#and then. bo: was that fucked up or what? din: was what?? bo: wait u see anything in the water? din: no?? bo: oh okay moving on then

[baellielurk]

how is this season of the mandalorian so bad and boring

[happytroopers]

Boba Fett season finale shit post

Spoilers below. Obviously.

Rip hot twilek your 6 minutes of screen time will be duly forgotten

WAIT THEY KILLED MAX REBO

Fuck the Pykes man

I can tolerate space drug trade but I draw the line at killing renowned jizz musicians

God Fennec Boba and Din in one shot now there’s a sandwich I wanna be in

Many thoughts and yet none at all just sin

Not them trying to redeem the mayor

“I have an idea to draw Fett out.” I’m sending g that there’s the inspo for a new WAVE of self insert fanfic

XWINF

Luke coming to help his boy toy???

The child????

YEP

That’s artooie:)))

THE BABY

Wait can he drive

Me and PELI are on the same page

HES SO TINY

BRIGHT EYES

R2 s like we’re on a SCHEDULE

ME TOO PELI ITS A TERRILBE NAME

WAIT DID BE CHOOSE THE SRMOR

Is he dropping out of Jedi school

If so I’m gonna have to start kinning baby Yoda

Goth Wookiee :)

Someone’s gonna sneak up on them

Din stop being so sexy

God boba in his armor is so sexy

This is the showdown we wanted in clone wars

Star Wars-issficstion of southern idioms

Ok but two of them are wearing beskar and u are not

Boba said “no 💖🖕”

Why do I feel like fennec is gonna take the brunt of this

Fennec being the sexy voice of reason as always

“Ur going soft in ur old age” as if Bane isn’t fucking ancient

I love my little beuqacratic wiggler

Yep just as I fucking thought

NOT GOTH WOOKIE

I don’t appreciate them ripping my found family trope to pieces

So that augmented eye is very helpful to his aim huh

Not the water waste

God I love her

SHES SO SEXY

Lil punk said lesbian panic!!!

The only woman I would call Mommy

The last time Din got trapped in a blown out bar, it didn’t go well

We love a loyal bestie

More self insert inspo “I’m with you til we both fall”

WIGGLER SAYS I DONT WANNA DIE HERE

NOT THE EDUCATION ELITISM

He said I’m not afraid to pathetic

Is he not gonna read that first

What if it just said “fuck u losers”

Yay space slurs!!!!

Pls be inappropriate

“Nothing 💖”

Creative writing king! He wrote that so fast

Jet pack hotties

INLOVE THE KNEE BLASTERS

THE SLUT TURN DIN J LOVE U

Overkill a lil boys???

DIN WHY ARE TOUSING HR UNARMORED HANDS RO GAUARD UR BESKAR HELMETED HEAD

Awww yay :)

Can y’all imagine like living in this part of town??? Just like, trying to get brunch, and this shit happening.

No the moped!!!!

YES CITY FOLK COUNTRY FOLK FISCORS

Disapproved dad says save it

GOTH WOOKIE

Din’s thighs :)

Oh no

Hey maybe we should start shooting now

Yes start shooting now that they put their RAY SHIELDS up

Ahhhh clone wars nostalgia

Goth WOOKIE said show off

Well that was a waste of a missile

Quick mafs

“You’ve run out of friends” me too boba

God I love this man

Both of them actually

Hey maybe let’s not just run in a mobbed straight line guys????

There is one droid chasing you and approx 60 of y’all

Slutty lil spin there

Din is so fast ????

FHE HAMMER TBDKW

Bonk !!!

She’s gonna show that baby and dins gonna be like “YOU BROUGHT MY SON INTO A BATTLE ZONE????”

I fight usually leads to dying

They’re in love

THE IMMEDJATE FARHER PANJC

FBE HUG ONG Y’ALL IM CRYING

HES SK HAPLY TENDER AND SOFT I LOVE HIM

Fave dilf

HE CAUGHT HIM

Not the tooth!!!

YES YES YES YES YES

Zillow beast vibes

Boba lemme sit on ur lap while you ride

NO NO NO

ok that was hot

Remisnent if genonosis Kenobi

YES BABY DO UR THINK PROTECT HR DAD

ARE U OK

Boba u are so hot

They’re in LOVE

But fr fr city x country makes the best pairing

Imagine if that was ur house

Boba I demand reparations

Who is the lil pretty boy we keep seeing

NO BO NO NO NO

Not mysmotinal support space beast!!!!

They’re gonna date!!!!

Wiggler x PELI!!!!

YES INWAS WAITJNF DOR ONE OF THEM TO GET EATEN

I doubt they’ll kill off Bane. But liek…. What if they did

Also that’s ANOTHER problem for the city

HOODLUMS

HEY YO

Mmmm Jango ment

Just grab his little face tubes

YES STICK STUCK STUCK

Oh maybe they will kill him

Makes since tho he’s like OLD OLD

He’s wAs old in Clone Wars

Oh nvm he’s def not dead

STOP SOOTING HIM

Ok now for a King Kong parallel

NO NOT THE BALL

ok that was hot Din

NO NO NO NO

KID

HIM LITTLE WADDLE

HIS EARS

HIS EYES

How to train ur dragon parrlell

CLONE WARS KENOBJ PARALLELL

HIM LITTLE HANDS

NAP BUDDIES

Found my new screen saver

Yay decaptiated heads are back!!!

They should hire a tourism director

YES FENNEC FUCK IT UP

So sneaky :)

NOT THE REN FAIR MUSIC

Rip to the ham guards

THE TAPS

truly encapsulated what having a toddler is like

I LOVE THEM

Is there an end credit scene

Just realized that in the choral grunting they’re saying Fett- I’m an idiot

Yep end credit scene

I swear if it’s bane

COBBY BOY

Boba quit modifying ppl without their consent!!!

[worlds-forgotten]

okay I think I’m ready to talk about the episode now lmao

SPOILERS AHEAD 

I want to stay positive! I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for liking the episode, these are some personal opinions! Plus, I still liked the episode, but these were some of my thoughts!

We’ll start with the wtf stuff HJKHDSKFS

Literally ready to throw hands with Bo and the other lady (I forget her name? Did they even say it?) I was so angry when they started talking shit to Boba like stfu JDEWIJDKLS

Where is the dude that was with them? 

