Harry Styles Approaches Fashion The Way We All Should

It's not news that Gucci-loving, immaculately-dressed rockstar Harry Styles loves fashion. His seemingly never-ending wardrobe of pussy bow shirts and super high-waisted pants lives rent free in my head always. For his December 2020 cover with Vogue, Styles spoke about what fashion means, opening up about the subject in a way he hasn't before. Styles graced the glossy a whirlwind of gowns, kilts, and custom suiting. All in all, it was a refreshing look into how he sees clothing and style, and yes, before you ask, somehow I did fall more in love with him.

Getting dressed up isn't new to the singer. His sister, Gemma Styles, told Vogue that the 26-year-old used to love when their mom dressed them in elaborate outfits. “As a kid I definitely liked fancy dress,” Harry told the publication, recalling the first school play he was in. “I was really young, and I wore tights for that. I remember it was crazy to me that I was wearing a pair of tights. And that was maybe where it all kicked off!”

Of course, tights are probably among the least unexpected thing the songwriter has worn now, but it took a bit of pushing to get him to leave his comfort zone — a push Styles credits to meeting stylist Harry Lambert. “He just has fun with clothing, and that’s kind of where I’ve got it from,” Styles said. “He doesn’t take it too seriously, which means I don’t take it too seriously.” Believe it or not, it was Lambert suggesting the star wear a pair of flare pants that changed Styles' entire ethos.

"You can never be overdressed," the songwriter said he now believes. "There’s no such thing. The people that I looked up to in music — Prince and David Bowie and Elvis and Freddie Mercury and Elton John — they’re such showmen. As a kid it was completely mind-blowing. Now I’ll put on something that feels really flamboyant, and I don’t feel crazy wearing it. I think if you get something that you feel amazing in, it’s like a superhero outfit. Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with." Just reading this makes me want to go put on my fanciest dress.

Styles also opened up about his journey with forgoing fashion's arbitrary gender designations in favor of more room to experiment with fashion in every form. It's a refreshing, relevant point of view— one Gen Z has already gravitated toward for quite some time. "When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play," Styles said. "I’ll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women’s clothes thinking they’re amazing. It’s like anything — anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself."

As Styles says, "there’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never really thought too much about what it means — it just becomes this extended part of creating something.” Even for a celebrity known for such statement-making outfits, clothes are just another way to have fun and experiment at the end of the day. But before you feel bad for just being in your loungewear 24/7, rest assured, Styles' own quarantine look is exclusively “sweatpants, constantly.” It's called versatility.