Daily Harry Styles Clippings

The digital queue for a ticket to his concerts this month in the Johan Cruijff Arena exploded quite a bit. Harry Styles is only 32 and has already spent half of his life in the spotlight. In those sixteen years, he seems to have effortlessly survived the boyband-star craze and also mastered the art of leading “a normal life.”

text STEFANIE BOTTELIER

It was actually immediately clear the moment sixteen-year-old Harry Styles auditioned in 2010 for the British version of The X Factor: there stood a star. Not necessarily because of his vocal qualities: his version of Hey Soul Sister by Train didn’t sound entirely flawless, although he redeemed himself with an a cappella version of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely. But it was the charm of his personality and the ease with which he answered Simon Cowell’s silly questions about his Saturday job in a bakery (he sold Viennese pastries in his hometown Holmes Chapel). And then there was also his appearance: the messy curls, the dimples in his cheeks, his green eyes and, as they describe it in England, his cheeky grin. Although judge Louis Walsh was very harsh on Harry, Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell immediately saw the diamond in the rough. Fun fact: Scherzinger would later, when he was already an adult, have a brief fling with him.

Sixteen years later, Styles is indeed one of the most popular and successful singers in the world; earlier this year he released his fourth million-selling album Kiss All The Time. Disco. Occasionally [sic]. That album immediately broke the record for vinyl sales in its first weeks, another achievement Styles could add to other highlights such as more than thirty billion Spotify streams. Starting this month, he will once again go on a world tour with his new album. He has now reached the level where he no longer goes to the fans, but the fans come to him, in a limited number of world cities where he holds residencies. We are lucky that he still serves mainland Europe from Amsterdam and will perform ten concerts in the Johan Cruijff Arena in May and June.

THE BOYBAND YEARS

Although Cowell gave Styles a chance, things initially did not look good when he was eliminated during the bootcamp stage of The X Factor. Fortunately for Styles — and for us — Cowell had the visionary idea of bringing the young singer together in a group with four other young contestants who had been eliminated. Together with Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik he formed Harry Styles One Direction. They perfectly filled the gap for the boyband that existed at that moment. And although they did not ultimately win The X Factor, they immediately became enormously popular.

In January 2011 they signed a record contract with Cowell’s label. Their first single What Makes You Beautiful and their debut album Up All Night, released that same year, both reached international number-one positions and ensured that the next four years all their records did the same. One Direction followed the pattern that history associates with boybands and girlbands: exceptional success, hysterical fans, sold-out tours, never a moment’s rest, unrest within the band, solo ambitions and then the inevitable moment when the end is announced.

That last thing happened in 2016, although the stop was euphemistically described as an “indefinite hiatus.” The promise of a comeback implied in that phrase suffered a tragic blow in October 2024 when band member Liam Payne died after a fatal fall from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires. The circumstances surrounding his death have still not been fully clarified, although it was later established that Payne had traces of cocaine, alcohol and antidepressants in his blood at the time of his death. It was known that he struggled with addictions and psychological problems.

“If I see a beautiful colour on a flower or wallpaper, I immediately think: oh, I want that on my nails!”

SUCCESSFUL SOLO

Also a fixed part of the boyband/girlband pattern: there is always one band member whose success afterwards does not equal that of the band, but greatly surpasses it. And although especially Niall Horan is still doing very well as a solo artist and the other boys have also had their hits, all of that naturally disappears into nothing beside the success of Harry Styles.

In 2017 he released his first equally successful solo album. Surprisingly enough, it not only did well with the loyal fanbase of teenage girls, but was also positively received by the “serious” music press. The same applies to his following albums, especially Harry’s House from 2022, his most successful album to date. After that he also tried acting: he appeared in Dunkirk (2017), My Policeman (2022) and Don’t Worry Darling (2022). His acting performances generally received friendly reviews.

No star CV is complete without a business empire. In 2021 Styles launched his lifestyle brand Pleasing. The first product? Nail polish. A totally logical choice as far as Styles is concerned. “If I see a beautiful colour on a flower or wallpaper, I immediately think: oh, I want that on my nails!” And of course we believe him, because Harry Styles was already known for his decorated nails. But besides that, it was also commercially very smart to sell a product that not only fit within his target group, but that they could also afford, and for which there would always be a new colour they could use.