Boba saying ‘little one’ in a menacing tone,, sorry i had two heartbeats NDJKNFKEW

I can’t believe no-name lady had the gall to try and beat up an old man like really? Boba stood his ground but come on he has a senior’s discount he doesn’t have time for this

din just standing there watching Boba fight was so fucking funny hes like ‘k we’ll wait till ur ready’ 

Where did the scientist end up? The doctor? Did they leave him in the ship? He just peaced out 

WHERE DID BOBA GO?? HE JUST LEFT?? Like ‘lmao k bye’ he said he would help Din until he got his son back but then didn’t stick around for the climax? I’m confused

I loved the four ladies taking on the entire ship themselves!!! very sexy of them!! but I really hope Disney didn’t leave out the other Mando guy just so they could get brownie points for having a women-only scene (looking at you Endgame)

cara just beating the guys with her gun-

Din sneaking around was so cute lol 

I shit myself when the dark trooper was smashing the helmet I WAS SO SCARED IT WAS GONNA BREAK

use of the spear was very sexy 

I KNEW Gideon was gonna be in the room with the saber on Grogu like din honey use ur brain  

din turned to get grogu and i was like “okay here it is he’s going to get stabbed din the back and the baby will have to heal him” and then..no 

the fight was over so easy

VERY VERY underwhelming fight?? like the moves were really good and the visuals but

like i get beskar can’t be pierced but gideon went down so easily and then in the next scene Din just strolled in with the saber, the baby, and gideon in cuffs

we didn’t get to see a reunion!! angry 

i hate that gideon felt used as an extra person to explain the plot, like he was beaten so easily and then explained the legend and then that was kind of it. He didn’t feel like a big threat

bo stfu and take the saber 

Din just not giving a shit about the saber is so hilarious he’s like “,, i yield take it i dont want it’ 

Okay. Luke Skywalker. I love that chanel wearing baddie and that scene killed - it was so good - prime Luke, saving the day, looking amazing while doing it, and we are seeing him after the events of ROTJ! The character felt so HIM, but I can’t get past the bad deep fake (hello, Sebastian Stan is right there) and also, I wish they didn’t bring in a big name character. We have so many named people from books and shows it feels like it’s a bit of an extra money grab? Idk I’m feeling conflicted about it because Luke training Grogu is so so cool but I also wanted something different maybe? I’m not sure much to think upon

Din ,, crying :(

“dont be afraid” AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

when did this man have time to cut his hair and shave lmao

I know Din’s whole mission was to let Grogu go with the Jedi, but I wish Din could’ve had the chance to understand the Jedi more. He barely knows anything about them and doesn’t even know where to go to find Grogu again

like sending ur kid to boarding school and not knowing the address

WHERE IS THE BALL?? I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO GIVE IT TO THE KID

maybe he’ll keep it to longingly look at later

i would have liked like .. an ‘i love you’ or some declaration of love, but the face touch and helmet removal was really strong as well   

LMAO BOBA just showing up at the end with Fennec and just sitting down like .. okay now what? ur just gonna sit there JHEKFHEFKE but that was pure sex honestly  love them 

LIKE hello boba ,, u need an extra set of hands

too many questions left unanswered?? Din is Mand’alor?? HES ALSO HOMELESS AND JOBLESS AND HAS NO MONEY OR CLOTHES?? is bo katan gonna try and beat his ass for the saber? what are they going to do with gideon? 

anyways many thought head full

i sobbed harder than i have in a long time 

In conclusion - this episode felt a bit rushed for me - i wish they had taken a bit more time explaining things, building a bigger tension, and giving Din more time with Grogu. I’m excited to see where season 3 takes us and I will slowly go insane waiting for it to come out 

[xcertaindarkthingsx]

so i’m still emotionally hungover from the finale

like.... embarrassingly so. it’s coming up on a week and i still tear up thinking about it or whenever i see gifs on my dash (which is why i haven’t reblogged any mando things lately alkdjfalj i cry everytime)

but idk i just have a lot of thots still about it so i’m just gonna dump them here.  feel free to message/ask to discuss, we can be in pain together LMAO

OK FIRST THE FACT THAT WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2022 

i was so devastated when i heard that my god 

like yes of course i am excited for boba fett and to see fennec bUT LIKE I MISS MY SPACE COWBOY AND HIS SON

i just.... cannot get over that they’re apart

like, trust me i understand why grogu had to leave but it just breaks my fucking heart

i cannot get over how good din is.  like he is just a good person overall.  he gives so much even if it means getting nothing in return.  even to complete strangers.  he’s this hardened, no nonsense man but shows so much KINDNESS to everyone he touches and that’s why i love him so so much 

even after doing everything in his power to save the kid, he still loses him in the end but he lets him go because he knows it’s for the best

like... din knows what it’s like to be lost, to be without his people, his clan.  hell, he’s living it! he’s looking for the rest of his covert after seeing them mostly get wiped out, not even knowing how many of them are even left.

and now we know that grogu went through the same thing as a youngling, he’s lost and without his people, he doesn’t have that familiarity and he never thought he would get that back. until now.

until that new hope of luke appears

so that’s why din let’s him go. he wants his son to become what he was meant to be.  

and i don’t even wanna TALK ABOUT GROGU ASKING FOR PERMISSION TO LEAVE 

BC IT HURTS

HE LOVES DIN SO MUCH HE SEES HIM AS A FATHER

AND GROGU WAS PROBABLY SO TORN ABOUT LEAVING 

but maybe he does bc he knows how much his dad has sacrificed to get him where he is.  and he wants to protect him.  

I’M CRYING AGAIN  

DIN DJARIN DESERVES TO BE WITH HIS CHILD AND YET HE ISN’T

he started this journey alone and now he’s just... alone again

ALSO WE DIDN’T GET A KELDABE KISS OR HIM SPEAKING TO GROGU IN MANDO’A AND I WILL BE FOREVER SALTY ABOUT IT OKAY

the face touch was so precious though, i’ll give them that bc i was bawling like a mf baby 

“don’t be afraid?” yeah excuse me while i go pass away

the whole moment was just so soft and tender it just melted my insides 

shoutout to pedro pascal’s magnificent acting during that whole scene bc i was inconsolable for like hours

ALSO WHY DID THEY MAKE HIM TAKE OFF HIS HELMET WITH SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE ROOM!!!!!!!!!!

i feel like it would have been more impactful if they had like a brief private moment together

yanno THAT WAY DIN IS NOT LIKE ACTIVELY SHOWING HIS FACE TO EVERYONE

that nod of acknowledgement between din and luke, where din understands that luke really will protect the child with his life so he knows it’s okay.

i’m fine

WHY DIDN’T THEY BRING UP THE SILVER BALL AND THE MYTHOSAUR NECKLACE

WHY

i would have loved to see just, idk a shot of the necklace on grogu and din like absentmindedly holding the metal ball

i don’t want to think about how after din probably just holds it and cries 

I’M FINE

luke skywalker showing up to save the day in his chanel boots will always be a fave

however it sucks that i immediately bawl 2 minutes after he shows up HAHA the thrill of seeing him is cut short by my sadness

(although.... it would have been cool to see cal. but i’m ok with it being luke bc we finally get the luke we deserve/know and love)

also luv ludwig goransson for the bangers

even though the theme makes me cry now

also, MISS ‘gideon is mine, got it?’ BO-KATAN...... WHY TF DID YOU NOT LOOK FOR GIDEON WHEN HE WAS NOT ON THE BRIDGE 

HMMMMMMMM

(i understand this was to further complicate the plot of her acquiring the darksaber but like.... man did it piss me off when she had that surprised pikachu face after seeing din with that saber LMAO like what did u think was gonna happen girl?????)

props to gideon for being a shady lil’ shit about it LMAO 

however shoutout to our accidental mand’alor din djarin

luv that for him

he’s sexy with that saber CHANGE MY MIND

pls i cannot get that end shot of boba and fennec on the throne out of my head ladjfkdj the bi panic was real 

uhhhh ya i think that’s it 

i had a lot more thoughts tbh but i’m at work and burnt out so 

[twilightofthe]

Chapter Eleven liveblog of The Mandalorian Season 2!  Let’s go!!!

