A fabulously fashionable entrance in an eye-catching designer outfit can add star-wattage to a fledgling career, and earn A-listers a tidy paycheck. So who performed best this year?

• The Baftas red carpet – in pictures

Paddington in his duffel coat, and a prince and princess putting on a brave face and black tie in the white heat of royal disgrace. Move over, movie stars: who can compete with red carpet drama like this?

Paul Mescal stepped up early with a big swing, hard-launching his relationship with Gracie Abrams with a red-carpet kiss. The frayed rolled cuffs and Henley collar of his Prada shirt gave him the air of having walked to the red carpet straight from the boards of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. Method dressing is the new power dressing, and this could be the season of Hamnet-core: see, also, Archie Madekwe’s doublet-shaped Dior jacket and Elizabeth-adjacent sparkly ruff.