In well over a decade of international stardom, Harry Styles has more or less conquered our collective consciousness. There have been multiple albums, sold-out arena tours, critical acclaim, throngs of adoring fans and more magazine covers than you could dream of.
Somewhere along the way, the boy band wonder turned actor/musician/most sexy man alive decided to embrace style icon status. From musing for Valentino to channeling Chanel in new Dior, Styles is widely considered one of the best-dressed celebrities out there, with a seemingly innate knack for massive ‘fits and a penchant for The Row that makes Mary-Kate and Ashley look like casual fans.
As part of the rollout of his latest album — the club-leaning, aptly named Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., which debuted Friday — Styles has been romping around New York City, fist-bumping fans and canoodling with partner Zoë Kravitz as he prepares for double duty on SNL this upcoming weekend. Given his track record, one might reasonably expect to catch the British pop star in something egregiously fashion-forward, which makes the reality all the more interesting: for the past week, Harry Styles has been dressing like a living-for-the-weekend normal guy.
Well, kind of. Take, for instance, a recent look, debuted on the Williamsburg Bridge; at first glance, Styles’s outfit looks impossibly innocuous for someone of his sartorial stature — a navy cotton zip jacket over a similarly toned hoodie, medium-wash jeans, Sambas on feet, bug-eye shades. (The denim and sneakers even look to be the same as the ones he wore for a surprise appearance on SNL, a similarly tasteful-if-unremarkable get-up involving a vintage “I Hate You” tee.)
The whole thing — the clothes, the new haircut, the walking across the bridge of it all — is, in a sense, an homage to the average Brooklyn bro. The jeans look thrifted, the sunglasses are bigger than they need to be, the chopped hoodie is peeking out. It’s something a Fort Greene-based junior creative could wear to his day job at Cava HQ, with plans to head straight to an Elsewhere set after a long day of checking emails and housing free matchas.
However, given that Styles is who he is, the reality of the situation is a touch more complicated. The aforementioned jacket is actually Prada ( and approximately $2,700), which perhaps better explains the perfectly calculated boxy fit, while the sneakers — Samba Defcons, a lesser-known deconstructed version of the hyper-popular Adidas trainers — are harder to come by than you might realize. Even the gas station-esque sunnies are more enigmatic than they first seem, made by resident IYKYK downtown eyewear supplier Thistles NYC. It’s no Bar Jacket and ballet flats, but it is much more considered than you might assume at first glance.
Knowing this, it’s easier to appreciate Styles’s most recent vibe shift (a trend that looks poised to continue, if this week is any indication) as some carefully chosen cosplay, no doubt aligned with the new album aesthetic, rather than a downshift from his previous personal style highs. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, especially for anyone hoping to compete in the inevitable Washington Square Park look-alike contest. It’s way easier to emulate casual club chud than global icon.
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