Yeet water episode

Ok random planet, I’m assuming this is planet whatsit where Din’s supposed to be Space Ubering Frog Lady and her (remaining lol) eggs to

Oh yeah shit Shelob really busted up the Razor Crest last time

Awww everyone sleeby and lol Mama’s keepin’ a good watch over her eggs this time

OH MY GOD YODITO I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

“Dank Ferrik” as a swear word again, huh, I’ll note that

Surprise surprise once again they gotta crash land because this is Star Wars and ships never work right

Lol this Mon Calamari dude is just like “......well then”

Bro ur gonna break those eggs

WHY ISN’T THE BABY BUCKLED INTO HIS SEAT EXCUSE ME

Pffffff another happy landing

AHAHA I’M THE MON CALAMARI

Ohoooo, The Heiress, eh?

Din Frog Lady is NOT gonna give you those five stars on Yelp for this ride

ALSKDJFLKSDK WE CAN’T GET THROUGH ONE EP WITHOUT SOMEONE REMINDING HIS SHIP IS A PIECE OF SHIT 90′S HONDA CIVIC

Awwwww yay Frog Lady’s found her husband!!!!

I’m gonna cry why the hell are they so cute

Also my hat goes off to the effects/costuming department those costumes are amazing

DIN YOU MUST FEED YOUR CHILD MORE REGULARLY

Oh I guess Frog Man is gonna give Din the Yelp review instead xD

Damn so he actually does know where some other Mandos are

Ah and there’s Whatsherface the other pro fighter turned actress on this show, why the fuck can’t I remember her name

Oop Din saw her

I always forget what the squid faced aliens are 

“My friend” BRO THAT’S YOUR SON

Aw yay goop for the babby!!!!

I’m guessing Calamari’s contact is gonna be Fighter Lady lol

OH NO BABY’S SOUP IS TRYNA EAT HIM

BAHAHAHA AND DIN GIVES EXACTLY ZERO FUCKS

Hmm yeah so I recognize Squid Face’s voice

I think this is the first big boat on water scene we’ve actually had in Star Wars, the brief bit in TROS excluded

Ohhhhh they’re called Quarren

Aw Quarren’s tryna be friendly to Yodito (or he could actually be sketchy let’s be cautious)

BITCH ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS HE JUST FED THE BABY TO A FUCKING SEA MONSTER

AND NOW THEY’RE AFTER DIN BECAUSE OF THE FUCKING ARMOR JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

WHERE IS THE BABY I DO NOT SEE THE BABY Y’ALL WHERE IS MY FUCKING SON I DO NOT SEE THE BABY

HOLY SHIIIIIIIIT

HOLY SHIT NO WAY

NO WAY

SHIT

THAT’S BO KATAN

FUCKING BO KATAN

THAT’S HER

OH MY GOD

OKAY CHILL CHILL CHILL CHILL

NEVERMIND AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

OK BUT THAT HAS TO BE HER THAT’S HER ARMOR AND VOICE????????

THAT IS TEN THOUSAND PERCENT HER MASK

AND WHO ARE HER FRIENDS

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT

YES Y’ALL GET THE FUCKING BABY BACK

DIN’S VOICE IS CRACKING POOR PAPA I LOVE HIM SO MUCH 

“BROTHER” OK BO WHAT THE FUCK YOU HAVE EXPLAINING TO DO

Y’ALL I’M STILL REALLY FUCKING EXCITED SHE WAS LIKE THE ONE RETURNING CHARACTER I ACTUALLY WANTED

OK HOW IS MY SON HOW IS MY SON MY POOR BABY

OH MY GOD HE’S OKAY

THANK GOD 

THANK GOD

Bo how the fuck have you not aged

Oh whooooops yep I forgot Din’s an Orthodox Mando

“Child of the Watch” ohhhh????

RELGIOUS ZEALOTS OHHHH??????

I just fucking realized they STILL fucking gave Bo her boob armor I hate this with the passion of a thousand suns HELLO WHY?

Aaaaand Din doesn’t wanna listen ok

Oh boy this guy’s gonna be trouble

Oh no there’s a lot of them

THAT IS HIS SON Y’ALL SERIOUSLY

Ohhhh so we’re finally taking credit for when someone’s death is our fault, are we now Bo? (:

Gah sorry Katee but your wig ain’t that good

HOW DID THE OLD REBELLION FAIL

BITCH HOW DID YOU LOSE THE DARKSABER

“A new Mand’alor on the throne” uh sorry but I hope you don’t mean you Bo cuz uhhhhh

WAIT A FUCKING SECOND HOW DID DIN KNOW THE JEDI’S NAME I’M--???

OHHHHH “WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF THE JEDI?”

Lol so are we gonna get an Obi Wan explanation, an Ahsoka explanation, an Ezra explanation, or is Bo gonna mention Luke?

Aaaaand she’s gonna lead him to Ahsoka fucking great

(lol I’m sorry y’all I’ve already talked about how I don’t want Ahsoka showing up in the show haha)

Oh so we’re really getting like really no explanation as to how the fuck Bo lost Mandalore again

Ok heist time?

They better explain some of why Bo’s doing what she’s doing now and yes I know it’s been like ten minutes but I’m still impatient

DIN NOOOOOOO YOUR SON WILL EAT THEIR CHILDREN 

But I’m still crying Din is so okay with babysitters now I’m--

Wait wait wait why are these guys still well dressed and supplied Imperials?  Lol I’m so lost

Ok damn fine Bo’s cool I’ll admit that she’s always been cool

Walk walk murder baby

And the Imps are tryna blast off again ok

Return of the music bombs!!!!!

Bro they’re gonna kill u

AKLSDJFLKSK THEY FUCKING SPACED THEM I LOVE IT

Ok I really wanna know why Bo’s a pirate

bitch shut up about ruling Mandalore I love you and all but you are SO FUCKING BAD AT IT

YOU’VE LOST THE WHOLE DAMN PLANET TWICE

YOU ARE NOT GETTING THE DARKSABER BACK

WHY IS AHSOKA HELPING YOU AGAIN HOLY SHIT

Ooop there’s Gideon, hello Giancarlo!!!!!!  I really love his villain theme

Oh damn they’re gonna just suicide-- yep they sure are

Aaaaand Din’s being a damn hero because of course he is

Boi you have a CHILD TO LOOK AFTER

Whoop a dead pill

At least Ahsoka’s calling herself a Jedi now

Dammit I REALLY didn’t want Ahsoka to show up

Dammit dammit dammit

Gah nvm

OMG BABY IS BONDING WITH THE FROG FAMILY AND THEIR TADPOLES NOW

MY HEARRRRRRRT

DIN’S BEING A DAD PICKING HIM UP FROM HIS PLAYDATE I CAAAAAAAN’T ;_;

Din with all due respect your ship is kind of a piece of shit don’t question what the guy was able to fix

Baby Yoda I would die for you

Oh whoop there’s the octopus again

Don’t you try to eat the baby you bitch

BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH

HELL YEAH PROTECTIVE PAPA

NO YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE TAKING HIM DIN THAT’S YOUR SON, AHSOKA AIN’T GONNA KEEP HIM LMAO

Oooooh another Bryce Dallas Howard ep, I like her episodes!

