so covered in reeds of grass, adding an artistic flourish.
Stephen Colbert
When Stephen Colbert ended his 11-season run in May, he said farewell in – what else? – a single-breasted dark navy suit, the uniform of late-night hosts who for decades have lent a sense of decorum to their craft with versions of this understated look.
Audrey Nuna and the KPop Demon Hunters cast
On the Golden Globes red carpet and elsewhere, this trio proved that girl group dressing has come a long way since Destiny’s Child. Audrey Nuna was particularly striking in Thom Browne.
Read more: Glamour game: The power of celebrity fashion in Malaysia and beyond
Victor Wembanyama
How do you dress a 7-foot-4 figure? Not many people confront this dilemma, but should you ever find yourself in a bind, consider this San Antonio Spurs player’s tunnel-walk fits, which take a relaxed but cerebral approach to the brief.
Bjork
Avant-garde to her core, it’s difficult not to be totally delighted by this singer’s appearance behind a DJ booth at the Venice Biennale, undulating in a Dr Seussian Autumn 2026 look by Louise Trotter’s Bottega Veneta.
Artemis II astronauts
The jumpsuits the astronauts wore in space were in International Orange, custom-made to each astronaut’s physique and designed to sustain their wearer for 144 hours.
Once they landed safely, it was fitting that they celebrated their return with jumpsuits in an almost drinkable shade of blue.
Alysa Liu
Palpable joy is as much part of this figure skater’s look as her signature striped hair.
Adam Friedland
Modeling his talk show on Dick Cavett’s, Adam Friedland pays homage to the semiotics of the form. But one never forgets his intent to subvert those tropes – down to wearing cowboy boots, which he pairs with his raffish suits.
Sarah Pidgeon
In the Ryan Murphy FX series Love Story, Sarah Pidgeon appears in an array of faithfully reproduced looks worn by the real-life Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – Calvin Klein, Yohji Yamamoto, Prada.
Off duty, the breakout star still channels a bit of that 1990s minimalism but reinterprets it her way.
John F Kennedy Jr clones
Once you noticed one, you saw them everywhere. Most were poor imitators, who eschewed the Kennedy son’s more idiosyncratic choices in favour of a generic preppy aesthetic that was trending long before Love Story.
RFK Jr
Is there anything the health secretary won’t do in jeans? In a bid to project the US White House’s vision of masculinity, Robert F Kennedy Jr. shared a video of himself doing bicep curls, riding a stationary bike and even cold-plunging – all in denim.
Rama Duwaji
The first lady of New York’s lace-up boots from Miista, borrowed for her husband Zohran Mamdani’s midnight swearing-in as mayor, became an instant, and very 2026, Rorschach test.
Blue Ivy Carter
The eldest daughter of the Knowles-Carter family, Blue Ivy Carter, has been in the public eye since she was born.
But on the Met Gala red carpet in an off-white gown by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Balenciaga, it was clear that Carter was not merely the child of stars but a star in her own right.
Pregnant women in the Trump sphere
It’s a potent image for an administration that has made clear its position that women should be having more children.
Three women – Usha Vance, Katie Miller and Karoline Leavitt – create a portrait of idealised femininity, the counterpart to the masculine bravado put forth by the men of US White House.
Jazz Chisholm Jr
This New York Yankees player reiterated the totemic power of clothes when he borrowed his much larger teammate Giancarlo Stanton’s uniform to break his batting slump.
Incidentally, the oversize pants – Stanton is about 6-foot-5, and Chisholm is 5-foot-11 – happen to have exactly the right amount of slouch for the moment.
Chase Infiniti
Still a relatively new face in Hollywood, Chase Infiniti’s red carpet looks this season felt fresh and bold. And never was she to be seen in the same silhouette twice.
Patrick Radden Keefe
With his unflashy, intelligent way of dressing while promoting his latest book, London Falling, Patrick Radden Keefe, the consummate investigative journalist, conveys both the gravitas and the honest demeanour one must possess to convince people to share their stories.