The collection was expanded with products such as skincare, perfume, fashion accessories, and last year Styles launched the Pleasing Yourself line with sexual wellness products such as vibrators and lubricant. The first drop sold out online within minutes and the vibrator, with an original price of 68 dollars, quickly appeared on eBay starting at 300 dollars. Business does not bring him any hardship and is only one of his commercial successes. His most recent tour Love on Tour (2021–2023) had a gross revenue of around 617 million dollars and is therefore financially one of the most successful tours ever. According to The Times, Styles’ fortune is estimated at around 250 million pounds.

COLLECTIVE ADORATION

The Love on Tour tour lasted almost two years. Everyone who attended one of those concerts will probably confirm that they were perhaps among the happiest and most connected concerts of recent years. Actually the performances were the live versions of his hit Treat People With Kindness, a song that during the tour inspired improvised line-dance choreographies among fans, inspired by the music video starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The collective adoration that fans take with them from such a tour can have a strange effect on the object of adoration, especially when it suddenly stops as the tour comes to an end. Harry Styles was very aware of the threatening black hole that awaited after the tour.

“The idea of time for myself felt very crazy,” he recently told The Times. “I wasn’t sure if I would manage it, but it was time for it. The tour had stopped, I turned thirty and it was time to pay attention to other parts of my life.”

He lived for a while in Italy, the country that taught him to slow down. “I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere just to sit and drink coffee — or if I had ever simply gone somewhere to sit and drink coffee.” In addition, he travelled to Japan and Spain and spent a lot of time in (the clubs of) Berlin and with his newborn niece, the daughter of his sister Gemma.

The death of Liam Payne had a great impact on Styles. Only recently he spoke about it in an interview with radio DJ Zane Lowe for Apple Music. Especially the fact that his grief was shared by millions of mourning fans made it extra difficult for him.

Besides the loss of a friend “who looked so much like me in so many ways,” Payne’s death was also “an important moment to look at my own life; to ask myself whether I’m okay with it. The best way to honour your friends when they are no longer here is to live your life to the fullest.”

And although for some people that may perhaps conjure visions of sex, drugs and rock-’n-roll, Styles mainly found fulfilment in running in recent years. After the tours it not only gave him the necessary structure and discipline, but also a way to be alone and meditate. Last year he ran the marathons of Tokyo and Berlin, completing the latter in under three hours, which is quite an achievement. He is obsessed with the sport and even gave one of the rare interviews around the release of his new album to the magazine Runner’s World. It became a conversation with 77-year-old Japanese writer and marathon enthusiast Haruki Murakami, in which they spoke extensively about their shared love of the sport. Styles’ most important discovery: “Nobody can run a marathon for you. While there are many people who help me make my music, put together a show and make me look good. Running is a conversation with myself.”

A MAN IN A DRESS!

Let us also not forget Harry Styles’ role as a style icon. He is responsible for a number of the most iconic fashion moments of the past ten years — especially when it comes to fashion moments featuring a man in the lead role. Perhaps the most talked-about was his cover for American Vogue in December 2019, for which he posed in a light blue fairy-tale dress by Gucci with a wide ruffled skirt. A man in a dress! The entire conservative side of the internet reacted in outrage. “There is no society that can survive without strong men,” complained far-right opinion maker Candace Owens. She was not the only one worried about Styles’ masculinity and the influence he might have on young fans.

At the same time there were also voices who thought Styles and Vogue had not gone far enough. The Daily Beast wrote: “The Vogue cover with Harry Styles may be historic, but not radical.” Styles himself simply finds beautiful clothes fascinating and does not see why he should deny himself a whole wardrobe.

“What women wear, what men wear — for me it’s not about that. If I see a beautiful blouse but someone says it’s for women, then okay, that won’t make me want to wear it any less,” he once told The Guardian. “I think the moment you feel comfortable with who you are, everything becomes much easier.”

Since 2014 he has worked with stylist Harry Lambert, with whom he is also friends. Styles can still clearly remember how his interest in fashion developed when he moved to London during his One Direction era.

“That was such an eye-opener for me,” he told Lambert recently in an interview with The Times. “I had never seen so many people dressing differently from normal — it blew my world up. I was nineteen years old and discovered that trying new looks was fun. But I also remember the first time I then went back to where I grew up. I was laughed at because I wore a pair of Chelsea boots instead of standard sneakers.”

EVERYTHING SUITS HIM

Apparently that didn’t bother him too much, because Styles is now known for his flamboyant looks. To this day he has not yet been seen in something that doesn’t suit him: whether it is his characteristic colourful suits with flared legs, transparent pussybow blouses, embroidered nerdy sweaters, pink fur coats, short athletic shorts or glitter jumpsuits.

