Amal Clooney is on the cover of US Vogue this month, looking absolutely gorgeous in a dark-pink, pleated, silk Lanvin dress, her mass of long dark hair cascading over shoulders, just perfectly so.

My first reaction on seeing it was: “Why hasn’t she been on the cover before this?”

To my mind, she is far and away the most stylish ‘celebrity’ on the planet, one, because she a brilliant barrister, and two, because she reluctantly accepts the celebrity status that came with marrying actor George Clooney, while simultaneously looking drop-dead glamorous at every turn.

The mix of intelligence and beauty and purpose is intoxicating.

Amal wearing leather leggings in Vogue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

In work mode, the British-Lebanese is often snapped heading from her car into various tribunals, and it is in these moments that I think she knocks it out of the park style-wise.

Most celebrities look gorgeous on the red carpet, and nondescript in their down time, wearing parkas and jeans and beanies and clutching a takeout coffee, which is fine. Most of them don’t have a day job as such.

Amal (pictured with her husband, George) loves a pastel frock, like this lilac number at the Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Getty

But Amal is a glorious example of en pointe workwear. She loves a trench coat (who doesn’t?), and the tightly belted leather-and-canvas Alexander Wang coat she wore recently made fashion headlines around the globe.

She also loves a leather trench worn over dresses or long slim pants, high-heeled pumps and large sunglasses. She looks like a magnificent spy, with her chiseled cheekbones and red lipstick, a fashion plate that just happens to be walking in to a meeting on her way to defend imprisoned Reuters journalists in Myanmar.

We all knew she was going to be a force to be reckoned with back when they got married, and her wedding outfits in Venice awed every fashion commentator (the chic white minimal pantsuit worn with a dramatic white wide brimmed hat is now legendary.)

She loves yellow, which is beautiful with her dark hair, and trademark lipstick; the one-shoulder, silk chiffon gown in palest yellow she wore to the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 was a master class in red carpet chic, as was the pale-mauve goddess dress at the Venice Film Festival.

With her high-stress career, Amal can’t afford to be impractical. Photo: Getty

The US Vogue spread shows Amal at her home in England, and although it is highly styled, her innate elegance is obvious: leather leggings worn with a bright sweater falling off one shoulder; holding a cup of tea; reading papers in a stripe knit sweater and designer trackies; wearing the most perfect pair of black-framed reading glasses. I am 100 per cent sure the edition will sell out in four hours.

It’s her glamorous accessibility that puts Amal ahead when it comes to a style icon for women who are way past Kardashian leggings and crop tops as a fashion option.

It’s traditionally been very hard for women to find a style muse that wasn’t dressed up by a stylist, wearing clothes that are basically inappropriate for anything but red carpets and nightclubs.

Now we know what cuts a swathe through an international law court. Goals.