Designer of the Year: Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga
In 2021, Demna Gvasalia redefined the reach and possibility of fashion design. His Balenciaga has challenged our assumptions about celebrity, luxury, popular culture, and even reality itself. As designers struggled throughout the pandemic to adjust to virtual fashion shows, Balenciaga seized an opportunity to plunge into the metaverse, partnering with Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite, to create a video game for fall 2021. A few months later, Balenciaga boot-pants and hourglass jackets showed up on Gucci’s runway, part of what both brands (which are owned by the conglomerate Kering) deemed the “hacker project.” Over the summer, Gvasalia directed two of Kanye West’s stadium-size Donda listening parties—and in the midst of all this, relaunched Balenciaga couture, recharting the industry’s direction, away from hype and toward handcraft. In September, Balenciaga ruled the Met gala red carpet, and cemented a partnership with Fortnite that allowed players to dress in its signature looks. At Paris Fashion Week in September, Balenciaga served up a rare moment of genuine surprise and delight, debuting a 10-minute-long Balenciaga-packed episode of The Simpsons.
Gvasalia is a populist interested in subverting fashion; what he has done with each of these projects is dismantle, brick by brick, the false boundary between vernacular and luxury. His platform-sole Crocs, satirical prom suits, and leather Ikea bags—all at luxurious price points—get a rise from the masses, and expose the clichés of fashion elitism. But with video games, cartoons, and mega-wattage celebrities, Gvasalia is finding unexpected ways to extend the reach of a luxury brand. —Rachel Tashjian
New Wardrobe Staple: The Skirt
Fashion hall of famers like Marc Jacobs—and, you know, bagpipers—have worn skirts for years, and designers like Raf Simons and Yohji Yamamoto have featured them on the runway since the ’90s. But when Russell Westbrook, Jordan Clarkson, and Dan Levy arrived at Thom Browne’s runway show this fall in resplendent, avant-garde kilts, it was clear that the skirt had officially transcended the tired debate over gender in fashion. While you won’t yet find them on the racks of mass-menswear stores like J. Crew now—head to Celine, Comme des Garçons, or SSENSE instead—you can bet the style will trickle down soon. —Samuel Hine
Look of the Year: Gucci, Fall 2021, Look No. 16
Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele on the look of the year:
“This look is very meaningful. It speaks to the roots of the brand and the essence of my work. A suit in a bold, acidic, unusual color that conveys the idea of an elegance also shaped by the refinement of the hue and the combinations. The suit is paired with something apparently unsuitable—this Lurex and fully embroidered ring-neck sweater. I believe this look talks about me and what I brought to Gucci: a great sense of color and a concept of styling that gives men the opportunity to have a wider and freer playground. This image, this color, this look are the essence of a certain type of masculine beauty and refinement.” —Noah Johnson
SUNGLASSES
Sporty, cycle-inspired black frames with gold metal rims and the Gucci logo in gold lettering on black temples.
SUIT
Chartreuse stretch velvet with satin details.
SWEATER
Gold wool turtleneck with allover-sequin embroidery detail.
BAG
Brass mini bag with GG Supreme motif and leather strap.
SHOES
Leather-sole moccasins in gray leather with Horsebit and web detail. Paired with camel cotton socks with tone-on-tone Gucci logo.
Watch of the Year: Cartier Tank
The Tank is a spectacular shape-shifter of a timepiece. Beloved by Tyler, the Creator, and Rami Malek, it also once found devotees among the likes of Muhammad Ali and Princess Diana. It comes in mossy green, deep cabernet, and yellow-gold—a mix of unlikely and classic flavors. It’s militaristic, originally inspired by an actual French battle tank, yet also represents the pinnacle of elegance. Other related and bizarrely shaped vintage Cartier watches like the Crash and Pebble are exploding in value at auction houses, some doubling in price this year, but no watch has persevered quite like the 100-year-old Tank. Still, by relaunching the more-affordable Must line this year, Cartier has ensured that Tanks remain relatively attainable—even as its popularity skyrockets. —Cam Wolf
Group Fit of the Year: The French Dispatch Cast at Cannes
Before the pandemic, red-carpet events often felt sterile: guys shuffling in well-tailored navy and black suits. But pandemic-enforced distance from these types of gatherings made hearts grow fonder—and fits grow bigger. Nowhere was that more apparent than at the Cannes Film Festival, where stars of Wes Anderson’s new film, The French Dispatch, gathered an ensemble of gloriously unharmonious looks. Timothée Chalamet traded in his Tom Ford suit for merch from the Safdie bros’ production company, Elara Pictures. Anderson did his thing in neo-preppy tailoring; Tilda Swinton was a sharp counterpoint in a Haider Ackerman suit. But for true style aficionados, it was Bill Murray’s double watch that sent this pic into the stratosphere. The photo of the crew swiftly became internet dynamite as the foursome came to represent just about any kind of quartet (“tiktok, twitter, instagram, fb,” one writer tweeted). The best red-carpet photo of 2021 was fodder for a rare day of fun online and a reminder that style is at its most powerful, meme-able, and culturally relevant when everyone flies their freak flag. —Cam Wolf
Breakthrough Designer of the Year: Eli Russell Linnetz for ERL