And although he clearly enjoys “crazy” fashion, he also looks good in more classic high fashion, such as during his recent appearance at the Brit Awards, where he wore a double-breasted black Chanel suit. He made the look completely “Harry” by wearing a pair of ballerina shoes underneath.

Styles also personally put pearl necklaces for men on the map and sparked a crafting craze when he wore a hand-knitted vest by JW Anderson on The Today Show. We are writing 2020, in the middle of lockdown and millions of people were looking for a hobby. When the first homemade versions of the Harry vest appeared online, Jonathan Anderson posted the pattern online and the hype was real.

That same year the vest entered the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London because of its value as a “cultural phenomenon representing the power of creativity and social media that brings people together in times of extreme contradiction.” The same museum also exhibited the Gucci princess dress that Styles wore on the Vogue cover as part of the exhibition Fashioning Masculinities – The Art of Menswear, as an important piece challenging traditional gender roles.

The ease with which Styles challenges traditional gender roles predictably causes years of speculation about his sexual orientation. He himself finds the obsession with labels old-fashioned and has no need to make a choice about which clothing he wears either.

“I want things to look a certain way. Not because I appear gay, straight or bisexual in them, but because it looks cool,” he once said to The Guardian, “and besides, for me sexuality is mainly something that’s fun.”

Although One Direction fans have filled the entire internet with fan fiction about the supposed relationship between him and fellow One Direction member Louis Tomlinson, he now mainly seems to have fun with women. In his romantic timeline we find names such as Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner, Nicole Scherzinger, Olivia Wilde and Taylor Russell, but no relationship lasted longer than two years. Perhaps actress Zoe Kravitz, with whom he was often spotted last summer, will break that record.

We hardly dare say it out loud, but it seems that Harry Styles does not comply with the unwritten rule that an ex-boyband heartthrob only ends unhappily (or worse). As he told The Times:

“For a long time I only saw the version of myself the outside world saw too. By spending time away from all of that, I have been able to have conversations with myself on a much deeper level. I have made small changes, like going off Instagram. Now I feel that my relationship with the world I return to is much healthier again.”

REVIEWS 

Harry Styles Gets Weird in Delightful Ways

By Joe Levy 

The superstar is in search of love, ecstasy, enlightenment, and fun on a fourth album that routinely subverts expectations. 

★★★★★ CLASSIC ★★★★ EXCELLENT ★★★ GOOD FAIR POOR

A little more than halfway through this delightfully strange, often lovely, and consistently fascinating album, things get downright freaky, at least musically speaking. Having deployed epic amounts of bass, a gospel choir, a drummer who — whether it’s a thumper or a ballad — continually gets wicked, an array of rhythm tricks and tracks, guitars both acoustic and electric, and all sorts of pulses, washes, and rinses, Harry Styles shrugs and says: Why not everything at once? 

“Season 2 Weight Loss” begins with some electric noise — something buzzing to life, plugging in, booting up, or feeding back — before keyboards that would be at home on a Kraftwerk record echo across a few seconds of stillness. Chopped-up breakbeats come to life, and when the bass comes in, it’s slightly out of sync, as if there were three tabs open on your computer, each playing a different song. Styles is addressing someone who could have been in his arms but who keeps holding out — “Do you love me now?” he asks, not for the first or last time on the album, in search of something just out of reach. The music builds and builds — calliope keys chasing a chorus of voices off in the distance, the drums banging like someone trying to break down a door — until, as if a meditation bell has rung to clear the space, things pause so Styles can sing, “You’ve got to sit yourself down sometimes.” And then, precept delivered, it all starts up again. 

★★★★ 

HARRY STYLES 

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. 

ERSKINE/COLUMBIA 

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. opens with four true bangers — including the trance-y “Aperture” and “Are You Listening Yet?,” where heavy 2010 vibes nod to both LCD Soundsystem and Stargate’s productions for Rihanna. Yet glitter-ball album cover notwithstanding, this isn’t exactly Styles’ dance album. Tracks like “The Waiting Game” and “Carla’s Song” are pop songs dressed up in disco clothes. “Paint by Numbers” is two minutes and 27 seconds of Sixties melodic classicism. And “Pop” is an Eighties synth-fest that finds Styles mentioning daytime mainlining and a lack of rolling papers before this: “It’s just me/On my knees/Squeaky clean fantasy/It’s meant to be pop.” 

