Whatever next? Not so long ago, it was Beckingham Palace that flew the flag for British style. But now, in a shockingly reactionary coup, not just one, but three residents of Buckingham Palace have been voted on to this year’s GQ annual list of best-dressed men. Four if you count Prince Michael of Kent, who does not officially reside at the Palace but is always on the lookout for bargain digs.

If you factor in Daniel Craig’s inclusion (in civvy street, the suit’s Dunhill, Alfred Dunhill), you begin to see that the list is a remarkable celebration of classic, rigorous British tailoring, pin-stripes, Prince of Wales checks and the odd, surreptitious slick of hair gel for that like, rarelee radical, spiky hair-do.

Take the Duke of Edinburgh, who has been loyal to his tailors at Ede & Ravenscroft and to John Kent, the head cutter at Norton & Sons, for decades. Or the Prince of Wales, who despite Princess Diana’s best attempts to get him into Duran Duran-style leather bomber jackets during their marriage, stuck it out with Hardy Amies, Gieves & Hawkes and Ede & Ravenscroft.

Meanwhile, Prince Michael faithfully adheres to his oh-my-God-isn’t-he-the-spitting-image-of-the-last-tsar double-breasted suits, while Prince Harry upholds the proud tradition of Hungover Sloane – Oakley sunglasses, Jack Wills polo shirts, Hackett trousers, tastefully crumpled jackets and ever proliferating numbers of friendship bracelets (he must cadge one from everyone he has ever met). Harry’s look may be a cliché, and his hair may resemble an abandoned game of pickup sticks, but if you’re in the market for a crashing Hooray, he pulls it off with a cavalier flair.

The arrival of not just the Prince of Wales and Prince Michael, but Prince Harry and the Duke of Edinburgh on to the list should come as no surprise. While the Windsor females are, by and large, unburdened by an abundance of stylish genes – with the honorable exception of the Queen, whose consistency in the headscarf department has made her something of an icon, particularly among gay designers – the male royals have always been elegant in the extreme.

Obviously money and unlimited access to Savile Row – still home to the best tailors in the world – helps. But it doesn’t guarantee sartorial success, as the shock horror omission of Prince William proves. The other thing Prince William’s exclusion proves is that the custodians of this list actually know what they’re talking about. Perhaps it’s the stultifyingly middle-aged combination of William and Kate Middleton, but although the heir to the throne shares similar fashion ideas with his kid brother, he is, alas poor Wills, to Harry what Delia Smith is to Kate Moss.

And while we are on the subjects of money and Savile Row, and how they cannot always ensure perfection in the style stakes, Sir Elton John is on the list. So is Noel Fielding, the comedian from the cult (as in no one’s sure why, or indeed if, it’s funny) act, The Mighty Boosh.

Fielding looks like Joan Rivers from the neck down. You could say he is the antiestablishmentarianist of the pack (he gets his accessories from Top Shop, not Top Man, and happily says: “I always dress like a freak. I’ve always been obsessed with clothes. My mum was always into clothes, too”).

Sir Elton, on the other hand, not exactly uninterested in clothes himself, resembles a sumo wrestler on a date with Graham Norton. God bless the diversity of British style.

1 Daniel Craig (1)
2 Noel Fielding (new)
3 Daniel Day-Lewis (new)
4 James McAvoy (new)
5 Tom Ford (9)
6 David Beckham (6)
7 Jude Law (5)
8 David Cameron (2)
9 David de Rothschild (new)
10 David Furnish (11)
11 David Walliams (4)
12 Prince Harry (10)
13 Clive Owen (3)
14 Nicky Haslam (23)
15 Lewis Hamilton (new)
16 Jarvis Cocker (19)
17 Sir Elton John (18)
18 Sam Riley (new)
19 Giles Deacon (21)
20 David Bowie (13)
Others 25 Prince of Wales 33 Duke of Edinburgh 34 Prince Michael of Kent
Last year in brackets