RIHANNA (Above)
2014 was - by RiRi’s standards - a quiet year. Taking a six-month sabbatical from her hugely influential Instagram account between May and September, after a row over topless pictures, effectively ceded huge swathes of pop cultural territory to Kim Kardashian, whose wedding photo - three weeks after RiRi’s self-imposed Insta-exile - became the most-liked picture on Instagram, ever. (Right now, Kim has 24 million followers to RiRi’s 14 million.) But with a new gig as creative director of Puma - which she announced on Instagram in an all-white look of sneakers, tracksuit bottoms, chunky knit and pearls - Rihanna is back in the game. Just don’t call it a comeback.
MIA GOTH
If you’re not obsessed with Mia Goth yet, you need to get with the programme. The 20-year-old London-born actress is set to be the hipster face of the year. Goth is a fabulously edgy beauty: the lashless, Elizabethan majesty of Lily Cole, the space-cadet sensuality of Lana Del Rey, the tomboy sass of Sissy Spacek in Badlands. Oh, and with the rosebud lips of Lindsey Wixson thrown in for good measure (like I said, we’re obsessed already). She made a bold entree onto the silver screen with her debut in Lars von Trier’s five-hour epic Nymphomaniac, playing Charlotte Gainsbourg’s sadomasochistic, hypersexual mini-me. This year, she stars in dystopian thriller, The Survivalist, then goes Hollywood with a role in set-to-be-blockbuster Everest, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Keira Knightley.
MARK RYLANCE as THOMAS CROMWELL
Someone needs to redefine male power dressing for 2015, sharpish, before we all go into a purple-tie induced visual-boredom coma and sleep through the general election. We’re pinning our hopes on Mark Rylance, playing the ultimate Tudor power-fixer Thomas Cromwell in the BBC’s production of Wolf Hall. A black cape with a fur collar isn’t the easiest look to pull off, but fingers crossed Kanye will pick it up - how amazing would he look, especially in the Rembrandt-self-portrait cap. Then the whole get up will be in Topman in six weeks. Job done.
SILVIA NEID
This will be the year that the women’s world cup becomes a Thing. And just as Joachim Low set the style bar high in the technical area as the manager for Germany in 2014, Silvia Neid - manager of the women’s side - looks set to cut a fine figure for Germany again in 2015. She’s got really good hair - if you’ve been watching The Legacy and admiring Gro’s swept-back platinum elegance, you are going to LOVE Silvia - and she knows how to work a black trousersuit with a simple pair of stud earrings. Which is a superb 2015 look, right there.
BJORK
In 2015, Bjork will a) release a new album, b) be the subject of a major retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, chronicling her career in fashion, image, music and performance and c) turn 50. FIFTY! So I think it’s fair to say: the lady’s gonna have a moment. In fact, she’s already having one. Her 1997 song, Hunter, was the soundtrack for the recent Dior catwalk show in Tokyo, while the models wore looped braids of the kind Bj?rk made hip in the 90s. Our all-time favourite Bj?rk look remains the cover of 1993 album Debut - mohair grunge knit, stringy bob, prayer hands - but next year’s look is as yet unveiled. Can she top the swan dress?
LEANDRA MEDINE
Reading Leandra Medine’s blog, Man Repeller, is like reading the fashion industry as a screenplay by Lena Dunham. The name was born from Leandra’s conversations with friends about how the best fashion is always the stuff boys totally don’t get. Medine is now a front row fixture, and a street style superstar, who nails the way we want to look right now. Example: see her blog for a video on how to do the perfect imperfect hair-tuck in a turtleneck sweater. She will matter in 2015 because she is one of the few voices in the fashion industry engaging in discussions about feminism and female conformity. One of her most popular posts was “Why I Don’t Wear Make-Up” and in a recent post, “Why I Wear Bad Pants” she writes that she likes high-waisted, crop-length trousers because: “I know they don’t look good but I think they’re cool. They make me feel like a more interesting version of myself and that, to me, is what style is about.”
JULIA ROBERTS
This one truly is a comeback. When Riccardo Tisci dropped hints there was a Hollywood megastar starring in the new Givenchy campaign, it’s fair to say that the name Julia Roberts was on no one’s lips. But the campaign, shot by Mert and Marcus, in which Roberts wears a black trousersuit and minimal makeup - a look very similar to the one she turned up wearing, according to Tisci - has got a generation who swooned over Roberts in a polka-dot dress in Pretty Woman back in 1990 swooning all over again.
CHRISTINE McVIE
After last year’s Kate Bushmania, the retro-revival tour of the year is Fleetwood Mac, who play the Isle of Wight festival in June, with Christine McVie making her return. Stevie Nicks has always been the cover girl, but fashion in 2014 is all about the very early 1970s - 1971-2 is the anorak time-slot to namedrop for spring. Nicks didn’t join the band till later, so it is McVie’s retro look that will set the nostalgia standard. Think: high-waisted jeans, scoop necked T-shirt.
- Guardian News and Media 2015