Disco, Occasionally

By Jens Balzer

He dances at Berghain, gives away tomatoes, and is building himself a castle. Quite a lot going on for Harry Styles! How the most headstrong pop star of our time recorded his album in Berlin, took inspiration from Krautrock and Daft Punk – and what he discusses with writer Haruki Murakami – you can read here.

AFTERSHOW

A witty global star: Harry Styles in an unknown hotel room

(Photo: Stella Blackmon)

NEW SHOW

Harry Styles at the Brit Awards in Manchester 2026

(Photo: Getty Images)

“Hey you! Even though I’m still a tiny seed, I can hardly wait to finally develop my extraordinary fruits!”

That’s what we read on the back of a seed packet for Brad’s Atomic Grape plum tomatoes. And that’s not all.

“In terms of taste, I’m very fruity and sweet,” the seed continues, and:

“One of my special features is that I produce a very large number of fruits, all of which are highly crack-resistant.”

A packet of Brad’s Atomic Grape plum tomato seeds was given as a gift to everyone who listened to Harry Styles’ new album at Sony Music’s Berlin studio in early March.

Harry Styles likes to give away seeds because he also enjoys gardening himself. For his 2022 album Harry’s House, he was photographed for Better Homes & Gardens, spoke enthusiastically about the calm he finds in watering garden beds, and as early as 2017 told Teen Vogue that his favourite vegetable is Brussels sprouts.

For the production of the video for his new track “Aperture,” he collaborated with florist Brittany Asch, who runs the well-known floral design studio Brrch in Los Angeles. Accordingly, at least one vase appears in every scene of the video, featuring gladioli, gloriosa, oncidium, iris, and cymbidium orchids.

Harry Styles also knows that plants don’t always bring happiness.

Currently, in London’s quiet yet extremely expensive Hampstead district in the northwest of the city, he is having a prestigious luxury villa built. Two historic houses and several plots of land are to be combined. The new super-mansion will include not only a royal residential area but also an art gallery, cinema, gym, and a separate wing with accommodations for staff. And, of course, a large garden with fountains and water features.

And that’s where the problems begin.

In January, during excavation work, Styles’ contractors discovered four plant species that are problematic: montbretia, Rhododendron ponticum, horsetail, and buddleia. The weeds had spread across 25 square metres. They can kill flowers, destroy entire gardens, damage masonry in both historic and new structures, and even release toxins capable of killing small animals. For example, honeybees that feed on Rhododendron ponticum nectar can die within hours, after first displaying compulsive cleaning behaviour.

Originally from the Pontic Mountains, this species is considered invasive in the UK and is actively combated. As a result, the soil on Styles’ property must be removed to a depth of two metres and disposed of at a specialised toxic-plant landfill.

Consequently, construction of Harry Styles’ luxury villa, originally scheduled for completion in October 2027, has been delayed indefinitely.

This frustrates not only Styles but also his neighbours in Hampstead, who were already annoyed by the building works. Styles purchased the first two properties in 2019 and a third early last year. Planning permission was granted in April on the condition that conservation measures be implemented, including hedgehog and bat boxes, as both species are considered endangered in the UK.

Protests quickly formed. Two neighbours demanded changes to the plans, arguing that the new structures would block sunlight from their homes. They cited the “Right to Light” law, which protects access to daylight if it has been enjoyed for at least 20 years.

“Shine / Step into the light / Shine / So bright sometimes,”

go the lyrics of “Lights Up” from Styles’ 2019 album Fine Line.

But it continues:

“All the lights couldn’t put out the dark / Running through my heart.”

For his Hampstead neighbours, Styles is not a shining pop star but a source of darkening and loss. Like many multimillionaires moving into the area, he contributes to transforming the once artist- and intellectual-filled district into a faceless luxury neighbourhood.

For locals, the real invasive species is not Rhododendron ponticum, but Superbus et dives intrusor Harry Styles.

No wonder the superstar kept his distance from London while construction rumbled on. Instead, he spent much of 2025 in Berlin, mainly in Mitte, where wealthy newcomers are already commonplace.

He made no public appearances and gave almost no interviews, but was spotted around Rosenthaler Platz and Torstraße. He was photographed buying sourdough bread at the trendy bakery Acid on Oranienburger Straße. The Madrid-based chain has made sourdough highly fashionable, though prices are steep even by Berlin hipster standards.

Eating a lot of sourdough means keeping fit, so Styles pursued his passion for long-distance running. He was frequently seen training in Volkspark Hasenheide. In September, under the pseudonym “Sted Sarandos,” he ran the Berlin Marathon with bib number 31,261, finishing in 2:59:13 – breaking the three-hour barrier and improving his previous time by nearly 25 minutes.