If most young designers require a handful of years to hone their vision, Eli Russell Linnetz emerged fully formed as a fashion godhead. Sure, the wunderkind came with excellent credentials—after assisting David Mamet, he became a protégé of Kanye West, eventually directing the video for “Fade,” and then made a name snapping portraits of Lady Gaga and Hailey Bieber. But in 2020, Linnetz leveraged a different kind of support when, at the urging of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market president Adrian Joffe, he launched his first full men’s collection with DSM. ERL’s easy, colorful sweatshirts, long underwear, gym shorts, and corduroys hit like a mandate for California dreaming. This year, his puffers became a celebrity must-have, and he debuted a perfume, called Sunscreen. He burst into a new realm of notoriety when he dressed A$AP Rocky for the Met Gala, swathing the musician in a shrunken tuxedo and a silk patchwork quilt he picked up at a California thrift store. Linnetz’s fashion ambitions mark the arrival of a true original whose clothes embody the screaming possibilities of being 17 for those who are ages beyond their last yearbook photo. In other words, it’s fashion world-building at its finest. —Rachel Tashjian
Shoe of the Year: The Loafer
This spring, after a year of being locked indoors, it felt like the entire country was itching to step out in some honest-to-goodness shoes again—but maybe not so willing to give up the comfort and convenience of the slippers they’d been living in around the clock. That’s how the already ascendant loafer became the footwear choice of the moment: all the dressy, hard-bottomed goodness you crave, with no pesky laces to tie. And right on cue, a parade of unimpeachable loafers arrived from every corner of the fashion universe. —Yang-Yi Goh
Store of the Year: Aimé Leon Dore, 214 Mulberry Street, NYC
Members of the neo-prep, post-streetwear New American Sportswear cult have been mobbing Nolita for a few years now, keeping the retail dream alive at the flagships for brands Noah, Saturdays NYC, and, the buzziest of them all, Aimé Leon Dore. On any given day outside the cream-colored shop and café, opened in 2019, you can witness firsthand how a clothing brand can become the linchpin of a subculture as young people in ALD New Balances, Yankees caps, and mohair cardigans swarm the block sipping lattes and snapping ’grams, waiting their turn to shop the latest drop inside. Wondering about the future of brick-and-mortar? Just ask the boss, Teddy Santis. He’s usually perched out front. —Noah Johnson
Accessory of the Year: Pearls
Now that they’ve arrived on the set of Saturday Night Live thanks to ex-scum-bro Pete Davidson, and in the Major Leagues thanks to self-described bad bitch Atlanta Brave Joc Pederson, pearls have officially gone mainstream. Think of it as radically modern, gender-transcending masculinity—by way of granny’s jewelry box. —Samuel Hine
Sneakers of the Year: Adidas x Wales Bonner
In a bog of overhyped sneakers from overhyped collaborators, English designer Grace Wales Bonner’s Adidas are the thinking-person’s kicks. Over the course of two collections, Wales Bonner has marinated three-striped sneakers like the Samba, Nizza, and SL 72 in international flavors, drawing from the British Jamaican community and her own dad’s wardrobe, Jamaican dancehall culture in the ’80s, and European football. Wales Bonner churns these influences into vibrantly colored throwback styles and Sambas with homespun crochet details. The Adidas x Wales Bonner collaboration won’t make you a StockX kingpin, but there are few better sneakers to remind you the whole point of shoes is to wear them. —Cam Wolf
Show of the Year: Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2022
The collection that would ultimately become Virgil Abloh’s last, before his devastating and sudden death at the age of 41, was also his most triumphant as the creative director of Louis Vuitton. (It also served as the basis for the recent, posthumous show LV staged in Miami). The collection began as many have in the time of COVID: as a film, released in June of this year. Abloh titled the project Amen Break, after the widely sampled drum beat that is foundational to hip-hop and jungle music—and a nod to his own knack for sampling and remixing fashion cues from different genres and eras. The flim is a gorgeous 15-minute sartorial epic that stars legendary musicians Saul Williams, GZA, and Goldie, along with the young French actor Issa Perica. The “Amen” break was a powerful metaphor, Abloh told GQ by email earlier this year: “The film reflects on a historic moment in Black art and culture when electronic music and hip-hop emerged like twins from the same egg, and trickled into every part of the globe.” Seen now, as part of the late designer’s great legacy, it looks more like a metaphor for all of the work he was doing to build bridges between cultures and generations throughout his career. “I was interested in exploring the idea of transmission,” he went on, “the act of passing something from one person to another, activating waves of change across generations.” —Noah Johnson
Comeback of the Year: Diesel by Glenn Martens
Diesel’s low-rise, boot-cut jeans helped create the premium denim wave that swept the early aughts. And many of us invested a small fortune in them, only to see the trend pass. But now that Y2K has reemerged as a fashion buzzword, the Italian denim brand has come roaring back with Belgian designer Glenn Martens, creative director of conceptual Parisian label Y/Project, at the helm. Martens started at Diesel in 2020, and has already reinvigorated the brand with his signature asymmetrical silhouettes and radical proportions, creating pieces that take a progressive approach to conventional denim for the jeans--hungry masses. He’s also dipping into the archives—a recent Diesel x Diesel collection included zeitgeisty leather bombers and baggy jeans that Martens revived from the ’90s. But his focus, he has said, is actually sustainability, taking on every aspect of the business: from the raw cotton to the washes to the production chain. For a brand the size of Diesel, that’s more than a talking point. It’s an opportunity to make a difference. —Teo van den Broeke
A version of this story originally appeared in the December/January 2022 issue with the title "The GQ Fashion Awards."