Welp Bo Katan is here now and soon Ahsoka will be too

I’ve already said my piece on what I think of R*sario D*wson and I’ll leave it at that

I think Katee Sackhoff did a lovely job with Bo Katan live action too, tho I’ll say again that her wig kinda sucked lol

Welp they explained absolutely nothing as to why or how Bo Katan lost the Darksaber and Mandalore for a SECOND time, I still think it’s kinda funny she thinks she gets to go for round three 

Anyway, can’t wait for next ep, still holding out bitter hope that Sabine will show up too

Ah wait wait wait Bo Katan was supposed to be the fucking Heiress, wasn’t she

[hlupdate]

A hand­shake can quell polit­i­cal unrest and sti­fle impend­ing war. It can, with a bit of spit, val­i­date a gentleman’s agree­ment, end a years-long roman­tic rela­tion­ship or send a young heart rac­ing. But it all depends on the two par­ties involved.

Daisy, 21, felt a seis­mic jolt when Har­ry Styles, 25, wear­ing a striped jumper and rings on three of his five fin­gers, clutched her hand two days after this year’s Met Gala in New York, when she served him gela­to at the shop where she worked.

“He decid­ed on a small mint choco­late gela­to and I made his and the one for his friend and I said, ​‘Can I just say I absolute­ly loved your Met Gala look’ and he said ​‘Thank you very much! What’s your name?’ And I said, ​‘Daisy’ AND HE FUCK­ING EXTEND­ED HISHAND AND REACHED TO SHAKE MY HAND AND I ACTU­AL­LY FUCK­INGSHOOK HIS HAND WHAT THE FUCK,” she wrote on Insta­gram after The Shak­en­ing. ​“Like I didn’t even say any­thing to gas him up besides ​‘I loved your met gala look’ and his fine ass went and shook my hand! WHAT A BEAU­TI­FUL FUCK­ING HUMAN BEINGTHAT HE IS GOD BLESS HIM AND I HOPE HW [sic] LIVES FOREVER.”

For Har­ry Styles, a hand­shake can be a roman­tic ges­ture, con­jur­ing a potent rev­er­ence in its recip­i­ent, like the time he met Gucci’s cre­ative direc­tor Alessan­dro Michele. ​“He was as attrac­tive as James Dean and as per­sua­sive as Gre­ta Gar­bo. He was like a Luchi­no Vis­con­ti char­ac­ter, like an Apol­lo: at the same time sexy as a woman, as a kid, as a man,” Michele told me, has­ten­ing to add: ​“Of course, Har­ry is not aware of this.”

No, Styles has no idea the pow­er he wields. In per­son, he’s tow­er­ing, like some­one who is not that much taller but whose rep­u­ta­tion adds four inch­es. Styles has a seda­tive bari­tone, spo­ken in a rum­my north­ern Eng­lish accent, that tum­bles out so slow­ly you for­get the name of your first born, a swag­ger that has been nursed and per­fect­ed in myth­i­cal places with names like Pais­ley Park, or Abbey Road, or Grace­land. Makes com­plete sense that he would be up for the role of Elvis Pres­ley in Baz Luhrmann’s upcom­ing biopic. He was primed, nay, born to shake his hips, all but one but­ton on his shirt cling­ing for dear life around his tor­so. Then the part was award­ed to anoth­er actor, Austin Butler.

“[Elvis] was such an icon for me grow­ing up,” Styles tells me. ​“There was some­thing almost sacred about him, almost like I didn’t want to touch him. Then I end­ed up get­ting into [his life] a bit and I wasn’t dis­ap­point­ed,” he adds of his ini­tial research and prepa­ra­tions to play The King. He seems relaxed about los­ing the part to But­ler. ​“I feel like if I’m not the right per­son for the thing, then it’s best for both of us that I don’t do it, you know?”

Styles released his self-titled debut solo album in May 2017. The boy­band grad was clear­ly unin­ter­est­ed in hol­low­ing out the charts with more for­mu­la­ic meme pop. Instead, to the sur­prise of many, he dug his heels into retro-fetishist West Coast ​’70s rock. Some of the One Direc­tion fan-hordes might have been con­fused, but no mat­ter: Har­ry Styles sold one mil­lion copies.

Despite its com­mer­cial and crit­i­cal suc­cess, he didn’t tour the album right away. He want­ed to act in the Christo­pher Nolan film Dunkirk. To his cred­it, his por­tray­al of a British sol­dier cow­er­ing in a moored boat on the French beach­es as the Nazis advanced wasn’t skew­ered in the press like the movie debuts of, say, Madon­na or Justin Tim­ber­lake. Per­haps he was fol­low­ing advice giv­en by Elton John, who had urged him to diver­si­fy. ​“He was bril­liant in Dunkirk, which took a lot of peo­ple by sur­prise,” John writes in an email. ​“I love how he takes chances and risks.” Act­ing, unlike music, is a release for Styles; it’s the one time he can be not himself.

“Why do I want to act? It’s so dif­fer­ent to music for me,” he says, sud­den­ly ani­mat­ed. ​“They’re almost oppo­site for me. Music, you try and put so much of your­self into it; act­ing, you’re try­ing to total­ly dis­ap­pear in who­ev­er you’re being.”

Fol­low­ing the news that he missed out on Pres­ley, his name was float­ed for the role of Prince Eric in Disney’s live-action remake of The Lit­tle Mer­maid. How­ev­er, fans will have to wait a bit longer to see Styles on the big screen as that idea, too, has sunk. He won’t be The King or the Prince. ​“It was dis­cussed,” he acknow­ledges before swift­ly chang­ing the sub­ject. ​“I want to put music out and focus on that for a while. But every­one involved in it was amaz­ing, so I think it’s going to be great. I’ll enjoy watch­ing it, I’m sure.”

The new album is wrapped and the sin­gle is decid­ed upon. ​“It’s not like his last album,” his friend, rock ​‘n’ roll leg­end Ste­vie Nicks, told me recent­ly over the phone. ​“It’s not like any­thing One Direc­tion ever did. It’s pure Har­ry, as Har­ry would say. He’s made a very dif­fer­ent record and it’s spectacular.”

Beyond that, Styles is keep­ing his cards close to his chest as to his next musi­cal move. How­ev­er, the air is thick with rumours that his main wing­man for HS2 is Kid Har­poon, aka Tom Hull, who co-wrote debut album track Sweet Crea­ture. No less an author­i­ty than Liam Gal­lagher told us that both big band escapees were in the same stu­dio – RAK in north-west Lon­don – at the same time mak­ing their sec­ond solo albums. Styles played him a cou­ple of tracks, ​“and I tell you what, they’re good,” Gal­lagher enthused. ​“A bit like that Bon Iver. Is that his name?”

Har­ry Styles met Nicks at a Fleet­wood Mac con­cert in Los Ange­les in April 2015. Some­thing about him felt authen­tic to the leg­endary front­woman: ground­ed, like she’d known him for­ev­er, blessed with a win­ning moon­shot grin. A month lat­er, they met back­stage at anoth­er Mac gig, this time at the O2 in Lon­don. Styles brought a car­rot cake for Nicks’ birth­day, her name piped in icing on top. By her own admis­sion, Nicks doesn’t even cel­e­brate birth­days, so this was a sur­prise. ​“He was per­son­al­ly respon­si­ble for me actu­al­ly hav­ing to cel­e­brate my birth­day, which was very sweet,” she says.

