How Harry Styles conquered the world with kindness
At just 28 (his birthday is today), musician and actor Harry Styles has become the UK’s biggest star. His biographer, Sean Smith, reveals the secret of his success
It didn’t look promising at the beginning of 2020. Like millions of others, Harry Styles endured a wretched start to the year as Covid began to affect all our lives. On Valentine’s Day, of all days, he was mugged near his north London home. He was surrounded by a group of men who demanded to know what he had on him, one of them wielded a knife. Styles handed over a wad of cash and then ran off before they could grab his phone. He reported it to the police but the men were not found.
The next day was even worse. Caroline Flack was found dead in her Stoke Newington flat. She had hanged herself. Styles’s brief relationship with her when he was still a teenager led to an ongoing mistrust of the tabloid press who had referred to Flack as a “predatory older woman” leading to her being shouted at in the street and abused online.
Styles rarely mentioned their relationship publicly, but at the time of their break up he said that “she is one of the kindest, sweetest people I know. Please respect that”.
Three days after her death in February 2020, he wore a discreet black ribbon on the lapel of his maroon Gucci suit when he arrived at the O2 in London for the Brit Awards. That gesture was enough – more than that would have been the headline of the night.
As it turned out, the ribbon became the lead story for the media, especially as Styles gave an emotional performance of his song, “Falling”. He also added a badge to his Gucci suit that said “Treat People with Kindness”, now firmly established as his mantra for life.
At the time, Styles was busy preparing for his Love on Tour and promoting his second album Fine Line, but the following month, in March, California became the first US state to react to the Covid threat by issuing a stay-at-home-order. Inevitably, a few days later, Styles announced he was postponing the tour that had been due to start in Birmingham in April 2020.
He was facing the same big question that all performers were addressing at a difficult time: what on earth was he going to do for the rest of the year and beyond? The answer, in Styles’s case, was that he was going to become the biggest superstar in the world.
He didn’t stay at home and count his £80m fortune. Instead, he decided that he would spend at least part of the year making a film; that project would still be possible even if a concert was off the agenda. He was looking for something that would be completely different to his first feature; a relatively minor role in the award-winning war movie Dunkirk.
His part as a soldier evacuated from the beaches in 1940 had been a learning process, even though his involvement soon after the “hiatus” of One Direction in December 2015, had, understandably, gathered many welcome headlines for the film.
In some weird way, Harry is like the lovechild of David Bowie from the Ziggy Stardust days and the commercial juggernaut that is Kim Kardashian
Making Dunkirk, Styles had impressed those working on the film with him with the modesty he had brought to the set. He was not the “Big I Am” pop star making a movie. He brought that same unassuming dedication in 2020 when he was cast in the psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, the second film directed by the actor, feminist and activist Olivia Wilde.
Styles was not the star. He plays the “picture-perfect husband” of acclaimed British actor, Florence Pugh. She is a fifties suburban housewife whose life begins to unravel as she suspects all is not as it seems in her utopian world.
Wilde praised Styles for allowing a woman – Hugh – to hold the spotlight. She explained: “Most male actors don’t want to play supporting roles in female-led films.” Another co-star, Chris Pine, enthused about Styles: “He is an absolute delight. He’s one of the most professional people I’ve ever met; couldn’t be kinder or more gracious.”
Even though the film is not due for release in the UK until September 2022, owing to Covid delays, it has been kept in the news by the blossoming relationship between Styles and Wilde. They have been very discreet, mindful perhaps of their 10-year age gap and her two young children with actor Jason Sudeikis, star of the popular Ted Lasso TV series.
Styles does not talk about his relationships – certainly not to the media. Over the years there has been much speculation about various friendships including with models Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner and Camille Rowe. He may write a song or two about them but we are never going to read about steamy nights.
Styles received even more publicity in November 2020, when news filtered out that he was going to be the first solo male featured on the front cover of Vogue. He had been personally asked by the magazine’s legendary editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and he eagerly agreed.
The cover image was instantly iconic and all anyone could talk about – and not just in the fashion world. It courted controversy and praise in equal measure. Styles was wearing a sky blue lace Gucci ballgown that reached to the floor and was matched with a black Gucci tuxedo jacket. He was pushing the boundaries of contemporary taste by blurring the traditional lines of gender. He broke the internet, so to speak.
