Harry Styles has broken out of the boyband image, becoming a fashionista with a gender-fluid style, the gender-flexible fashion.
Gender-fluid: Fashion does not delineate gender
The word "gender" stands for sexes, while the word "fluid" means flexibility. In short, "gender-fluid" is gender-flexible fashion. No name tag can delimit a dress or a blouse belonging to one gender. A man can completely wear a cute dress as well as a girl wears a suit.
Harry Styles and Gender-fluid Style
At the time he was still active in One Directions, he had a romantic but elegant style with a bit of masculinity, then when he became a solo, Harry gradually shaped his own gender-fluid style. He became known as a fashion icon in 2018 when Gucci announced he could be the face of the brand's tailoring campaign and co-hosting the Met Gala.
For the Met Gala, Harry wore a pair of black see-through, pleated jumpsuits with black nails. The ensemble has feminine features such as pearl earrings, lace frills, high-heeled boots,... His stylist Harry Lambert commented on the garment: "This look is about taking traditionally feminine elements like the frills, heeled boots, sheer fabric, and the pearl earring, but then rephrasing them as masculine pieces set against the high-waisted tailored trousers and his tattoos,".
Later, Harry increasingly asserted his style through his MVs when interweaving feminine elements into the way he dressed in Golden, the red jumpsuit in the MV As It Was,... Or the iconic sets of his like the one for the cover of Vogue magazine in December 2022.
Controversial fashion style
Right-wing political commentator, Candace Owens had plenty of comments about his fashion choices, specifically the dress on the cover of Vogue's December (2022) issue: "In the Western, the increasing feminization of men and Marxism being taught to our children is no accident”, she wrote on Twitter: "Let's bring back masculine men".
However, there have been many famous singers and artists,... stood up for Harry Styles and countered this view. "I'm gay and we all like Harry Style. He's cute!" said Billy Porter (American writer, actor, singer).
Indeed, Harry Styles style has so far caused a lot of controversy in a society with many prejudices. However, for fashion fans, and current young people, Harry Styles' fashion style is vivid and has a positive influence.
