The red carpet is not rooted in the everyday reality of how the average man dresses. It’s unlikely, for instance, that Barry from Milton Keynes (or Burt from Scranton, Pennsylvania, for that matter) is going to see Mr Billy Porter wearing a white feather cape to the Oscars and think of giving it a go next time he goes to play darts. What the red carpet does provide, however, is a kind of barometer of the sartorial mood of the moment that will be emulated in some capacity down the line. The opportunity for celebrities to set trends to be captured by the paparazzi has been considerably diminished this year, but that doesn’t mean that everyone defaulted to sweats and slides when the time called for putting on the ritz in 2020.

Throughout the year, it was the softer, more feminine details, rather than the loud statements of the outfits as a whole, that commanded attention. Masculine codes of dress have been shifting away from tuxedos for a while, but it seems the envelope is being pushed further, and if celebrity style is anything to go by, 2020 has been a turning point for what it means to “dress like a man”. At the 2020 VMAs back in August, Mr Jaden Smith and Machine Gun Kelly made headlines for their decidedly colourful ’fits. The VMAs are hardly a buttoned-up affair (the rapper Busta Rhymes famously wore a kimono to attend the awards back in 1997), but it was the attention to detail that stood out: Mr Smith wore a colour-blocked jacket adorned with pastel cutout flowers, while MGK showed up in a hot-pink set by Berluti that consisted of a sleeveless rollneck and tailored suit trousers. Both men also wore pearl necklaces.

Pearls in particular have been an unexpectedly popular accessory over the past couple of years, and are established as one of the most prominent trends in men’s jewellery. Though they are perhaps most associated with well-to-do grandmothers and/or baroque society, pearls have recently popped up on some of the coolest men in the world. Hip-hop royalty including A$AP Rocky, Lil Nas X and Gucci Mane wore them last year, and Mr Harry Styles donned an attention-grabbing pearl earring (and sheer Gucci shirt and nail polish) at last year’s Met Gala. The theme for that Gala was Camp, but the fact that a notable amount of red-carpet peacocks have continued to wear pearls this year suggests that we can expect more and more men to be wearing them into next year, too.

Also, blouses. Usher and Mr Cole Sprouse wore white silk blouses to the Oscars Vanity Fair party this year, while the Mexican singer and actor Mr Diego Boneta, who usually favours tuxedos, wore a sheer lace top under a suit jacket to the Venice Film Festival. Lil Nas X, meanwhile, attended the Billboard Music Awards last month wearing a Gucci snakeskin-printed suit and a pussy-bow pistachio-coloured blouse with matching green nail polish, which was upstaged only by his wet and wavy Prince-esque mullet.

Sure, tuxedos are still aplenty at more traditional awards shows such as the Golden Globes, but even there, the actor Mr Ansel Elgort, dressed in a sharp suit and navy bow tie, decorated his eyes with a smattering of glittery eyeshadow and managed to pull it off.

For men in the public eye, there is seemingly less and less pressure to conform to masculine ideals, and more freedom to, well, wear a string of pearls. What does this all mean for your own wardrobe, right now? Not necessarily anything if you don’t want it to, but 2020’s red-carpet outings indicate an undeniable shift to more feminine modes of dress, which means that we can only expect more pearls, blouses and glittery eyeshadow in the future.

So, if you’re the type of man that appreciates the smooth handle of a silk shirt, fancy trying out bolder colours, or just have a box of your late grandmother’s jewellery that you’re not sure what to do with, your time is now.