Stars from across the globe showed up and showed out at the GQ Man of the Year awards yesterday, with everyone from Stormzy to Suki Waterhouse in attendance to honour the biggest names of 2022, including Man of the Year himself, Andrew Garfield.

But one outfit stood out against the tailored suits and embellished gowns: That’s right, it’s Miss Sydney Sweeney and her mirrorboobs. The breastplate look has been one of the most talked about from the red carpet, and featured in pretty much every best-dressed round-up the internet has to offer.

This is hardly the red-carpet debut of the metallic bust, though. The person who first brought breastplates to the forefront was actually Sweeney’s Euphoria co-star and chief fashion girlie Zendaya Coleman, two years ago.

Back in 2020, Queen Z was papped at the Critics’ Choice Awards wearing a hot-pink Tom Ford two-piece, with the upper-half a chrome magenta number, moulded to fit her bust.

The outfit is widely regarded as one of Zendaya’s best - and she has a fair few to choose from - with Vogue hailing it as “unforgettable” in an article explaining its creation.

And this isn’t her only foray into bulletproof dressing. She followed it up a year later with a sculpted Loewe dress, featuring a gold, protruding chest piece. Then, at the Dune premiere in September 2021, she went chiseled once again, with a leather, skin-coloured Balmain gown that looked as if it had been cut straight off a Greek statue.

Others have followed suit, like internet personality and Gen Z fave Emma Chamberlain, who donned the A/W 2022 Loewe bustier dress, its breastplate formed in the shape of puckering lips, for a show at fashion week this October, and Kim Kardashian in her Hulk-esque muscle plate for Christmas last year.

Kardashian also sported a black breastplate to promote her KKW Fragrance collection, Opals, last November. The breastplate was bespoke and made of stone, moulded specifically to her body.

Then, this February, Julia Fox posed for pictures in a dripping blue breastplate from Jacque Label, prompting claims that she was copying Kardashian (both women have dated Kanye West), which she firmly denied.

It turns out women can wear clothes and not be linked to their male partners. And, more importantly, the breastplate was a serve.

And now Sweeney’s got on board with the plate crusade. Her look at the GQ awards was notable for more than just its sartorial flexing, though: it showcased that breastplates are for bustier women, too.

We can thank Zendaya for bringing breastplates to our attention, but Sweeney has shown us that you don’t have to have a typical model-physique to pull them off. Breastplates for the many, not the few.