6 1GT Wednesday December 2 2020 | the times

fashion

Rishi’s hoodies, David Beckham’s

flat caps and Connell’s chain —

Charlie Gowans-Eglinton on

2020’s fashion highs and lows

F

rom Rishi Sunak’s

hoodie to Justin

Trudeau’s beard,

2020 has brought us

unexpected style

heroes... and villains,

from Dominic

Cummings’s shepherd’s

crook to a melting Rudy Giuliani.

Here are the highs and lows of men’s

style this year.

High Rishi’s hoodie

In May, when working from home

was still a novelty and people

showered before Zoom conference

calls, the chancellor of the exchequer,

dishy Rishi Sunak, showed that he

was just like us by tweeting a picture

of himself (modern) wearing a grey

hoodie in his home office. It was the

picture that launched a thousand

internet searches for said hoodie,

and marked the beginning of the

summer of sweatshirts (and tracksuits,

leggings and all things slouchy

and/or elasticated).

Low Rishi’s

hoodie

Fashion is a fickle

beast, and what goes

up must come down.

This week the

Treasury released

pictures of Sunak

wearing another grey

hoodie, possibly hoping

that the nation would

fall into such a deep

swoon that we’d tune

out the spending

review. Instead, Sunak

has single-handedly

killed the hoodie. Partly because our

collective crush is now as dead as

theatreland on a Friday night, and

partly because this time he layered

said hoodie over a white shirt and red

tie with white polka dots. The nation

wept. Not since Carol Vorderman was

spotted in Roland Mouret’s galaxy

dress, not since Danniella Westbrook

matched her Burberry check outfit to

her Burberry check pram, has a Hot

becauseour

2

Fashion Trend fallen so quickly and

spectacularly from grace. What to

wear now?

High Josh O’Connor’s

knitwear drawer

Racing in to fill the hoodie void is the

contents of Josh O’Connor’s knitwear

drawer. Prince Charles may not have

come off well in season four of The

Crown, but O’Connor, the actor who

Men: who got it right

Best cottagecore

David Beckham

Best ‘keep calm’ suit

Keir Starmer

Best blazer

Andrew Scott

Best silver chain

Connell, from Normal People