The Emmy-winning, Tony-, Golden Globe- and Oscar-nominated actor, playwright and director Colman Domingo offers up a lot of clout both on- and off-screen. And there is a case to be made that his real talent lies in his promotional duties – with styling from Wayman Bannerman and Micah McDonald. Sure, he was there to represent Sing Sing, The Madness or his turn as Batman in a scripted podcast, but did anyone else this year look as good on a red carpet? The Die, Workwear! and MR PORTER columnist Derek Guy thinks not.

Derek Guy: “Colman Domingo is one of those rare figures who understands tailoring, can creatively express himself through attire, and is never overshadowed by his clothes. Some men have one or two of these qualities; Domingo has all three. The gold-coloured Valentino Garavani suit at the Critics’ Choice Awards wasn’t just the best outfit of the year, it may have been the standout of the decade. It had drama, verve and tremendous presence. Yet, and as ever, the focus was on him. People will look back at that photo in 50 years and continue to be inspired.”

From Harris Dickinson’s dashing dress in The King’s Man to his pitch-perfect performance as a male model in satirical comedy Triangle Of Sadness, the clues were there. But to send something up so adeptly, you first have to know it. And, in 2024, the star of The Iron Claw and Babygirl, who works with stylist Ben Schofield, is steadily making slick tailoring his signature, according to Zak Maoui, style director of The Gentleman’s Journal.

For some, becoming a father is the moment when personal style becomes less of a priority. When you have young children to deal with, sartorial standards can slip. Not so with A$AP Rocky, who, if anything, amped up his fashion nous. Working with long-term stylist Matthew Henson, the rapper made Bottega Veneta in particular his own, the Hong Kong-based stylist, art director and creative consultant Declan Chan argues.

“Just because you look pretty good in whatever you wear doesn’t give you license to wear anything you fancy,” says the writer, model and creative consultant Jason Jules. “Unless, of course, you’re Daniel Craig and you’re seemingly hell-bent on burying your Bond, James Bond image once and for all.” Craig’s post-007 glow up continued apace in 2024 thanks to LOEWE and its creative director Jonathan Anderson in particular. Having shaken (not stirred) off the British secret agent, the actor became a poster boy for reinventing yourself in your fifties with a little help from his new stylist Taylor McNeill.

Previously seen in Informer, 1917 and Industry, Nabhaan Rizwan flexed his acting chops this year in Kaos, Netflix’s retelling of Greek and Roman mythology. And the aloha shirts of Dionysus, the god of wine, fertility and festivity, did look good on him. But then so did the bold choices made by the actor in real life. He certainly caught the film producer Aaron Christian’s eye.

In one sense, the key to Paul Mescal’s style is its everyman appeal – “gloriously unfussy”, as GQ’s deputy global editorial director Adam Baidawi puts it. And yet, under the guidance of stylist Felicity Kay, the Gladiator II star’s look is so distinctive that you could instantly gauge who thousands of lookalikes descending on Dublin in November were pretending to be. And that now-immortalised gym outfit? “That was all Paul,” Kay recently told Baidawi.

Dressing well is, of course, in the blood when it comes to Cruz Beckham. But there’s more on display than good genes – and jeans. “Cruz exemplifies the difference between style and fashion,” says the fashion critic and consultant Anders Christian Madsen. “As a young man growing up in the spotlight, you see his style evolving before our eyes like his parents before him. He’s inherited Victoria and David’s inquisitive sense for dressing.”

When Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio wasn’t regularly troubling our monthly best-dressed lists, he was popping up in our watch content or the Sneaker Drop. Under the stylist Storm Pablo’s direction, Bad Bunny always looks the part, as the A Magazine editor-in-chief and actor Blake Abbie confirms.

“The best-dressed man of 2024? Or just any given year… Tyler, the Creator is certainly someone with such an innate sense of style that he is hard to overlook,” says MR PORTER’s Buying Director Daniel Todd. Sure, Tyler had an album, Chromakopia, to promote, and therefore a new stage persona to debut. But somehow his thoroughly thought-out looks are “put together in a way that doesn’t seem contrived or like some sort of cosplay,” Todd says of the music multi-hyphenate who has never worked with a fashion stylist.