Demna and Guram Gvasalia for Vetements

Without a doubt, the fashion phenomenon that has taken street style into haute couture this year has been the achingly-cool new brand, Vetements, founded and run by the Gvasalia brothers. The label launched in 2014 based on the idea of urban cultures, the internet, everyday life on the streets and a modern wardrobe without seasonal themes, which has become the hot new topic of twenty-first century fashion. They regularly cast their models from Instagram and dare to present their runway shows at any time of the year and in any place, utterly departing from the fashion status quo ante. One might find it bizarre that a £700 hoodie should sell out in a matter of hours, but that is simply the Vetements magic, and people are willing to pay through the nose for a sprinkle of their streetwear fairy dust. In an article for vogue.com, Suzy Menkes describes Vetements as “the subversive brand of so-called 'ordinary' clothes, [taking] over hallowed haute couture with elegant mannish jackets, but on women”. The brand has collaborated with sacred high-fashion houses such as Blahnik (to create those awe-inspiring waist high satin boots in shocking colours), as well as the yummy-mummy’s go-to, Juicy Couture, the English country gentleman’s staples of Church's and Brioni and the hipster/punk chaussures du choix, Dr Martens. The willingness with which these disparate brands agree to collaborate with the Gvasalias at Vetements is testament to their universal appeal inside and outside the industry.

Marc Jacobs for Marc Jacobs

New York Fashion Week has long been considered the sports-luxe version of its European peers – though New York’s designers have long objected to this claim. It is natural, however, considering the nature of the city – frenetic, dirty and claustrophobic – that the clothes might be a little less expansive to meet the needs of the urban dweller. However, it was Marc Jacobs who made an extravagant exception to the rule for his 2016 collections. For AW16, his models stomped down the runway in 7-inch platform boots and oversized slogan sweaters, worthy of the most hardcore London punks. They sported highly embroidered, Renaissance-style gowns in impossibly rich shades of black, shocking white and ominous green that evoked the magnificence of Milan, while the hair and makeup evoked the era of Parisian film noir that had been held too close to the fire and melted slightly. The whole effect was outstandingly Gormenghast-ian, taking inspiration from the cities that had so long looked down upon NYFW and twisting their traditions into something both modern and unsettling. While the use of dreadlocks for his SS17 was met with a mixture of positive and negative feedback over the cultural appropriation debate, it opened up a long-awaited discussion in fashion about diversity, ethnicity and the respectful use of traditional style.

The Varsity Fashion Awards 2016: Male Model Nominees

Alessandro Michele for Gucci

Hailed as ‘Gucci’s renaissance man’ by the New Yorker, Alessandro Michele, appointed in January 2015, has reinvented the house to the delight of the fashion world. Having started his career at Gucci under Tom Ford, the refreshing new take on the Gucci woman – from erotic glamazon, to enchanting and effortlessly chic bookworm has been a surprise for many. Michele was born in Rome, where he grew up with an instinctive appreciation of the visual thanks to his mother’s love of cinema and his father’s interest in sculpture. As a teenager, he revelled in the youth culture of post-punk Europe and his interest in street style and pragmatic eccentricity lives on in his designs today.  His womenswear collections have marked turning points for the evolution of Gucci; it was Michele who introduced the sheer, frilled dresses and floral suits that have become modern staples for the house and cemented the furry loafer as The Shoe of 2016 – followed by a plethora of high-street knock-offs. His designs have the unlikely mix of being a tongue-in-chic glance at the fashion world while being simultaneously and instantaneously iconic. In his eight seasons, Michele’s Gucci collections have racked up more than 25 million views on vogue.com. The most popular is Spring 2016, with over 8 million hits