Harry Styles On Challenging Gender Norms Through Style: Women’s Clothes Are ‘Amazing’

Harry Styles’ solo career has gained yet another accolade: a solo American Vogue cover.

The “Watermelon Sugar” singer graces the cover of the magazine’s December issue, wearing a Gucci jacket and dress in photos released on Friday. Styles is the first solo male to have the cover to himself in magazine’s 127-year history.

The gorgeous photos of the singer were shot by photographer Tyler Mitchell, who also made history when he became Vogue’s first Black photographer to shoot the cover in 2018.

It’s fair to say these pictures are perhaps the only antidote to 2020:

In the magazine’s accompanying interview with Styles, Hamish Bowles speaks with the star about One Direction (“I loved my time in it,” the singer says), his ventures as a solo artist, and Style’s own personal, well, style.

“You can never be overdressed. There’s no such thing,” Styles says, citing his musical inspirations ― Prince, David Bowie, Elvis, Freddie Mercury and Elton John ― as examples.

“Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away,” Styles says. “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.”

“I’ll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women’s clothes thinking they’re amazing,” he continued. “It’s like anything—anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself.”

Styles adds, “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.”

Olivia Wilde, who directs Styles in the upcoming film “Don’t Worry Darling,” says that the singer and actor is “very modern” and “redefining what it can mean to be a man with confidence.”

“I hope that this brand of confidence as a male that Harry has—truly devoid of any traces of toxic masculinity—is indicative of his generation and therefore the future of the world,” Wilde says in Vogue.

Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, tells the magazine that his friend Styles is “a revolutionary.”

“He’s really in touch with his feminine side because it’s something natural,” the designer says. “And he’s a big inspiration to a younger generation—about how you can be in a totally free playground when you feel comfortable.”

Head to Vogue to read more of Styles’ interview.

Vogue’s December 2020 issue is available on newsstands nationwide on Nov. 24.