Kanye West

Not content with reinventing what streetwear meant, Kanye finally made good on years of boastful lyrics and became a bona fide fashion icon, both on the runway and in the street. For all the trends sparked by Mr West, perhaps the most enduring is the color palette he’s lived in since founding his Yeezy line. With shades of dusty pinks, drab olives and military-inspired khakis locked in, he’s been free to experiment with silhouettes and fabrics, which have helped him carve out an aesthetic that’s distinctive but also always shifting.

David Beckham

More than anyone else, David Beckham was responsible for a generation of men taking an interest in what they wore. Perhaps it was because he came to style from the hyper-masculine world of football, but Becks seemed to polish away the feminine gloss with which fashion had, unfairly, been painted. He broke trends on the front pages of newspapers, could make particular items sell out overnight, and almost single-handedly kickstarted the male grooming industry. We all moisturize now, and we’ve got David Beckham to thank.

Ryan Gosling

In the opening act of the 21st century, men’s fashion took on a level of theatricality it had never had before. Through it all, Ryan Gosling became one of the best-dressed men in the world by taking a leaf from the Hollywood stars in the mould his own career was forged: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman et al. His look, with its elevated workwear, fitted suits and occasional curveball knits, was classic menswear with a modern twist, which sampled from every decade since the 1950s to create something that felt completely current.

A$AP Rocky

In the 2000s, high fashion’s relationship with hip-hop shifted from outright hostility to begrudging acceptance. By the close of the following decade, the two were intimately entwined, with brightest names fronting campaigns for the biggest houses. That shift was largely thanks to A$AP Rocky, whose blending of runway fashion and authentic streetwear transcended both, to become arguably the defining trend of the last half of the 2010s. Even if you never wore a Dior suit made from patchwork denim, you almost certainly embraced his rule-breaking attitude at some point.