Styles’ rela­tion­ship with Nicks is hard to define. Induct­ing her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York as a solo artist ear­li­er this year, his speech hymned her as a ​“mag­i­cal gyp­sy god­moth­er who occu­pies the in-between”. She’s called him her ​“lovechild” with Mick Fleet­wood and the ​“son I nev­er had”. Both have moved past the pre­lim­i­nary chat acknowl­edg­ing each other’s unquan­tifi­able tal­ents and smooth­ly accel­er­at­ed towards play­ful cut-and-thrust ban­ter of a witch mom and her naughty child.

They per­form togeth­er – he sings The Chainand Stop Drag­gin’ My Heart Around; she sings the one alleged­ly writ­ten about Tay­lor Swift, Two Ghosts. One of those per­for­mances was at the Guc­ci Cruise after­par­ty in Rome in May, for ​“a lot of mon­ey”, Nicks tells me, in a ​“big kind of cas­tle place”. She has become his de fac­to men­tor – one phone call is all it takes to reach the Queen of Rock’n’Roll for advice on sequenc­ing (“She is real­ly good at track list­ing,” Styles admits) or just to hear each other’s voic­es… because, well, wouldn’t you?

Fol­low­ing anoth­er Fleet­wood Mac con­cert, at London’s Wem­b­ley Sta­di­um, in June, Nicks met Styles for a late (Indi­an) din­ner. He then invit­ed her back to his semi-detached Geor­gian man­sion in north Lon­don for a lis­ten­ing par­ty at mid­night. The album – HS2or what­ev­er it’ll be called – was fin­ished. Nicks, her assis­tant Karen, her make-up artist and her friends Jess and Mary crammed onto Styles’ liv­ing-room couch. They lis­tened to it once through in silence like a ​“bunch of edu­cat­ed monks or some­thing in this dark room”. Then once again, 15 or 16 tracks, this time each of his guests offer­ing live feed­back. It wrapped at 5am, just as the sun was bleed­ing through the curtains.

Even for a pop star of Styles’ stature, press­ing ​“play” on a deeply per­son­al work for your hero to digest, watch­ing her face react in real time to your new music, must be… what?

“It’s a dou­ble-edged thing,” he replies. ​“You’re always ner­vous when you are play­ing peo­ple music for the first time. You’ve heard it so much by this point, you for­get that peo­ple haven’t heard it before. It’s hard to not feel like you’ve done what you’ve set out to do. You are hap­py with some­thing and then some­one who you respect so much and look up to is, like: ​‘I real­ly like this.’ It feels like a large stamp [of approval]. It’s a big step towards feel­ing very com­fort­able with what­ev­er else hap­pens to it.”

Wad­ing through Styles’ back­ground info is exhaust­ing, since he was spanked by fame in the social media era where every god­dam blink of a kohl-rimmed eye has been doc­u­ment­ed from six angles. (And yes, he does some­times wear guyliner.)

Deep breath: born in Red­ditch, Worces­ter­shire, to par­ents Des and Anne, who divorced when he was sev­en. Grew up in Holmes Chapel in Cheshire with his sis­ter Gem­ma, mum and step­dad Robin Twist. Rode hors­es at a near­by sta­ble for free (“I was a bad rid­er, but I was a rid­er”). Stopped rid­ing, ​“got into dif­fer­ent stuff”. Formed a band, White Eski­mo, with school­mates. Aged 16, tried out for the 2010 run of The X Fac­torwith a stir­ring but aver­age ren­di­tion of Ste­vie Wonder’s Isn’t She Love­ly. Cut from the show and put into a boy band with four oth­ers, Louis Tom­lin­son, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik, and called One Direc­tion. Became inter­na­tion­al­ly famous, toured the globe. Zayn quit to go solo. Toured some more. Dat­ed but maybe didn’t date Car­o­line Flack, Rita Ora and Tay­lor Swift – whom he report­ed­ly dumped in the British Vir­gin Islands. (This rela­tion­ship, if noth­ing else, yield­ed an icon­ic, can­did shot of Swift look­ing deject­ed, being motored back to shore on the back of a boat called the Fly­ing Ray.) One Direc­tion dis­cussed dis­band­ing in 2014, actu­al­ly dis­solved in 2015. They remain friend­ly, and Styles offi­cial­ly went solo in 2016.

It’s been two years since his epony­mous debut and lead sin­gle, Sign of the Times, shocked the world and Elton John with its swag­ger­ing, soft rock sound. ​“It came out of left field and I loved it,” John says.

After 89 are­na-packed shows across five con­ti­nents grossed him, the label, whomev­er, over $61 mil­lion, Styles had all but dis­ap­peared. He has emerged only inter­mit­tent­ly for pub­lic-fac­ing events – a Guc­ci after­par­ty per­for­mance here, a Met Gala co-chair­ing there. He relo­cat­ed from Los Ange­les back to Lon­don, sell­ing his Hol­ly­wood Hills house for $6mil­lion and ship­ping his Jaguar E-type across the Atlantic so he could take joyrides on the M25.

“I’m not over LA,” he insists when I ask about the move. ​“My rela­tion­ship with LAchanged a lot. What I want­ed from LA changed.”

A great escape, he would agree, is some­times nec­es­sary. He was in Tokyo for most of Jan­u­ary, hav­ing near­ly fin­ished his album. ​“I need­ed time to get out of that album frame-of-mind of: ​‘Is it fin­ished? Where am I at? What’s hap­pen­ing?’ I real­ly need­ed that time away from every­one. I was kind of just in Tokyo by myself.” His sab­bat­i­cal most­ly involved read­ing Haru­ki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chron­i­cle, singing Nir­vana at karaoke, writ­ing alone in his hotel room, lis­ten­ing to music and eaves­drop­ping on strangers in alien con­ver­sa­tion. ​“It was just a pos­i­tive time for my head and I think that impact­ed the album in a big way.”

Dur­ing this break he watched a lot of films, read a lot of books. Some­times he texts these rec­om­men­da­tions to his pal Michele at Guc­ci. He told Michele to watch the Ali Mac­graw film, Love Sto­ry. ​“We text what friends text about. He is the same [as me] in terms of he lives in his own world and he does his own thing. I love dress­ing up and he loves dress­ing up.”

Because he loves dress­ing up, Michele chose Styles to be the face of three Guc­ci Tai­lor­ing cam­paigns and of its new gen­der­less fra­grance, Mémoire d’une Odeur.

“The moment I met him, I imme­di­ate­ly under­stood there was some­thing strong around him,” Michele tells me. ​“I realised he was much more than a young singer. He was a young man, dressed in a thought­ful way, with uncombed hair and a beau­ti­ful voice. I thought he gath­ered with­in him­self the fem­i­nine and the masculine.”

Fash­ion, for Styles, is a play­ground. Some­thing he doesn’t take too seri­ous­ly. A cou­ple of years ago Har­ry Lam­bert, his styl­ist since 2015, acquired for him a pair of pink metal­lic Saint Lau­rent boots that he has nev­er been pho­tographed wear­ing. They are exceed­ing­ly rare – few pairs exist. Styles wears them ​“to get milk”. They are, in his words, ​“super-fun”. He’s not sure, but he has, ball­park, 50 pairs of shoes, as well as full clos­ets in at least three post­codes. He set­tles on an out­fit fair­ly quick­ly, maybe changes his T-shirt once before head­ing out, but most­ly knows what he likes.

