David Bowie Best dressed Briton

The red-mulleted rocket man also pipped Pepys, whose courtly curls are almost as famous as his diaries, in which he documented the fashions of the time.

Famed beauty and socialite the Duchess of Devonshire came in third place, just before George Brummell, whose taste for the lux reportedly stretched to cleaning his shoes with champagne.

The year of 2013 boosted Bowie’s career and he certainly is more ‘current’ than others shortlisted. The singer was subject of V&A’s fastest-selling exhibition in history and has released a new album in over a decade, The Next Day, followed by a Mercury Award nomination.

The magazine’s editor, Rob Attar, said: “Bowie had to overcome a king, two queens and a political heavyweight to triumph in our poll, and in doing so has struck a blow for 20th and 21st-century fashions.”

Bowie was nominated by designer Wayne Hemingway and the British public casted their votes.

The full list is as follows:

1. David Bowie – 48.5 per cent

2. Elizabeth I – 13.6 per cent

3. Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire – 9.5 per cent

4. George ‘Beau’ Brummell – 8.4 per cent

5. Queen Alexandra – 7.1 per cent

6. Anne Messel – 5.3 per cent

7. Henry III – 2.5 per cent

8. Ellen Terry – 2.2 per cent

9. Charles James Fox – 1.6 per cent

10. Samuel Pepys – 1.3 per cent