Are Harry Styles and Alessandro Michele making normcore cool?

Two months after it was announced that Alessandro Michele would join Valentino, the designer was spotted on the streets of Rome with Harry Styles. The two had collaborated for several years during Michele's creative direction at Gucci, when the fashion house - and Styles' looks - were known worldwide for their extroverted and daring charm. Blue pinstripe shirts, tailored khaki pants, and a sweater draped over their shoulders were all they wore for a dinner at a restaurant in the Italian capital, outfits that transformed the image of them in pink satin and transparent lace bodysuits at the 2019 Met Gala into a distant memory. Following the latest TikTok trend "I’m looking for a man in finance", Dazed called them Finance Bros, but to us Italians, they simply look like normies on holiday.

The last time we saw the two creatives together was in 2022, before Michele left his role as creative director at Gucci. Styles is not only a great friend of the designer but also a significant source of inspiration, perhaps one we might see evoked in the new collections of the Roman designer for Valentino. The singer, a former member of One Direction, contacted Michele before launching his solo career in 2017, and since then, each of their projects has significantly influenced the other's artistic choices, from the looks created for Styles' world tours to collections like Gucci HA HA HA, the latest "fruit" they cultivated for the brand. The tagline of the collaboration was "Free rein to vanity", and indeed it included bold silhouettes and graphics, from kilts to teddy bear details, from pink knitwear to flared 70s pants. Besides the "entrepreneur dad" look, during his Roman holiday Styles wore an outfit that included Vans Authentic, blue pants, and a gray long-sleeve Blur shirt with the album title Modern Life Is Rubbish, and another blue shirt, this time left open over a white t-shirt. No earrings, no nail polish: what remains of his old style is a large pair of aviator sunglasses, but even those are in neutral colors.