It is the usual thing, at this time of the year, for fashion reporters to compile lists – the best dressed, the knockout gowns from the red carpet season, the most iconic sartorial moments and so forth. However, 2020 upended just about everything. Including the way we think about, talk about and, yes, wear fashion. For one thing, hardly any of us got out of our elastic waistband trousers. After all, thanks to the global pandemic, most of us had very few places to go. Yet for all the valid conversations around fashion meeting this moment – of being more purposeful and useful, and putting sustainability and diversity at the forefront – fashion has also provided us with some real moments of joy. And in a year where the doldrums reigned supreme, the thrill, the fantasy and the escape that fashion can provide us is certainly something to celebrate. One such moment came late in the year with pop singer Harry Styles’ glorious American fashion magazine Vogue cover. In the accompanying interview, Styles said: “You can never be overdressed. There’s no such thing.” Meanwhile fashion designer Donatella Versace told British Vogue of getting dressed in the new normal, “After this, I think there’s only a place for glamour.” After this awful year, and those saggy tracksuit bottoms we wore, don’t these seem like the mantras we ought to adopt? In that spirit we’ve created a list (yes, hooray, a list!) of 10 fashion moments from this year that in some way buoyed the spirits, offered up inspiration and provided a welcome reminder of just how much fun it is to get dressed up. Harry Styles’ Vogue cover Just as we were all limping toward the end of this unprecedented year, heartthrob pop singer Harry Styles gave us the spirit (and spiritual) boost we needed with his cover for Vogue . The former boy band member is the first man to grace the cover of the magazine alone. The look – a periwinkle shirred and ruffled blue Gucci gown and a black tuxedo jacket – was beautifully non-gender-conforming. In the accompanying profile Alessandro Michele , creative director of Gucci, said of his friend: “[Styles] is the image of a new era, of the way that a man can look.” Princess Diana’s fashion on The Crown The introduction of Princess Diana , played by Emma Corrin, to Netflix series The Crown was always going to be bittersweet – we all know how that fairy tale ended. However, watching the fashion transformation of Princess Diana from a shy girl wearing pie-crust collars to a glamorous, complicated princess was pure sartorial pleasure. The late princess’ style has in recent years become catnip to the fashion set, thanks to her famous “revenge dress” and her now iconic ’90s athleisure looks. Highlights from season four included a recreation of the ice-blue gown she wore to dance with Prince Charles during the couple’s 1983 royal tour in Australia. Molly Goddard and Simone Rocha What will we want to wear when life goes back to “normal”? A very fine suggestion would be one of Molly Goddard’s signature froths of tulle dresses, or Irish fashion designer Simone Rocha’s sumptuous pearl- and jewel-encrusted confections. Both designers showed mood-boosting collections during London Fashion Week that celebrated femininity. They made one long to be invited to a glamorous party to dance, drink champagne and feel that anything might be possible. Clothes for living well in, then. As Simone Rocha said of her collection: “Clothes are made of cloth, and emotions, and they come to life on a body.” Tracee Ellis Ross at the People’s Choice Awards Picking up the Fashion Icon Award at this year’s People’s Choice Awards, the actress and producer Tracee Ellis Ross – looking sensational in a white Alexander McQueen shirt dress and black thigh-high boots – spoke of the power of joy and fashion. “Use fashion as an entrance. Let your clothes be your superhero cape, allowing you to be the best you [that] you can be,” she said. “Activate the clothes through your joy and commitment to the world that you want to see. It doesn’t matter if you wear black tie or a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, but suit up and show up, because our action creates our destiny, our joy creates space for our freedom.” Fighting words. Kamala Harris’ white victory suit It’s easy to dismiss the role of fashion in politics as trivial, or distracting from the real issues. Yet the clothes we choose to wear can say so much about us. US vice-president-elect Kamala Harris, the first woman, and first woman of colour and of South Asian descent to hold the position, understands this perfectly. Much has been written of her signature Converse sneakers and Timberland boots. However, the elegant white Carolina Herrera suit and silk pussy-bow blouse Harris wore on stage alongside president-elect Joe Biden to claim election victory was a true sartorial power move. White is one of the colours of women’s suffrage and the white trouser suit has been worn by many high-profile women, who, like Harris, are in the business of smashing glass ceilings. Jacquemus’ spring/summer 2021 show In a year with few fashion spectacles and even fewer holidays, French fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus gave us all a taste of both with his spring/summer 2021 show. In front of a small number of guests, a diverse line-up of models walked along a winding wooden catwalk amid sheaves of wheat in a field an hour or so outside Paris. The effect, even when watched over a live stream, was mesmerising. As for the clothes – fluid, romantic dresses and sexy tailoring – well, they’re just made for chic summering in the South of France (or as close as you can get). The ’60s costumes in The Queen’s Gambit The elegant, nipped-in dresses, perfectly knotted silk scarves and nubby jumpers worn by fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon in the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit certainly provided enough inspiration to drop this year’s requisite athleisure uniform (and also take up chess). The show’s costume designer, Gabriele Binder, was inspired by actresses Edie Sedgwick and Jean Seberg as well as the work of fashion designers Pierre Cardin and Cristóbal Balenciaga to create Beth’s glamorous wardrobe. A particular highlight? The fuzzy white pea coat with matching hat and gloves worn in the final scene. A definitive style checkmate. Tilda Swinton at the Venice Film Festival Unlike most such events this year, the Venice Film Festival went ahead in a physical format. And thank goodness it did, because it turns out we all needed a dose of Tilda Swinton’s singular otherworldly glamour. Swinton arrived at the festival’s opening ceremony and screening of the film Lacci in tiered frills of monochrome Chanel haute couture, paired with the accessory de jour – a masquerade-ball-style gilded mask. As an aside, Swinton was photographed wearing a belted bronze Chanel look from the maison’s cruise 2020 collection at the Venice airport. When travel returns for the rest of us, let’s all aim to make it look that chic. The silhouettes at Loewe’s spring/summer 2021 show The voluminous, whimsical silhouettes in Jonathan Anderson’s spring/summer 2021 collection for Loewe are the antithesis of practical loungewear. What a joy! Each look, including balloon-like sleeves and puffs of chiffon, showcased the Spanish luxury house’ technical prowess and commitment to craft. They all provided a jolt of creativity and fantasy. As Anderson told Vogue of the inspiration behind the collection: “We have to start loving fashion again. We don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. So let’s enjoy it!” Amen. Emily in Paris Ooh la la, this one is controversial. Darren Star (creator of Sex and the City and Younger ) divided the internet with his soufflé-light concoction on Netflix, Emily in Paris . The story of an American marketing executive landing a job at a Parisian luxury marketing firm inspired a thousand internet think pieces – not least because of Emily’s polarising fashion choices. Yet while Emily was rather witheringly dubbed “le plouc”, i.e. the hick, and “ringarde” (basic), the sight of Emily tottering around Parisian streets in impractical Louboutins and all of that Chanel provided some much-needed escapism. Costume designer Patricia Field created Emily’s wardrobe, and if it wasn’t to your taste, well, there was always that ridiculously handsome chef …