GQ’s “Men of the Year”—who include Justin Timberlake, Will Ferrell, Matthew McConaughey, Kendrick Lamar, and James Gandolfini—were celebrated Tuesday night in Los Angeles at the most stylish party of the year.Guests arrived on the red carpet at The Ebell Club with indie rock music blaring in the background. Cover boy McConaughey, in a dark gray Dolce & Gabbana suit (“but not Dolce socks,” he joked to The Daily Beast), walked alongside wife Camila Alves, taking a moment to talk about trends. “What you read about today,” he said, “give it twenty years, and it’ll be cool again.”Other notables included Steve McQueen (who described his personal style as “hopefully classy, without overreaching”), Pharrell, Kid Cudi, actor Michael B. Jordan (sporting a Prada suit in many shades of blue), and The Spinto Band’s Nick Krill in Calvin Klein. As for the ladies, actresses Whitney Cummings, Amy Poehler in a skin-tight khaki leather dress, Chelsea Handler, and Twelve Years a Slave star Lupita Nyong’o in Cushnie et Ochs attended the event.Timberlake, who was honored with the “#Hashtag of the Year” award, was absent from the LA gathering -- opting to instead to attend the NYC dinner the night before. “I find it ironic that I'm doing an interview with you about Man of the Year when I feel—literally—like a bunch of people just took a shit on my face,” he told Amy Wallace in his interview with the magazine. Timberlake earned the "Hashtag" award because of the discussion he's caused this past year, particularly in regards to his acting career (for example, Variety ran an article titled “Why Justin Timberlake Should Stop Acting”). Timberlake added, "Listen, I'm not cool... being cool is about keeping your blood pressure steady. So no. Don't be cool. Be passionate. Be dedicated. Be tenacious. Be uncompromising. Be pissed. Be happy. Be sad."Will Ferrell's “Men of the Year” cover featured the funny-man actor posing alongside his doppelganger, Anchorman Ron Burgundy (wearing, of course, a burgundy suit). “This is, I think, my fourth cover,” Ferrell told GQ at the party, “I’m honored...but it was a difficult shoot with Ron Burgundy because he’s very egotistical.”“Rapper of the Year,” Kendrick Lamar, dished on his musical beginnings in his hometown, Compton, his relationship to Drake (when asked if Drake is one of his role models, he answered: “No—peer. If anything. We all peers.”), and, most importantly, the meaning of his lyrics. “It wasn’t just about money, hoes, clothes, drinking,” he said. “I mean, I come from that world, but at the same time, I started to realize that there’s people out there that can’t really connect to that lifestyle. They’re in the struggle.”
Additional reporting by Peter Zawel.