One of the few interviews he gave was to Runner’s World, where he spoke with Haruki Murakami, whose book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running inspired him.

Styles said:

“One of the things I loved about your book is that it freed me from the idea that music must be an unhealthy profession.”

Murakami replied that while many musicians died young, he preferred to live a normal life and create extraordinary work.

TRUE TO COLOUR

Styles’ new style: everything is combinable, musically too.

(Photo: Laura Jane Coulson)

In Berlin, Styles visited many notable places. He saw art at Galerie Buchholz (favoured by the Pet Shop Boys), danced repeatedly at Berghain, and was spotted near Hansa Studios, where David Bowie recorded his Berlin Trilogy and Depeche Mode later produced key albums.

Indeed, six of the twelve songs on the new album were recorded there. The rest were made at Abbey Road Studios and in producer Kid Harpoon’s California studio.

However, Bowie would likely never have visited Soho House Berlin – a place described here as a hub for pretentious hipsters. Styles, however, frequented it often, disappointing some who saw him as a tastemaker.

ONE NIGHT

Harry Styles in Manchester. The live special is available on Netflix

(Photo: Netflix/Stella Blackmon)

Berlin fans were further disappointed when, after months of speculation, Styles left the city quietly. His upcoming 60-show tour includes no Berlin date. Even the album release show took place instead at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena, streamed via Netflix.

Fortunately, the album itself does not disappoint.

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. opens with swelling bass and electronic beats. The first track, “Aperture,” explores themes of connection. The album leans strongly into electronic pop and club music, though not Berlin’s industrial techno. Instead, it draws on French house in the style of Daft Punk, Chicago house influences like Frankie Knuckles, and funk elements.

Tracks like “Dance No More” reference Berlin music history via George Kranz, while a children’s choir echoes Pink Floyd.

The album is full of experimentation: modular synthesizers, sonar-like sounds, and theremin textures. Producer Kid Harpoon introduced these elements, and drummer Tom Skinner (formerly of Sons of Kemet, now with The Smile alongside Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood) contributed Krautrock influences inspired by Can.

Other references include Tangerine Dream and contemporary artist Zaho de Sagazan.

Despite blending many styles, the album succeeds, balancing electro-pop with club music and maintaining flow. At its best, Styles’ vocals float above shifting rhythms.

“It takes a lifetime to learn paint-by-numbers,” he sings, “and then to see the colours run.”

This line perfectly describes the album’s aesthetic.

On release day, Berlin fans could visit a Harry Styles experience on Kurfürstendamm, featuring tomato-themed decor, a greenhouse, and exclusive merchandise, including red vinyl editions.

Styles developed his love of tomatoes in Italy, where he lived for two years in Civita di Bagnoregio, a near-abandoned hilltop village restored partly thanks to architect Astra Zarina, who had also worked in West Berlin.

He now owns an Etruscan villa there with panoramic views. Only about ten other people live in the village. However, the hill it sits on is slowly eroding and may one day collapse entirely.

WORLD STAR

The global pop superstar chats with legendary author and fellow marathoner Haruki Murakami on the sublime simplicity of running—and how it nourishes the creative life. By Sophie Heawood Photography by Laura Jane Coulson

Harry Styles is asking for advice. He’d been nervous about today, almost couldn’t believe it was happening. But excited too, to sit down with one of his heroes, a man who had made him feel it was okay to be vulnerable. Someone who inspired him to take up running. Marathons, specifically.

“I wonder if you might have any advice to pass on to me: as a man, as an artist and as a runner?” he asks.

He poses this to Haruki Murakami, celebrated Japanese novelist and author of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a book Styles credits with making him believe he actually could run a marathon. Which he did in 2025, first in Tokyo finishing in 3:24, then in Berlin six months later, when he crossed the finish line in a stunning 2:59:13.

“Such a difficult question,” says Murakami with a chuckle.

“Well, as a human being really,” Styles clarifies, laughing too.

They’ve been chatting for an hour or so, Styles having flown in to meet the writer near his home. They make an unlikely pair: the 32-year-old singer, songwriter, and actor, and the 77-year-old best-selling author. But they share a love of running and quickly develop an easy rapport.

Styles has come prepared, with deliberate and thoughtful questions revealing a level of introspection rare in a young man who’s been in the public eye since the age of 16.

