A Mostly Complete Breakdown Of Harry Styles’s Favorite Fashions
After Harry Styles performed on the Today show this week, his bespoke Edward Sexton suit — cut with a vintage silhouette and in an eye-popping shade of bright pink — set the internet aflame. We've parsed the self-evident influences in Harry's personal style before but, taking a step back, we can see that Harry has always had particular preferences, which are only becoming more apparent as our favorite boy-band star grows up.
Harry consistently works from a surprisingly small list of essentials, and his success has translated into a taste for finer fashions: He has a well-documented penchant for prints, especially by Saint Laurent; flowy, gender-bending garments a la Alessandro Michele's Gucci; and luxury fabrics like shearling. He gravitates toward high-end clothing that looks fancy, luxurious, and well-tailored, an evolution from his early reliance on skinny scarves and worn-out tees. In his time off, he reaches for generously cut Hawaiian shirts, or an all-black uniform. Below, a mostly complete catalogue of all the styles worn by Styles.
A Shearling Jacket
Harry appears to own a staggering number of shearling jackets: his outerwear of choice for shuttling to rehearsals or running to the airport. Here's one slung over his shoulder, in an ensemble that almost recalls Kanye.
He's fond of bomber styles...
As well as longer-cut coats.
He's even dabbled in arms-optional shearling looks, also known as: a vest.
A Pair of Skinny Black Jeans
Skinny black jeans form the foundation of Harry Styles's closet. They allow him to experiment with more colorful or experimental tops, and he's rarely seen in anything else during his downtime (excluding his sweatpants days). They are almost invariably paired with unapologetically pointy Chelsea boots.
He wears them to perform as well as for running around town.
See? Chelsea boots.
A Black Dress Shirt
We'll get to Harry's penchant for bright, patterned separates, but whether he's wearing an elaborate Gucci two-piece or a simple black suit, they're nearly always anchored by a silky black dress shirt.
Like here, for example.
They vary in detailing, embellishment, and just how much of his pecs he feels like showing on a particular day, but Harry returns time and time again to this simple basic.
Even when they range in style.
Neck Adornments
One of Harry's more experimental (at least in our decade) fashion predilections comes in the form of neckwear. Early in his career he was repeatedly drawn toward skinny scarves that recalled Johnny Depp circa now and Sienna Miller circa 2008, but he's toned it down more recently.
Here he wears a yellow flower at the base of his neck, a cowboy take on the boutonniere.
And here, a rose/bolo-tie hybrid.
He's also repeatedly combined the silk shirt and the neck adornment with the male equivalent of a pussy-bow blouse — worn untied, of course.
Bold Textiles
All the elements we've enumerated up till now are relatively simple, so hang on: It's about to get loud. Styles has an unapologetic taste for eccentric textiles, the kind you can imagine Bill Cunningham would've shot on a stylish old man on the Upper East Side. On SNL, a plaid suit that easily could have veered zoot is kept modern by close-cut tailoring and a subdued hue.
It's taken him awhile to truly perfect this look. Two years ago, this floral suit didn't quite work due to tailoring missteps (that slightly flared leg, the too-wide shoulders), but he stuck to it until he landed on a signature look.
At the 2014 British Fashion Awards he nailed a throwback double-breasted pinstriped suit with minimal accessorizing and an unconventional color palette.
In 2017, he's deft enough to handle bold tailoring and a bright color, in this case, the now-infamous pink suit.
A Rotating Collection of Hawaiian Shirts
Last but certainly not least, you can't nail the Harry Styles Style Equation without a rotating collection of printed button-downs. Harry has repeatedly turned to the Hawaiian shirt in his more casual moments, a look that on him hearkens back to Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii period rather than to your dad on vacation.
He seems to particularly enjoy their freedom of movement while performing.
Long-sleeve printed button-downs in less-tropical prints are also a frequent standby.
But one thing's for sure: Harry loves these damn shirts.