David Cameron once chastised him for dressing so shabbily the then Prime Minister’s mother would order him to “put on a proper suit [and] do up his tie”.
But now, wearing a perfectly-fitted Marks and Spencer two-piece with a bold, brilliantly red tie, Jeremy Corbyn’s a GQ cover star.
It’s a transformation befitting the tumult unleashed upon British politics since Cameron mocked his opponent during PMQs in February 2016.
At the time, the topic of controversy was whether or not Corbyn had sung the national anthem with appropriate gusto.
Little wonder then that January’s cover, previewed on Thursday ahead of its general release, is seen by many as symbolic of just how much things have changed.
And another detail was seized upon.
Perhaps GQ know something the rest of us don’t.
And, of course, not everyone was impressed with Corbyn’s apparent transformation. Some went as far as claiming a skilful hand was at play.
Jealousy is never a good look.
‘Tortuous’ photoshoot
But editor Dylan Jones burst the bubble a bit when he told The Today Programme that Corbyn’s photo shoot was “quite tortuous” and “as difficult as shooting any Hollywood celebrity”.
“Never have we encountered such a ring of, he’s got his sort of crew, very particular gatekeepers,” he said.
“They didn’t really seem to understand the process at all... That he would have to be photographed at all. That he would need to be presentable and he couldn’t just turn up in his anorak.”
Jones said: “It was almost like he was being pushed around like a grandpa for the family Christmas photograph. He wasn’t particularly aware of what was going on.”
He added Corbyn wouldn’t be interviewed by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former press man who does many of GQ’s major political interviews.
Jones said the interviewer Stuart McGork went to interview Corbyn as “something of a fan” but was “quite quickly disillusioned”.
“He started to subscribe the theory that Corbyn’s a bit Wizard of Oz character he does appear to be the weaker part of the relationship,” Jones, who co-wrote a book with David Cameron in 2010, said.
Corbyn could not name any of his business advisors, nor name any film he had seen or book he had read, Jones said.
His comments were called a “a more devastating attack on Jeremy Corbyn than any Tory frontbencher” by journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer.
While journalist Grant Feller said the programme should have mentioned that Jones had co-written a book about Cameron and previously declared his support for the Conservative Party.
The January/February 2018 issue of British GQ is released on Monday 4 December.