Finally, a mainstream risk-taker in men’s fashion.
It’s the American Music Awards, a night dedicated to the most popular
artists in music, and the red carpet is awash with your traditionally
handsome young men. Nick Jonas, Leon Bridges, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd
and 5 Seconds of Summer are all in attendance, and cameras flash as fans
cheer from the sidelines at their heartthrob of choice. Oh, and
everyone looks exactly the same.
Enter Harry Styles: flared, floral and flawless. Harry donned a flared
Gucci suit (in what looks to me like white, but several outlets are
claiming is pink) covered head to toe in flowers and leaves, with a
black shirt, and black necktie with a big petal-y rose. Add his
lustrous, flowing locks to the equation and the overall look is
unconventional, luxurious and decidedly feminine. Photographs of
Styles beside even his own bandmates looked like they were taken in an
alternative universe where Marc Bolan had accidentally stumbled
accross Take That on the red carpet.
Male fashion at music awards basically subscribes to two
tried-and-tested models: the traditional suit, with one key tweak
(a button-up with no tie; a black or collarless or rollneck shirt; a
single necklace), or the dressed-down rebel who wears jeans because he
doesn’t play by your rules, goddamit!!! (feat. a plain or band
tee; leather or bomber jacket; ripped blue or black jeans; an abundance
of jewellery).
pics of other celebs
Harry Styles punctures these two acceptable modes of masculinity, a
breath of fresh air in a sea of boring male fashion choices. His
wardrobe has lately expanded to include luxe blouses, Mary Berry-esque
silk bomber jackets, flowing neck ribbons, metallic boots and a wide
array of floral prints. Chanelling Mick Jagger and David Bowie (even Boy
George has picked up on these references, and said Styles projects an
image that is “sexually ambiguous”), over the last five years, Styles
has become increasingly adventurous, and less traditionally masculine,
in his choices.
Harry Styles may not be the most androgynous or sartorially
experimental man in music, but his unquestioned status as a mainstream
teen heartthrob makes the deliberate blurring of gender boundaries all
the more radical. As Qwear, a magazine that celebrates queer fashion, wrote earlier this month: “a man cannot exist in the absence of masculinity and vice versa… and yet we have Harry Styles.” A boutique Overton
window, Styles moves the mainstream of acceptable men’s fashion choices
away from the centre, validating other young men and women who dress
outside the gender binary. So, whether you love or hate the outrageous
floral bell-bottoms, celebrate the fact they were worn at all. And, most
of all, in a world full of bland suits and identikit haircuts, thank
God for Harry Styles.
326 Miles 