What he may not ful­ly com­pre­hend is that sim­ply by being pho­tographed in a gar­ment he can spur the career of a design­er, as he has with Har­ris Reed, Palo­mo Spain, Charles Jef­frey, Alled-Martínez and a new favourite, Bode. Styles wore a SS16 Guc­ci flo­ral suit to the 2015 Amer­i­can Music Awards. When he was asked who made his suit on the red car­pet, Guc­ci began trend­ing world­wide on Twitter.

“It was one of the first times a male wore Alessandro’s run­way designs and, at the time, men were not tak­ing too many red car­pet risks,” says Lam­bert. ​“Who knows if it influ­enced oth­ers, but it was a spe­cial moment. Plus, it was fun see­ing the fans dress up in suits to come see Harry’s shows.”

Yet tra­di­tion­al gen­der codes of dress still have the minds of mid­dle Amer­i­ca in a choke­hold. Men can’t wear women’s clothes, say the online whingers, who have labelled him ​“trag­ic”, ​“a clown” and a Bowie wannabe. Styles doesn’t care. ​“What’s fem­i­nine and what’s mas­cu­line, what men are wear­ing and what women are wear­ing – it’s like there are no lines any more.”

Elton John agrees: ​“It worked for Marc Bolan, Bowie and Mick. Har­ry has the same qualities.”

Then there is the ques­tion of Styles’ sex­u­al­i­ty, some­thing he has admit­ted­ly ​“nev­er real­ly start­ed to label”, which will plague him until he does. Per­haps it’s part of his allure. He’s bran­dished a pride flag that read ​“Make Amer­i­ca Gay Again” on stage, and plant­ed a stake some­where left of cen­tre on sexuality’s rain­bow spectrum.

“In the posi­tion that he’s in, he can’t real­ly say a lot, but he chose a queer girl band to open for him and I think that speaks vol­umes,” Josette Maskin of the queer band MUNA told The Face ear­li­er this year.

“I get a lot of…” Styles trails off, wheels turn­ing on how he can dis­cuss sex­u­al­i­ty with­out real­ly answer­ing. ​“I’m not always super-out­spo­ken. But I think it’s very clear from choic­es that I make that I feel a cer­tain way about lots of things. I don’t know how to describe it. I guess I’m not…” He paus­es again, piv­ots. ​“I want every­one to feel wel­come at shows and online. They want to be loved and equal, you know? I’m nev­er unsup­port­ed, so it feels weird for me to over­think it for some­one else.”

Sex­u­al­i­ty aside, he must acknowl­edge that he has sex appeal. ​“The word ​‘sexy’ sounds so strange com­ing out of my mouth. So I would say that that’s prob­a­bly why I would not con­sid­er myself sexy.”

Har­ry Styles has emerged ful­ly-formed, an anachro­nis­tic rock star, vague in sen­si­bil­i­ty but des­tined to impress with a dis­arm­ing smile and a warm but firm handshake.

I recite to him a quote from Chrissie Hyn­de of The Pre­tenders about her time atop rock’s throne: ​“I nev­er got into this for the mon­ey or because I want­ed to join in the super­star sex around the swim­ming pools. I did it because the offer of a record con­tract came along and it seemed like it might be more fun than being a wait­ress. Now, I’m not so sure.”

Styles – who worked in a bak­ery in a small north­ern town some time before play­ing to 40,000 scream­ing fans in South Amer­i­can are­nas – must have wit­nessed some shit, been invit­ed to a few pool­side sex par­ties, in his time.

“I’ve seen a cou­ple of things,” he nods in agree­ment. ​“But I’m still young. I feel like there’s still stuff to see.”

[stylesnews]

The Face - Volume 4 . Issue 1

A hand­shake can quell polit­i­cal unrest and sti­fle impend­ing war. It can, with a bit of spit, val­i­date a gentleman’s agree­ment, end a years-long roman­tic rela­tion­ship or send a young heart rac­ing. But it all depends on the two par­ties involved.

Daisy, 21, felt a seis­mic jolt when Har­ry Styles, 25, wear­ing a striped jumper and rings on three of his five fin­gers, clutched her hand two days after this year’s Met Gala in New York, when she served him gela­to at the shop where she worked.

“He decid­ed on a small mint choco­late gela­to and I made his and the one for his friend and I said, ​‘Can I just say I absolute­ly loved your Met Gala look’ and he said ​‘Thank you very much! What’s your name?’ And I said, ​‘Daisy’ AND HE FUCK­ING EXTEND­ED HIS HAND AND REACHEDTO SHAKE MY HAND AND I ACTU­AL­LY FUCK­ING SHOOK HIS HAND WHAT THEFUCK,” she wrote on Insta­gram after The Shak­en­ing. ​“Like I didn’t even say any­thing to gas him up besides ​‘I loved your met gala look’ and his fine ass went and shook my hand! WHATA BEAU­TI­FUL FUCK­ING HUMAN BEING THAT HE IS GOD BLESS HIM AND I HOPE HW[sic] LIVES FOREVER.”

For Har­ry Styles, a hand­shake can be a roman­tic ges­ture, con­jur­ing a potent rev­er­ence in its recip­i­ent, like the time he met Gucci’s cre­ative direc­tor Alessan­dro Michele. ​“He was as attrac­tive as James Dean and as per­sua­sive as Gre­ta Gar­bo. He was like a Luchi­no Vis­con­ti char­ac­ter, like an Apol­lo: at the same time sexy as a woman, as a kid, as a man,” Michele told me, has­ten­ing to add: ​“Of course, Har­ry is not aware of this.”

No, Styles has no idea the pow­er he wields. In per­son, he’s tow­er­ing, like some­one who is not that much taller but whose rep­u­ta­tion adds four inch­es. Styles has a seda­tive bari­tone, spo­ken in a rum­my north­ern Eng­lish accent, that tum­bles out so slow­ly you for­get the name of your first born, a swag­ger that has been nursed and per­fect­ed in myth­i­cal places with names like Pais­ley Park, or Abbey Road, or Grace­land. Makes com­plete sense that he would be up for the role of Elvis Pres­ley in Baz Luhrmann’s upcom­ing biopic. He was primed, nay, born to shake his hips, all but one but­ton on his shirt cling­ing for dear life around his tor­so. Then the part was award­ed to anoth­er actor, Austin Butler.

“[Elvis] was such an icon for me grow­ing up,” Styles tells me. ​“There was some­thing almost sacred about him, almost like I didn’t want to touch him. Then I end­ed up get­ting into [his life] a bit and I wasn’t dis­ap­point­ed,” he adds of his ini­tial research and prepa­ra­tions to play The King. He seems relaxed about los­ing the part to But­ler. ​“I feel like if I’m not the right per­son for the thing, then it’s best for both of us that I don’t do it, you know?”

