by Everyone loves Harry Styles, right? The boy from Cheshire, who hung up his bakery apron for an Abercrombie and Fitch winning appearance on The X Factor in 2010, has taken the world by storm with his eye-catching modern outfits. His styles never look like he’s not having fun, even when he’s on a Lime bike with James Corden, which is certainly an achievement in itself.
He grew up in the bucolic village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, just south of Manchester, with his older sister Gemma and his parents Des Styles and Anne Twist, who divorced when he was seven. He has now reached the age of 30, a milestone for any pop star. But Styles, who live in Hampstead, is thriving.
While his music career is impressive — his third album, Harry’s House, was the UK’s best-selling record of 2022; As It Was was streamed 2.28 billion times; His Love on Tour grossed an estimated $250 million worldwide—perhaps his fashion sense dictated his greatest cultural impact. This is perhaps a no-brainer given his stellar surname.
Her gender-fluid style has struck a zeitgeist nerve, drawing in adoration from TikTok knitting Gen Z for their mothers. And it’s that appeal that he’s now pursuing as he focuses on business opportunities rather than going viral on the red carpet.
Part Abba tribute, Broadway market with a bit of Northern lad thrown in for good measure, its spangly jumpsuits, feather boas, décolletéflashing blouses, pearl jewellery, Seventies suits, knitwear and hoodies have found the modern take on to dress up. Anything goes as long as it ‘fits’, as they say on social media.
His haircuts are scrutinized as much as David Beckham’s in the Noughties, prompting endless threads discussing his follicular smoke signals. When he shook his head, some of his most die-hard fans broke into tears.
Styles’ aesthetic has been perfected since 2014 by super stylist Harry Lambert (who he calls Susan, Styles is Sue). His fashion evolution took a course from well-planned boy band route to solo star via a rock’n’roll edge of course (the Saint Laurent phase, with a series of jaunty Doherty-esque hats) to his emergence as a hero more experimental fashions. moves, coinciding with men’s change from streetwear to skirts for all.
Simar Soel, foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory, says: “Although he’s not the first pop star to break out of binary dressing (CUE: Prince or Bowie), his experiment aligns with a deeper generational value shift around gender fluidity. — especially for Gen Z.”
It helped that his star was rising at the same time as the luxury juggernaut that was Alessandro Michele’s maximum Gucci tenure. The styles were the perfect foil for Michele’s exuberance. Their joint appearance as host on the pink carpet of the Met Gala in 2019 (theme “Camp: Notes on Fashion”) – styled in a now rather demure ruffled black blouse – cemented the singer’s position as an ambassador for the brand.
He later appeared on the cover of US Vogue’s December 2020 issue (the first solo male to do so) in a frilly, lace-trimmed Gucci dress, giving a genderless take on dressing for Central America.
In 2022, Styles and Michele collaborated on a Gucci collection, HA HA HA, released in November 2022, which was very much a toddler together in 1975. Michele described Styles at the time as “the lightest and freest man in the world”.
Styles’ influence extends beyond the realms of high fashion, however, and its appeal is that all-important sense of authenticity, this isn’t just sartorial click bait, every wardrobe choice has meaning. The colorful JW Anderson cardigan that Styles wore became a viral TikTok phenomenon with fans knitting their own versions.
Anderson was so impressed with the initiative that he released a knitting pattern of the cardi for fans to follow. The Victoria and Albert Museum later acquired the cardigan itself for its permanent collection.
It wasn’t his only attempt at zeitgeist moments securing knitwear. Last year he was photographed wearing Molly Goddard’s striped cardigan by David Hockney, on display at the National Portrait Gallery.
It’s no surprise then that Styles has capitalized on his commercial fashion potential. In November 2021, he launched his gender-free lifestyle brand Pleasing. Starting with a nail varnish collection, the project has grown to incorporate fragrance and a brief clothing offering – hoodies, shorts, knitwear and most recently the ‘intuitive’ collection of vests and boxers in soft colours.
As well as two current pop-up stores in New York and Los Angeles, Pleasing is stocked exclusively in Selfridges, where last year there was a Pleasanting pop-up at the Corner store, where fans queued outside daily for the installation four weeks. . Melissa McGinnis, head of beauty at Selfridges, said: “Our customers love the Pleasing product and its ethos, one of inclusion and fun. Styles has proven himself to be a discerning brand founder, allowing Pleasing to grow with the loyal community around him.”
Styles’ approach to the brand – which largely stays behind the scenes – has been prudent. Lambert and Molly Hawkins are co-creative directors, and last year he hired Pleasing’s first chief executive, Shaun Kearney, who was previously chief design and merchandising officer at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.
Speaking to Vogue Business, Kearney said his plan is to build a “powerhouse lifestyle brand” that “really impacts the conversation and really impacts people’s lives”.
Along with Pleasing, Style’s latest foray into fashion mogul territory came with an announcement in January that it took a minority stake in British men’s label SS Daley, purveyor of premium knitwear and advanced tailoring.
The partnership came about through Lambert, who was contacted by Steven Stokey-Daley after he put out an Instagram post casting for new design talent. It worked, Lambert styles in a scene from the Liverpudlian designer for his Golden videos; That ensemble is featured in the Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion exhibition at the Design Museum.
Professor Andrew Groves, director of the University of Westminster’s menswear archive, describes the talents of Styles, Lambert and Stokey-Daley as “an interesting dynamic with each allowing the other to use fashion and dress as a means of shifting cultural norms around. men’s clothing.”
As Styles navigates his next decade, it may be the fashion investments that will shape his future legacy as much as a million fearsome fans. The nature of teen-pop stardom is that you are there to be replaced; it only takes a cursory glance at the trajectory of beloved boy band members of the past to realize that when the dance routines end, everyone needs a strong financial brand extension to fall back on.
As Ronan Keating reminded us, life is too cruel, and cultural oblivion is never a good look.