The wide-ranging conversation covers a lot: attention span (Harry’s, he struggled with reading as a kid), illness (Murakami’s, he’s recovering from a hospital stay and hasn’t been able to run), solitude, observation, music, creativity, fame, and the desire to be ordinary.

And running of course, which has everything to do with all of that.

Murakami, who has finished more than 25 marathons, thinks for another beat, then declares, “One of the important things for human beings is to embrace the contradiction. When I’m writing, I always feel I have a contradiction and that’s why I want to express myself…to understand it. Even at my age I’m still wondering, what is this chaos in me?

“That would be my advice to you as an artist as well as a man. If there’s something that’s dirty within you, you can’t just present it as is. You kind of have to turn the contradiction into something positive by sharing it with other people who might not think they have one. Sublimate those contradictions within you into art.”

He pauses again, then smiles. “My advice for you as a runner? No contradictions.”Laura Jane Coulson

Glasses: Oakley Cybr Zero.Laura Jane Coulson

T-shirt and Adidas trainers: vintage, sourced on eBay. Shorts: Pleasing. Socks: Calzedonia.

YOU CAN’T GO TOO FAST TOO QUICKLY

Harry Styles: One of the things I really loved in your book about running was that it freed me from the idea that music had to be an unhealthy profession and I had to be this tortured soul.

Your point is that being healthy makes you able to be an artist for a long time, that you can be a structured, healthy person and make great work. So I have a lot of gratitude to you for that.

Haruki Murakami: To write a book is not so difficult, but if you try to keep on writing, you have to be strong. It’s powered by endurance.

When I was in my teens, musicians died so young. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix. I think they couldn’t wait—live fast, die young. But that is not a thing that I wanted.

What I wanted to do was live a normal life because I’m just a normal guy—but then write abnormal books. That’s the kind of ideal that I was pursuing.

HS: If you want to run a marathon, it takes a lot of discipline. You can’t go too fast too quickly.

Has it always felt obvious to you that your running and writing feed each other? Or do you think it can be really easy to overcomplicate that, and actually, you just like writing and you also just like running?

HM: Running and writing books both match my personality. With running, it’s not just about speed. I was never into sports that involve balls. It’s more about me competing with my own self.

HS: We live in a time when making such an effort can be considered quite uncool, and there’s this romanticism that comes with the idea of being an artist, as if it’s this almost spiritual thing that just happens to you. But in your work I see a lack of fear around being uncool.

When you write about sex and masculinity, your characters aren’t all experts at sex—there are a lot of scenes of them fumbling around. There’s an innocence to them, as well as vulnerability, and shame.

That has definitely changed the way I view being masculine and being vulnerable. I wondered if that was something you felt you did consciously or discovered while you were writing it?

HM: I’m just an ordinary guy. Always. When I was a teenager or in my 20s, I wasn’t particularly adept at anything. But when I graduated college, I didn’t want to be a salaryman or to belong to a company. I created a small jazz club in Tokyo, I owned it, and I didn’t think I was going to be a writer, I just loved to read books.

But when I turned 29 the desire to write was very strong. So I wrote a book and I became a novelist—kind of on a whim.

But I’m still an ordinary guy living an ordinary life with my wife and everything. When I get interviewed, I sometimes feel awkward because why would an interviewer think that I’m special? That’s why the characters in my books are just normal people and they have that awkwardness.

I don’t even think I’m a creator; I’m just a recipient. I love to listen to music, I love to read books, but I’m just a reader, just a listener. I did try to practice some musical instruments, but I couldn’t get into it because I hate practice. It’s boring.

HS: Oh, it is.

(They both laugh.)Laura Jane Coulson

Nike track jacket: vintage, sourced on eBay.

IN THIS TOGETHER

Styles’s fourth album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, drops March 6. Fans have been clamoring since 2022 for a follow-up to the chart-topping Harry’s House.

But after years of intense touring, Styles was prepared to wait much longer to record again—five, eight, 12 years if he had to. He was no longer sure what he wanted to say.

“Something I’ve often struggled with, in the middle of a tour, is feeling like I’m not sure what I’m giving, not sure what I’m adding to the world. Especially when the reward system and the kind of…adulation that you can receive feels so loud. Like clearly I’m getting so much from this, I’m getting all this energy. People are giving me so much, which I deeply appreciate. But what am I contributing? At times I felt quite existential about that.”

In 2010 when he stood baby-faced and floppy-haired on The X Factor stage describing plans to study law and sociology at university, he was just an ordinary lad with a part-time job in a bakery and a mum who thought he could sing.

