It was a battle royale between beautiful British men. It was “suede booties at the beach” versus “robot arms at the Met Gala.” It was a well-cut tuxedo at an awards show versus colorful rock stylings. It was an “I Heart T.S.” t-shirt versus breakfast beans. It was Tom Hiddleston versus Zayn Malik. And when British GQ put their Best Dressed British Man poll online, it was a battle royale between fandoms. On one side, you had the exhaustive Dragonflies/Hiddlestoners, who love nothing more than imagining that Tom Hiddleston is the most special and best-dressed man in the world. On the other side, you had Zayn’s ride-or-die fandom, who believe everything he does is good and true and pure. Who would win? Well, Zayn Malik won. There were 30,000 votes cast and Zayn got a clear majority of 59%. So now Zayn is British GQ’s Best Dressed Man of 2016.

After two weeks of intense matches, Zayn Malik has beaten Tom Hiddleston to win the GQ Best-Dressed 2017 Reader’s Play-offs. In a closely fought final match where over 30,000 votes were cast, Malik took the title with an impressive 59 per cent of the total vote.

Malik joins an illustrious list of well-dressed homegrown men to win the readers’ vote, most recently including Jim Chapman in 2015 and his former bandmember Harry Styles in 2016. However, Malik is the first man in the history of the fan-voted portion of our competition to top the list twice – fans of his style sensibility will know that he previously won in 2013.

And it’s a double win that’s well deserved. Malik’s style is one that’s as experimental as it is smart, making him a man who can do streetwear slickness just as effortlessly as red carpet suiting. We would say it’s the kind of cool approach to outfitting that would rub off on any man dating one of the world’s most famous supermodels, but Malik’s dress sense was there way before Gigi. Even in his One Direction days, that personal style shone through his boyband styling.

[From British GQ]

While I imagine there were many Dragonflies who voted early and often for Tom Hiddleston, I also imagine that there were some older fans who recognized that Tom actually isn’t that well-dressed in the grand scheme of things. Sure, the man can wear a tuxedo. Yes, he looks good in a suit (although I’m annoyed by the fact that he seems to love a really slim-cut fit). But off the red carpet, Tom’s style is nothing to write home about. He wore those suede shoes to death. He wore that quilted jacket to death. He wore the “I Heart T.S.” shirt, which will have style repercussions for years to come. Basically, even though I know every 12-year-old Zayn-loonie voted for Zayn, I actually think Zayn is a better choice. He takes style chances, he has fun with it and you can tell that he really likes clothes.

Photos courtesy of WENN.