The fashion and lifestyle magazine HOLR described being on the front cover of Vogue as a “lifetime achievement”. Styles had come a long way from the Cheshire school boy who rushed off after his Saturday shift at a local bakery to catch the train into Manchester to buy a new pair of chequered trainers.
Even in the early days of One Direction, Styles seemed more interested in what he was wearing than what he was performing. While the Vogue issue was the pinnacle, it’s easy to forget that he was already a headliner in the world of fashion. He had been a fixture of fashion shows long before this and was crowned the winner of the British Style Award at the British Fashion Awards back in December 2013 when he was still just 19.
His fashion breakthrough, however, in the eyes of the public came just before the hiatus of One Direction when he joined forces with innovative stylist Harry Lambert, and was pictured for the first time wearing an eye catching geometric-patterned Gucci suit designed by Alessandro Michele. A month later he wore an even bolder floral Gucci suit to the American Music Awards – a look that set him apart from the rest of the band.
As a solo artist, he has become yet more daring, revealing in his Vogue interview: “There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never thought too much about what it means – it just becomes the extended part of creating something.”
Now, when Styles turns up to awards shows, he’s a photographer’s gift for next day’s papers – just as if he was Meghan Markle or Kate Middleton smiling on the red carpet. At the Grammys in March 2021 he began the evening’s entertainment with a performance of his song “Watermelon Sugar”, dressed in a leather suit and no shirt, accessorised by a green feather boa.
The night was a very important one for Styles because he won his first Grammy, for Best Solo Pop Performance for “Watermelon Sugar”. The song, about giving oral sex to a woman, had also provided him with his first US solo number one when it reached the top of the Billboard charts in the summer of 2020.
His Grammy acceptance speech went well to start with as he thanked all the right people but he had to be bleeped out when he spoke of the other nominees: “All these songs are fucking massive,” he said without thinking.
Musically he had left the days of One Direction behind and evolved as both a performer and a songwriter. These successes enhanced his reputation during the pandemic even if he couldn’t tour. It came as no surprise to those who suspected he had always been the “One” in One Direction.
Simon Cowell is far too shrewd to admit openly that was his thinking too. But he had seen something in Styles. All five of the boys in One Direction had natural talent and good looks but Styles was the one who, in Cowell’s words, had “unbelievable charisma” and was a “natural frontman”. Critics at early One Direction concerts reported that if they closed their eyes they knew it was Styles singing because the noise levels among the mainly young, female fans rose by many ear-splitting decibels.
The group conquered the world selling 70 million records in just five years but great success as a band is no guarantee of similar glory when you go it alone. Styles was widely expected to be the first member of One Direction to go solo but was beaten to it by Zayn Malik. That worked to his advantage because he could take the time to be thoroughly prepared.
His new management team, led by hotshot Jeffrey Azoff, was already in place. Azoff’s father, Irving, ran the biggest management company in the world and in 2012 was recognised by Billboard as the most powerful man in the industry. His mother, Shelli, has been the best friend of reality TV matriarch Kris Jenner for more than 30 years, while his sister, Allison Statter went to school with Kim Kardashian and is her oldest and dearest friend as well as being a business partner.
Styles stepped easily into this world, quickly becoming part of the Azoff/Kardashian/Jenner circle. He was like an honorary prince in a Californian royal family. Along with his big-time American backing, new musical collaborators and a major record label were swiftly put in place. He was the only member of One Direction to be taken on by the band’s US label, Columbia. He also started his own label, Erskine Records.
After his 2021 triumph at the Grammys, he flew back to London to continue filming his third movie, a drama called My Policeman in which he plays a gay police constable in Brighton involved in a long standing relationship with the novelist EM Forster. Once again he is starring alongside one of Britain’s leading young actors, Emma Corrin.
They are great friends. Corrin is the only other celebrity client of stylist Harry Lambert, and they share a mutual love of creative styling and the courage to be bold with their fashion statements. Her co-star even volunteered to look after her sweet cockapoo, Spencer, at his Hampstead home. Corrin was having dinner at a local restaurant and halfway through the meal received a text from her distraught dog sitter: “He won’t stop farting. Is this normal?” Laughing, Styles later told her that he would not be helping out again.