Chloe Zhao
The sharp contrast among a brick-red dress, crisp white shoe and dark sunglasses she wore was perfectly offset by the director’s insouciant pigtails.
Clavicular
He walked in more than one fashion show this year, but this viral “looksmaxxer”, who goes to extremes to sculpt his face and body to his standards of perfection, would be the first to tell you that the clothes don’t make the man.
Miyako Bellizzi
The Oscar-nominated costume designer, who sourced and styled the period clothing for Marty Supreme, returned to the archives for a 1999 Galliano-era Dior gown.
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep melded her image with her character Miranda Priestly’s for the Devil Wears Prada 2 press tour.
But it wasn’t just the series of perfectly shaped sunglasses that made her looks indelible; smart silhouettes, bold prints and luxe textures made Streep the picture of elegance and glamour.
EsDeeKid
Perhaps none have been more committed to the image they created for themselves than this British rapper, who is never seen without a face covering.
President Emmanuel Macron
When the president of France wore mirrored aviator shades to address the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, it seemed the accessory was meant to cover an inflamed eye.
Yet it was unavoidable that the glasses would make a fashion statement, too.
Eileen Gu
She’s a model, a Stanford University international relations major and an Olympic gold medalist several times over. The ribbon she often wears in her hair shows that Eileen Gu, one of the most decorated multihyphenates, has a playful side.
Jack Harlow
Whatever else happens this year, we’ve already been blessed with a new form of hat. This far into human existence, who knew such a thing was possible?
Jamie Ding
Clothes can be a tool to express the most straightforward of sentiments.
During his 31-game streak on Jeopardy! Ding wanted to rep the colours of his alma mater, Princeton University, and so he did, resulting in a string of winsome sweaters riffing on the colour palette.
Fakemink
This rising rapper from Essex, England, who has been boosted by Drake and Playboi Carti, has also become a clothes hound.
He covets garments by Galliano; he walked in Demna’s Gucci debut; and he is undaunted by style risks, like bedazzled jeans.
Read more: How the Met Gala turns fashion into art while igniting debate on diversity
Rosalía
In another sign that Jonathan Anderson is making waves at Dior, Rosalía collaborated with the designer on her celestial onstage looks, which were a little bit Black Swan, a little bit Michelangelo.
Kareem Rahma
His internet talk show, Subway Takes, has become an almost required stop for celebrities macro and micro. Kareem Rahma’s array of sunglasses, always worn inside on the train, are essential to the job.
John Travolta
Upon his directorial debut at Cannes Film Festival in the spring, John Travolta said he wanted to look like the “old-school directors”.
The berets he wore to play the part paired well with his jaunty demeanour, which seemed to convey that he, too, was surprised he had pulled it off.
Justin Trudeau
Seen through the lens of Katy Perry’s social media presence, this former prime minister of Canada looks like just another Instagram boyfriend.
Zsolt Hegedus
This Hungarian health minister’s pure lack of inhibition – after Hungary’s new prime minister ousted Viktor Orban in the spring – is a rare thing, and infectious.
Josh O’Connor
First, he was a Loewe boy; now he’s a Dior lad. This actor, and his new stylist Jason Bolden, knows he looks good in Jonathan Anderson’s designs, worn of late to promote Disclosure Day.
Justin Bieber
Satiny lavender boxer shorts with delicate crystal patches recently refracted the facets of Justin Bieber’s public persona of late: both a singer with a troubled past trying to cut a more tender image and a savvy businessperson, as the shorts were from his own brand, Skylrk.
Amy Poehler
With her Golden Globe-winning podcast, she’s become celebrities’ favourite celebrity. Her cheery, mom-core tops, typically all that you see when she’s behind the mic, help put her guests at ease.
Eon Huntley
This Brooklyn Assembly member has his own notion of what a democratic socialist legislator should look like. His look is inflected with his work history – as a Bergdorf Goodman sales associate on the women’s floor at the Row.
New York Knicks fans
As the Knicks mounted their NBA finals victory, New Yorkers reached for gear old and new – or simply anything in their closets that was blue and orange. – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
