Why Harry Styles’ Fashion is a Touchstone of Our Generation

—

by

bernhard

START
body

Another day, another Harry Styles music video that continues to live rent free in our minds.

Gone are the days of cruising down the Italian coast without a care in the world thanks to travel restrictions, but that isn’t stopping Styles. The 26-year-old singer’s latest music video for “Golden,” shot during the coronavirus pandemic, is a tribute to everything good and pure in this world.

If the video’s luxurious setting along the Amalfi coast didn’t motivate you to start a new Pinterest board, the fashion story will.

In typical Styles rhetoric, one outfit just isn’t enough. A billowy, white button down from emerging designer Steven Stokey-Daley flaps in the wind as Styles runs through tunnels, down streets, and near the water. You can twin with the inarguably best member of One Direction if you preorder now from Stokey-Daley’s website.

Throughout the video, Styles’ cool riviera chic feels reminiscent of Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 cult-classic film Call Me By Your Name. Does he know what he’s doing to our hearts?

There’s also Gucci. A lot of Gucci. It’s not a Harry Styles music video without some Gucci.

The singer’s second standout look comes fully from the Italian fashion house. The pastel blue suit jacket, striped shirt, patterned pants, and lace gloves combination is the brainchild of Styles’ longtime stylist, Harry Lambert.

The accessories add another layer to Style’ fashions. Éliou beaded necklaces, gold necklaces, and nostalgic scuffed Vans all add to the already impressive and impeccable roster of outfits.

Can we talk about that yellow bucket hat making rounds on Twitter? Paddington Bear has just been dethroned as England’s cutest icon. The lovable headpiece is paired with high-waist floral trousers, another courtesy of Liver-pool based Stokey-Daley.

Styles has a long history with extravagant trousers. Let us offer: his Fine Line album cover and head-to-toe Gucci at the 2019 Met Gala. The higher the pant, the closer to the music charts… or something.

Can you say icon?

The Styles stan army has praised his looks in the music video for its genderless approach to fashion. The comment isn’t new concerning Styles’ fashion sense. He also isn’t the first to take this approach, stars like Prince and Elton John were experimenting with garments years before Styles’ departure from One Direction in 2015. The same can be said now, especially for Black male artists like Jaden Smith and Lil Nas X, who wear their disregard for gender norms on their sleeves quite literally.

The star, open about his expression and breaking traditional stereotypes, has often said he wears what he feels to be true to himself.

“I think it’s a very free, and freeing, time. I think people are asking, ‘Why not?’ a lot more. Which excites me,” he said during an interview. “It’s not just clothes where lines have been blurred, it’s going across so many things.”

There’s always conscious effort by Styles to not label himself– a playful elusive nature when it comes to gender and sexuality. For most younger minds, does his personal identity really matter if the music is good?

Styles’ clothes aren’t necessarily genderless, but the way he wears them is. There’s a lot of long-rooted misconceptions: glitter is for girls, blazers for boys. In the singer’s mind, that doesn’t change much.

“What women wear. What men wear. For me it’s not a question of that,” he said. “If I see a nice shirt and get told, ‘But it’s for ladies.’ I think: ‘Okaaaay? Doesn’t make me want to wear it less though.’”

In Styles’ perfect golden world, all should be well. But this isn’t a fantasy. It’s 2020, and there are people still on the internet policing others.

Right-wing political commentator Candace Owens had a lot to say over Styles’ fashion choices, particularly his dress on the cover of Vogue’s December issue. What was lauded by the masses as a step towards expression with the first solo male cover, Owens attacked as a performance of weakness in what should be a male-dominated society.

In an video posted to her Instagram, Owens attacks men in dresses, gender equality, and invalidates trans people’s identities in a long-winded, eye roll-inducing rant.

“In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence,” she wrote on Twitter. “Bring back manly men.”

For those cheering at Owens’ attacks on the idea of “men wearing ball gowns”, there were thousands of stans and celebrities in the comments coming to the singer’s defense. Stars like Olivia Wilde and Sara Bareilles tore apart Owens’ that clothes are gendered and thus limited to only certain sects of the population.

“You’re pathetic,” Wilde tweeted.

Mrs. Owens didn’t realize that she messed with the wrong fandom.

Just like Styles and his younger generation of fans grow aware of fashion’s impact on expression and gender, a new wave of designers have begun challenging societal ideals. Rick Owens, Telfar, and Bode– also featured in the “Golden” music video– have all been praised for their inclusive and unisex runways.

It’s also telling that they’re among the freshman class of commercially successful brands reflecting the fact that their consumers are over gender markers.

For the time being, we’ll have the “Golden” music video on repeat. If we can’t manifest driving down the Amalfi coast with Gucci gloves, we can manifest being as half as cool as as Harry.


END

prev link: https://www.crfashionbook.com/culture/a34494510/harry-styles-fashion-golden-music-video/
createdAt:Tue, 27 Oct 2020 15:20:16 +0000
displayType:Long Form Article
section:Culture