Sixteen years later, after navigating stratospheric success and the massive operational apparatus that comes with it, those existential feelings were exacerbated by a sense of growing isolation.

“Over the years, I had to say no to everything I was invited to,” he says, “whether it was a friend’s birthday, a trip somewhere amazing, an opening. I started to wonder if I was saying no because I really was so busy or because it was more comfortable than saying yes. When you close yourself off to protect yourself from people who might bring negativity into your life, you’re also missing out on positive experiences.”Laura Jane Coulson

Shorts and cap: vintage, sourced on eBay.

He turned 30 in 2024 and decided to take some time off work, partly to do the things that people did in their 20s.

He started traveling for fun, “for the first time in—well, in some ways, ever,” he says. Japan, Spain, Germany. He loved Berlin, and found himself going back again and again, making new friends, hitting the club scene at night.

“Good electronic music is so good, you know—especially the melodic aspect. When you’re out at night, it’s such a community, but you’re also watching people have such individual experiences.”

He began to think he wanted his next album to deliver that feeling. “I wanted to recreate [what] I had on the dance floor, being lost in instrumentation and the musicality. It was so immersive, like, this is how I want to feel when I’m on stage too.

“I don’t want it to feel like a sermon I’m delivering. I wanted it to feel like, oh, we’re in this music together. Like I’m in it with you.”

This lifestyle was a lot for someone so accustomed to more structure, which is where running came in. It offered discipline and a different way of being alone.

“Because in some of those new experiences, there’s just so much stimulation, right? So many people, and it’s just so loud. So then running also became my processing place for all of that. Really being by myself.

“When you’re training for a marathon, which is the loneliest part, you just kind of set out for a run, and three hours later you come back. But there’s a real synergy between that and electronic music. It’s kind of hypnotic and becomes like a mantra almost.”

He started recording the new album in early 2025 with his longtime producer Kid Harpoon at Hansa Studios in Berlin, near a five-mile stretch of road he ran most days. Sometimes he’d listen to his own demos on his phone, making notes as he went.

“I used to have song playlists but realized that I’d be too aware of saying to myself, ‘Okay, just 20 more songs to go,’” he says.

“When I started listening to more electronic music”—artists like British electronic producers Floating Points and Jamie XX, or mixes by German techno DJs Fadi Mohem and Ben Klock—“the shift felt just very hypnotic, like oh I’m really lost in this thing. It was helpful to my running to get to that place where I felt like I was meditating right there. It makes the time go by in such a different way.”Laura Jane Coulson

Track jacket and pants: Pleasing.Laura Jane Coulson

JUST YOU MOVING THROUGH THE WORLD

HS: Do you find that you end up being creative while you’re running, or is it a time when you set everything else aside?

Personally, I’ve found the hypnotic, meditative aspect of music to have a lot of synergy with the meditative aspect of running.

When I’m running is when I have…time to think a lot about what I’m making and other things in my life too.

HM: When I’m running, I’m just running. I don’t think much. I listen to music mostly.

When I come back to sit in front of the desk I begin thinking, but when I’m running, I’m kind of empty. Something comes into me, but I don’t notice it.

To be empty is my one of my purposes with running. I feel that training your body is the way to create the perfect vessel, building a foundation for the ideas to come into.

HS: For me, one of the things that can be complicated is that, as an artist, say if you’re a novelist or a musician or a filmmaker, you’re an observer—but when you become a known person, you become the observed. You know you’re still the same, but other people can begin to view you as something different.

So something I love so much about running is the simplicity of it. You are the observer once more, and you can go about your day in the most naked form. It’s just you, alone, moving through the world.

That’s what I love about it: You don’t need anything, just a pair of shoes.

HM: Ah, but that’s not what I’ve got. As a novelist, I don’t have to be observed that much, like you do in your job. As a writer, you can just stay in all you want. You don’t have to meet anybody.

HS: One of my favorite things you ever wrote was, don’t feel sorry for yourself, only assholes do that.

Something else I like in your work is the poetry of simple things, like how you describe sitting down to eat breakfast, or having a beer.

That has definitely influenced the small moments that I take to myself when I sit down and appreciate the everyday things in front of me. It changes the way that you see the world.Laura Jane Coulson

Glasses: Oakley Radar Plate. Shorts: vintage, sourced on eBay. Socks: Calzedonia. Shoes: Nike Vomero Plus.

A FIXED START AND A FINISH LINE

Originally from Cheshire in the north of England, Styles has lived in London for 15 years now and is a big fan of the hilly, green expanses of Hampstead Heath.