Styles released his self-titled debut solo album in May 2017. The boy­band grad was clear­ly unin­ter­est­ed in hol­low­ing out the charts with more for­mu­la­ic meme pop. Instead, to the sur­prise of many, he dug his heels into retro-fetishist West Coast ​’70s rock. Some of the One Direc­tion fan-hordes might have been con­fused, but no mat­ter: Har­ry Styles sold one mil­lion copies.

Despite its com­mer­cial and crit­i­cal suc­cess, he didn’t tour the album right away. He want­ed to act in the Christo­pher Nolan film Dunkirk. To his cred­it, his por­tray­al of a British sol­dier cow­er­ing in a moored boat on the French beach­es as the Nazis advanced wasn’t skew­ered in the press like the movie debuts of, say, Madon­na or Justin Tim­ber­lake. Per­haps he was fol­low­ing advice giv­en by Elton John, who had urged him to diver­si­fy. ​“He was bril­liant in Dunkirk, which took a lot of peo­ple by sur­prise,” John writes in an email. ​“I love how he takes chances and risks.” Act­ing, unlike music, is a release for Styles; it’s the one time he can be not himself.

“Why do I want to act? It’s so dif­fer­ent to music for me,” he says, sud­den­ly ani­mat­ed. ​“They’re almost oppo­site for me. Music, you try and put so much of your­self into it; act­ing, you’re try­ing to total­ly dis­ap­pear in who­ev­er you’re being.”

Fol­low­ing the news that he missed out on Pres­ley, his name was float­ed for the role of Prince Eric in Disney’s live-action remake of The Lit­tle Mer­maid. How­ev­er, fans will have to wait a bit longer to see Styles on the big screen as that idea, too, has sunk. He won’t be The King or the Prince. ​“It was dis­cussed,” he acknow­ledges before swift­ly chang­ing the sub­ject. ​“I want to put music out and focus on that for a while. But every­one involved in it was amaz­ing, so I think it’s going to be great. I’ll enjoy watch­ing it, I’m sure.”

The new album is wrapped and the sin­gle is decid­ed upon. ​“It’s not like his last album,” his friend, rock ​‘n’ roll leg­end Ste­vie Nicks, told me recent­ly over the phone. ​“It’s not like any­thing One Direc­tion ever did. It’s pure Har­ry, as Har­ry would say. He’s made a very dif­fer­ent record and it’s spectacular.”

Beyond that, Styles is keep­ing his cards close to his chest as to his next musi­cal move. How­ev­er, the air is thick with rumours that his main wing­man for HS2 is Kid Har­poon, aka Tom Hull, who co-wrote debut album track Sweet Crea­ture. No less an author­i­ty than Liam Gal­lagher told us that both big band escapees were in the same stu­dio – RAK in north-west Lon­don – at the same time mak­ing their sec­ond solo albums. Styles played him a cou­ple of tracks, ​“and I tell you what, they’re good,” Gal­lagher enthused. ​“A bit like that Bon Iver. Is that his name?”

Har­ry Styles met Nicks at a Fleet­wood Mac con­cert in Los Ange­les in April 2015. Some­thing about him felt authen­tic to the leg­endary front­woman: ground­ed, like she’d known him for­ev­er, blessed with a win­ning moon­shot grin. A month lat­er, they met back­stage at anoth­er Mac gig, this time at the O2 in Lon­don. Styles brought a car­rot cake for Nicks’ birth­day, her name piped in icing on top. By her own admis­sion, Nicks doesn’t even cel­e­brate birth­days, so this was a sur­prise. ​“He was per­son­al­ly respon­si­ble for me actu­al­ly hav­ing to cel­e­brate my birth­day, which was very sweet,” she says.

Styles’ rela­tion­ship with Nicks is hard to define. Induct­ing her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York as a solo artist ear­li­er this year, his speech hymned her as a ​“mag­i­cal gyp­sy god­moth­er who occu­pies the in-between”. She’s called him her ​“lovechild” with Mick Fleet­wood and the ​“son I nev­er had”. Both have moved past the pre­lim­i­nary chat acknowl­edg­ing each other’s unquan­tifi­able tal­ents and smooth­ly accel­er­at­ed towards play­ful cut-and-thrust ban­ter of a witch mom and her naughty child.

They per­form togeth­er – he sings The Chain and Stop Drag­gin’ My Heart Around; she sings the one alleged­ly writ­ten about Tay­lor Swift, Two Ghosts. One of those per­for­mances was at the Guc­ci Cruise after­par­ty in Rome in May, for ​“a lot of mon­ey”, Nicks tells me, in a ​“big kind of cas­tle place”. She has become his de fac­to men­tor – one phone call is all it takes to reach the Queen of Rock’n’Roll for advice on sequenc­ing (“She is real­ly good at track list­ing,” Styles admits) or just to hear each other’s voic­es… because, well, wouldn’t you?

Fol­low­ing anoth­er Fleet­wood Mac con­cert, at London’s Wem­b­ley Sta­di­um, in June, Nicks met Styles for a late (Indi­an) din­ner. He then invit­ed her back to his semi-detached Geor­gian man­sion in north Lon­don for a lis­ten­ing par­ty at mid­night. The album – HS2or what­ev­er it’ll be called – was fin­ished. Nicks, her assis­tant Karen, her make-up artist and her friends Jess and Mary crammed onto Styles’ liv­ing-room couch. They lis­tened to it once through in silence like a ​“bunch of edu­cat­ed monks or some­thing in this dark room”. Then once again, 15 or 16 tracks, this time each of his guests offer­ing live feed­back. It wrapped at 5am, just as the sun was bleed­ing through the curtains.

Even for a pop star of Styles’ stature, press­ing ​“play” on a deeply per­son­al work for your hero to digest, watch­ing her face react in real time to your new music, must be… what?

“It’s a dou­ble-edged thing,” he replies. ​“You’re always ner­vous when you are play­ing peo­ple music for the first time. You’ve heard it so much by this point, you for­get that peo­ple haven’t heard it before. It’s hard to not feel like you’ve done what you’ve set out to do. You are hap­py with some­thing and then some­one who you respect so much and look up to is, like: ​‘I real­ly like this.’ It feels like a large stamp [of approval]. It’s a big step towards feel­ing very com­fort­able with what­ev­er else hap­pens to it.”

Wad­ing through Styles’ back­ground info is exhaust­ing, since he was spanked by fame in the social media era where every god­dam blink of a kohl-rimmed eye has been doc­u­ment­ed from six angles. (And yes, he does some­times wear guyliner.)

Deep breath: born in Red­ditch, Worces­ter­shire, to par­ents Des and Anne, who divorced when he was sev­en. Grew up in Holmes Chapel in Cheshire with his sis­ter Gem­ma, mum and step­dad Robin Twist. Rode hors­es at a near­by sta­ble for free (“I was a bad rid­er, but I was a rid­er”). Stopped rid­ing, ​“got into dif­fer­ent stuff”. Formed a band, White Eski­mo, with school­mates. Aged 16, tried out for the 2010 run of The X Fac­torwith a stir­ring but aver­age ren­di­tion of Ste­vie Wonder’s Isn’t She Love­ly. Cut from the show and put into a boy band with four oth­ers, Louis Tom­lin­son, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik, and called One Direc­tion. Became inter­na­tion­al­ly famous, toured the globe. Zayn quit to go solo. Toured some more. Dat­ed but maybe didn’t date Car­o­line Flack, Rita Ora and Tay­lor Swift – whom he report­ed­ly dumped in the British Vir­gin Islands. (This rela­tion­ship, if noth­ing else, yield­ed an icon­ic, can­did shot of Swift look­ing deject­ed, being motored back to shore on the back of a boat called the Fly­ing Ray.) One Direc­tion dis­cussed dis­band­ing in 2014, actu­al­ly dis­solved in 2015. They remain friend­ly, and Styles offi­cial­ly went solo in 2016.

