Durban - This was a big year for fashion. Trends were set, rules were broken and Lupita Nyong’o reigned supreme. Buhle Mbonambi looks at the celebrity style highlights of 2014.
Wedding Style
There were four major celebrity weddings this year - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson. The ladies all have very different styles and it showed during their weddings. They all wore custom dressed from their favourite designers. Angelina wore Versace, with her children's doodles embroidered on the dress. Kim wore Givenchy, and was the most Instagrammed celebrity bride of the year. Amal wore Oscar de la Renta, in one of his last designs before he passed on and then Solange had four wedding outfits - one designed by Kenzo and three by Stephane Rolland. Because of the sheer epic-ness of her wedding and the pictures, Solange had the best wedding this year.
King Eddie
British actor Eddie Redmayne has consistently been one of Hollywood’s best-dressed men. He’s so stylish, he single-handedly brought brown suits back into fashion. Even when dressed casually, he is still the best turned out man in the room. He is killing it on the red carpet now that awards season has started. He was by far the best dressed at many events this year, even with fierce competition from model David Gandy, rapper Tinie Tempah and James Marsden (ex model now actor). He is 2014’s king of style.
Queen Lupita
She slayed every single look during her impressive awards season run, which started in September last year and ended with the Academy Awards. From the Prada, Calvin Klein, Lanvin, Chanel and Cushnie et Ochs and Miu Miu gowns, the Kenyan superstar killed it. She never shied away from bright colours, wearing every single colour in the rainbow and pulling it off. She is on the list of many fashion magazines as the style star of the year and she deserves it.
That Bonang Matheba reign refuses to let up
Besides Lupita Nyong'o, no other African has made waves, style wise, like Top Billing presenter, Bonang Matheba. And with good reason. She is consistently on point. Every time there's an event happening, anywhere in the country and she's on the guest list, all attendees simply have to make peace with the fact that she is the best dressed in the room. From her partnership with designer Gert Johan Coetzee, her new favourite designer, Mozambique's Taibo Bacar to her high street fashion looks from Top Shop and Asos, she has showed that you style is not about high fashion - it's about how confident you are in what you are wearing, no matter where it's from. Even with fierce competition from Jay Anstey, Nandi Mngoma, Tiwa Savage and Pearl Thusi, Bonang is simply, the continent's queen of style.
Rita Ora is Horrific
The British singer has had a very terrible year, style wise. If she's not overdressing for casual things, she's taking risks that sadly, do not pay off. After impressing the last few weeks (even though she was a tad overdressed) she went back to her usual hot mess self at the Jingle Ball events. There is no redeeming Rita. She is the worst dressed of the year.
Bad Gal Riri
You can’t have a style list and not include Rihanna. She constantly breaks the rules and takes fashion where no one expected it to go to. From setting trends and breaking rules (the naked dress at the CFDA Awards and the Tom Ford dress at the amFAR event) to wearing little known designers and catapulting them to fame (Alexandre Vauthier, Adam Selman), Rihanna is one of the most influential people in fashion. She showed she can do classy at the Diamond Ball last week and those Zac Posen gowns will go down in history as one of the highlights for 2014.
Sunday Tribune