The Independent on Sunday, 23 October 2011

20 Secret Style Heroes They are not supermodels or red-carpet regulars - but while our well-dressed band of academics, artists, performers, politicians and sportsmen may not work in fashion, they will always have style ... 

IN AN AGE in which relativity rules, our obsession with classification is curious.  The top 10 this, the 100 best that - nothing is safe from being serried into ranks.  Paradoxically, despite being notoriously subjective, fashion is especially susceptible; best- and worst-dressed lists appear weekly and even those of us with a dedicated interest find it hard to fathom their calibration. 

What's particularly irksome about the style laurels is that they are generally passed around incestuously among a small group of people who are fashion professionals.  Whether models, socialites or red-carpet regulars, do people who have their own stylists, fashion houses on speed-dial or oligarchic budgets to pay with really merit an award for looking good?

Which is why we've compiled an alternative list of our secret style heroes.  None are Vanity Fair regulars, few have even a loose connection to fashion.  But they all dress with personality while demonstrably spending their time on other matters.  Of course, we can't pretend our list is less subjective than any other, so feel free to disagree as you see fit ...

DR LUCY WORSLEY 37

For too long David Starkey's ties enjoyed a monopoly on the limited sartorial interested offered by historians on the telly.  Worsley, whose personal style is a 1:1 ratio of 1920s flapper to Enid Blyton heroine, exploits her didactic role to the hilt, donning all manner of bloomers and bonnets in the name of cultural history.  Starkey doesn't like this sort of thing, but we do.