After rocketing to fame with her debut album, 19 back in 2008, sealing her status as one of our best loved music acts with 21 and winning an Oscar no less for the spectacular Skyfall, Adele has quietly slipped away from the spotlight in recent years.

While we’ve had Chasing Pavements and Someone Like You playing on repeat, eagerly awaiting her next move, Adele’s been settling into family life. But with the recent announcement that she’s back with her new album next month (the aptly named 25), we can barely contain our excitement for what lies in store! To celebrate her return to the charts, we’ve taken a look back at her style evolution through her rise to fame…

2008

Flashback to seven years ago and a fresh-faced Adele was enjoying the success of 19. In her early days of fame, she favoured a smokey eye, side swept fringe, low ponytails and buns along with an autumnal auburn hair colour. Her clothing of choice was a chunky knitted cardigan or cape every time!

2009

By 2009, Adele was moving away from her signature fringe and had ditched the knits in favour of more flattering black ensembles.

2011

With the release of 21, Adele embraced her new found love of classic silhouettes with stunning evening gowns for her red carpet appearances (always in black, of course). She took her hair colour lighter and experimented more with blow dries and “down-dos” including this voluminous style from the MTV VMAs.

2012

Undeniably, this was Adele’s year. The awards kept rolling in and she became confident in her style choices. She chopped her long locks into a mid-length style and the addition of subtle flecks of gold cemented her classic Hollywood image. Adele’s a great example of a slow transition from brunette to blonde, showing how natural the end result can look. Patience is a virtue! If you’re thinking of following suit, make sure you check out our guide to going blonde.

2013

We loved seeing her try something totally different here with this relaxed, dishevelled halo braid. To get the look yourself, read our step-by-step tutorial.

2016

With her new album breaking seemingly every record in the book, Adele’s working the bronde hair trend perfectly and her enviously voluminous styling remains intact. (Get her glamorous blow dry in salon with our Glossy Curls blow dry.) 2008’s smokey eyes have given way to an elegant flick of eyeliner to complete her transition into soulful ’60s siren.

We can’t wait to see the next stop on Adele’s style journey. In the meantime, we’d love to know which of her looks is your favourite – tweet us!