It’s been two years since his epony­mous debut and lead sin­gle, Sign of the Times, shocked the world and Elton John with its swag­ger­ing, soft rock sound. ​“It came out of left field and I loved it,” John says.

After 89 are­na-packed shows across five con­ti­nents grossed him, the label, whomev­er, over $61mil­lion, Styles had all but dis­ap­peared. He has emerged only inter­mit­tent­ly for pub­lic-fac­ing events – a Guc­ci after­par­ty per­for­mance here, a Met Gala co-chair­ing there. He relo­cat­ed from Los Ange­les back to Lon­don, sell­ing his Hol­ly­wood Hills house for $6 mil­lion and ship­ping his Jaguar E-type across the Atlantic so he could take joyrides on the M25.

“I’m not over LA,” he insists when I ask about the move. ​“My rela­tion­ship with LA changed a lot. What I want­ed from LA changed.”

A great escape, he would agree, is some­times nec­es­sary. He was in Tokyo for most of Jan­u­ary, hav­ing near­ly fin­ished his album. ​“I need­ed time to get out of that album frame-of-mind of: ​‘Is it fin­ished? Where am I at? What’s hap­pen­ing?’ I real­ly need­ed that time away from every­one. I was kind of just in Tokyo by myself.” His sab­bat­i­cal most­ly involved read­ing Haru­ki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chron­i­cle, singing Nir­vana at karaoke, writ­ing alone in his hotel room, lis­ten­ing to music and eaves­drop­ping on strangers in alien con­ver­sa­tion. ​“It was just a pos­i­tive time for my head and I think that impact­ed the album in a big way.”

Dur­ing this break he watched a lot of films, read a lot of books. Some­times he texts these rec­om­men­da­tions to his pal Michele at Guc­ci. He told Michele to watch the Ali Mac­graw film, Love Sto­ry. ​“We text what friends text about. He is the same [as me] in terms of he lives in his own world and he does his own thing. I love dress­ing up and he loves dress­ing up.”

Because he loves dress­ing up, Michele chose Styles to be the face of three Guc­ci Tai­lor­ing cam­paigns and of its new gen­der­less fra­grance, Mémoire d’une Odeur.

“The moment I met him, I imme­di­ate­ly under­stood there was some­thing strong around him,” Michele tells me. ​“I realised he was much more than a young singer. He was a young man, dressed in a thought­ful way, with uncombed hair and a beau­ti­ful voice. I thought he gath­ered with­in him­self the fem­i­nine and the masculine.”

Fash­ion, for Styles, is a play­ground. Some­thing he doesn’t take too seri­ous­ly. A cou­ple of years ago Har­ry Lam­bert, his styl­ist since 2015, acquired for him a pair of pink metal­lic Saint Lau­rent boots that he has nev­er been pho­tographed wear­ing. They are exceed­ing­ly rare – few pairs exist. Styles wears them ​“to get milk”. They are, in his words, ​“super-fun”. He’s not sure, but he has, ball­park, 50 pairs of shoes, as well as full clos­ets in at least three post­codes. He set­tles on an out­fit fair­ly quick­ly, maybe changes his T-shirt once before head­ing out, but most­ly knows what he likes.

What he may not ful­ly com­pre­hend is that sim­ply by being pho­tographed in a gar­ment he can spur the career of a design­er, as he has with Har­ris Reed, Palo­mo Spain, Charles Jef­frey, Alled-Martínez and a new favourite, Bode. Styles wore a SS16 Guc­ci flo­ral suit to the 2015 Amer­i­can Music Awards. When he was asked who made his suit on the red car­pet, Guc­ci began trend­ing world­wide on Twitter.

“It was one of the first times a male wore Alessandro’s run­way designs and, at the time, men were not tak­ing too many red car­pet risks,” says Lam­bert. ​“Who knows if it influ­enced oth­ers, but it was a spe­cial moment. Plus, it was fun see­ing the fans dress up in suits to come see Harry’s shows.”

Yet tra­di­tion­al gen­der codes of dress still have the minds of mid­dle Amer­i­ca in a choke­hold. Men can’t wear women’s clothes, say the online whingers, who have labelled him ​“trag­ic”, ​“a clown” and a Bowie wannabe. Styles doesn’t care. ​“What’s fem­i­nine and what’s mas­cu­line, what men are wear­ing and what women are wear­ing – it’s like there are no lines any more.”

Elton John agrees: ​“It worked for Marc Bolan, Bowie and Mick. Har­ry has the same qualities.”

Then there is the ques­tion of Styles’ sex­u­al­i­ty, some­thing he has admit­ted­ly ​“nev­er real­ly start­ed to label”, which will plague him until he does. Per­haps it’s part of his allure. He’s bran­dished a pride flag that read ​“Make Amer­i­ca Gay Again” on stage, and plant­ed a stake some­where left of cen­tre on sexuality’s rain­bow spectrum.

“In the posi­tion that he’s in, he can’t real­ly say a lot, but he chose a queer girl band to open for him and I think that speaks vol­umes,” Josette Maskin of the queer band MUNA told The Face ear­li­er this year.

“I get a lot of…” Styles trails off, wheels turn­ing on how he can dis­cuss sex­u­al­i­ty with­out real­ly answer­ing. ​“I’m not always super-out­spo­ken. But I think it’s very clear from choic­es that I make that I feel a cer­tain way about lots of things. I don’t know how to describe it. I guess I’m not…” He paus­es again, piv­ots. ​“I want every­one to feel wel­come at shows and online. They want to be loved and equal, you know? I’m nev­er unsup­port­ed, so it feels weird for me to over­think it for some­one else.”

Sex­u­al­i­ty aside, he must acknowl­edge that he has sex appeal. ​“The word ​‘sexy’ sounds so strange com­ing out of my mouth. So I would say that that’s prob­a­bly why I would not con­sid­er myself sexy.”

Har­ry Styles has emerged ful­ly-formed, an anachro­nis­tic rock star, vague in sen­si­bil­i­ty but des­tined to impress with a dis­arm­ing smile and a warm but firm handshake.

I recite to him a quote from Chrissie Hyn­de of The Pre­tenders about her time atop rock’s throne: ​“I nev­er got into this for the mon­ey or because I want­ed to join in the super­star sex around the swim­ming pools. I did it because the offer of a record con­tract came along and it seemed like it might be more fun than being a wait­ress. Now, I’m not so sure.”

Styles – who worked in a bak­ery in a small north­ern town some time before play­ing to 40,000scream­ing fans in South Amer­i­can are­nas – must have wit­nessed some shit, been invit­ed to a few pool­side sex par­ties, in his time.

“I’ve seen a cou­ple of things,” he nods in agree­ment. ​“But I’m still young. I feel like there’s still stuff to see.”