After the filming of My Policeman had finished, Corrin came out as queer and said she would now be using the she/they pronouns. Her decision would no doubt have found an encouraging response from Styles. His empathy in the modern world raises him above other famous superstars of today.
Of course there are the legends of the world: Paul McCartney, Elton John and Mick Jagger, for example, who are irreplaceable and unequalled but they are not iconic figures across such a wide range of popular culture. And they do not speak to and for men and women across the generations in the way that Harry Styles does.
That special empathy has always been there and it is the secret ingredient that makes him the most iconic figure of modern times. He supported HeForShe when he was 20. At 21 he danced on stage with a rainbow flag during a One Direction concert, and at the age of 24 he backed the March for Our Lives. He was 26 when he took part in a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles.
And when his Love On Tour finally began in the US , last September, he had not lost his ability to connect with the audience. At the Ball Arena, Denver, he held aloft a bisexual Pride flag that a fan had thrown on stage while he performed his mantra song “Treat People with Kindness”.
He also created a safe space for, in particular, young fans to express their true identities. In Milwaukee he stopped the show in front of 17,000 people to allow one university student to come out to her mother. It doesn’t get much more public than a Harry Styles concert.
The tour was a blockbuster success. They showed the Harry Styles of today to be more rock star than pop star. Forbes magazine wrote of his three nights at the Forum in Los Angeles: “Harry Styles showed he has all the traits needed to become the next great arena rock star in music.”
He’s already there. His tour was officially number one in 2021 for number of tickets sold – nearly 700,000. And his gross receipts of $86.7m were second only to the mighty Rolling Stones who charged considerably more for a ticket. He also raised an estimated $1m for charitable causes.
In January 2022, there was such a demand for tickets to the UK leg of his concerts in June that the Ticketmaster site immediately crashed in the scramble. The entire world tour sold out in minutes and will keep Styles occupied until December. He warms up this April by headlining the prestigious Coachella Festival in California and finishes in Brazil a couple of weeks before Christmas. It will again be one of the tours if not the tour of the year. And that’s not counting Glastonbury where the rumours are strong that he will take the stage.
The two movies he made during the pandemic years are scheduled for release this year. And then there’s the tantalising prospect that he may be in one of the next Marvel adventures. He popped up unexpectedly in Eternals a couple of months ago as Eros, in a post-credits scene that traditionally acts as an appetiser for a future story. Harry Styles as a comic strip hero would be something to savour.
In fashion, his stage outfits will fascinate and occupy many column inches. Styles takes care to save and store all his costumes and it will only be a matter of time before his already iconic clothes are the subject of a major retrospective at the V&A in London. His instantly famous patchwork JW Anderson patchwork jumper is already on display in the museum.
As a brand, Harry Styles continues to grow his business empire. He recently launched his own vegan and cruelty-free beauty line called Pleasing. His nail polishes and skin products have proved an enormous instant hit and this commercial endeavour is likely to expand into more “life” products in the future. His personal fortune is growing rapidly. Last year he was second to Ed Sheeran in the rich list of musicians under 30. But now Sheeran has reached that milestone age, Styles will almost certainly top the next list with a fortune probably in excess of £100m.
In some weird way, Styles is like the lovechild of David Bowie from the Ziggy Stardust days and the commercial juggernaut that is Kim Kardashian, a billionaire. Musically he has a long way to go to match the legendary Bowie or equal the domination of his friends Adele and Ed Sheeran who dominate the airways and record sales but if you add in the world of fashion, film and the almost intangible modern phenomenon of social conscience, Styles has left them trailing.
Styles is not constricted by the “good old days” and the “way we were”. He epitomises a new generation that is sincere about racism, mental health, feminism and social equality. He is not being patronising when he announces to his audience: “if you are black, if you are white, if you are gay, if you are straight, if you are transgender – whoever you are, whoever you want to be – I support you. I love every single one of you.”
So, Happy Birthday, Harry Styles, you are a true icon – may you continue to have the time of your life.
Harry Styles: The Making of a Modern Man by Sean Smith is published by HarperCollins and is out now
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