But when he started walking and running through the city itself, he fell in love with it in a different way.

“You see things from ground level that you don’t see if you’re driving. There were so many areas of London I had missed,” he says.

“And during my early days in One Direction, we spent so much time inside hotels and venues that there are countries I’ve been to that I didn’t really experience.

“So when I travel now, it’s about committing to going outdoors to see some stuff, whether that’s running or walking. You experience places in a whole different way.”

Styles takes scant credit for much of his commercial success. It’s “all about the fans, it isn’t down to me. I can’t sell out a venue—only they can do that. And there’s a producer that I work with who makes me great, and everyone who works on my team—everything that I’ve been rewarded for takes a lot of people.” Running, in a way, is the opposite of that, which provides a deeply refreshing contrast. The pursuit of creativity—making music, writing novels—can be freeing, but also loaded with pressure. An album might never feel finished, but a marathon has a fixed start and a finish line.

“Sport is so binary, and it’s all about time,” Styles says. “It’s not about me trying to top the charts, because I’m not that level of runner. But I can beat myself. Do the training and get through it.”

Styles isn’t new to running. He’d go out for some easy runs back in his 20s, but the habit didn’t stick. “Being young, I didn’t stretch enough or take care of my body, so I got injured pretty quickly,” he says.

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Now he trusts that he’ll show up. “The satisfaction comes from knowing that on the Wednesday that I felt terrible, I still got up and ran,” he says.

“I used to think that trying to run a sub-3:00 was such a specific goal, the idea of doing it in such a close time, how do you manage to keep it up throughout? But the thing that appealed to me with running was how much I could actually control it.”

He’s learning what parts he can control; pacing, for one—his splits in Berlin were nearly identical.

And fueling: “I usually drink a lot of water, but I was really scared of peeing myself during the [Berlin] Marathon, so I fueled up in the morning with a lot of electrolytes and not too much actual water, then I drank lots during the race,” he says.

As for food, “usually before every long run, I eat the biggest croissant I can find.”

What about the things he can’t control? The sheer vulnerability, the nakedness of being a known person running through the streets of London?

About that, he seems surprisingly unbothered, often clad in bright, multicolored training gear and head-turning Nike Alphaflys.

“Well, the main thing is that you’re always moving. You can turn a corner wherever,” he says. “I think with people who see me, it’s a bit more ‘Was that…?’ rather than, ‘Oh look it’s him!’ And by that time, you’re already gone.”Laura Jane CoulsonLaura Jane Coulson

NO ONE CAN RUN A MARATHON FOR YOU

HM: What I like about running is that it’s a very solitary thing, but only in a way. You’re alone, but then you’re also with other runners, with a vague kind of boundary between you.

My book about running was translated into many languages, so wherever I go in the world, if I’m on a run, other runners recognize me and call out my name. So wherever I go, I have a friend.

HS: In the first paragraph of that running book you claim it’s a well-known saying that a gentleman doesn’t talk about women he’s dated or the tax he’s paid. Then you admit you’ve just made it up, but that really people also shouldn’t talk about how they stay healthy. Haha.

It’s wonderful to start a book about running with a sense of humor. As the normal guy you said you are—not as some kind of ethereal character.

In fact I think my favorite thing about you is that I know nothing really about you, other than the work you’ve given to people. So I’m as deeply grateful for the amount that you’ve chosen to keep to yourself as for what you’ve chosen to share with us.

HM: You write music and you write the lyrics, right? That’s great. I’ve been wondering, always, what is creativity? I have been writing books, creating something, for 45 years or so, but still I don’t know what creativity is.

There is something in me, but I cannot grasp that essence at will. Because, uh, it just comes to me. And when I finish writing, it’s gone. And I wait until it comes again.

But waiting is not an easy thing. Sometimes it’s so hard, because you are not sure if it’s coming back. But you have to wait.

HS: Yeah and submitting to that waiting can feel quite passive—so perhaps the juxtaposition between that and running is what you enjoy so much.

With creativity being something that isn’t tangible, it’s subjective, but then you’ve got running in which there is a beginning and there is a finish line. There’s no finish line on being creative.

As a musician, there’s so much that I still don’t understand about what that means and what that will mean to me in years to come.

But [running is] a competition with yourself, whereas to make something and be celebrated for it externally is so much about other people deciding that they like it. It depends on them.

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HM: You have to create a foundation in order to put stuff on it. The act of running taught me many good things.

My peak as a runner was when I was 45 years old; after that, it went down. I knew there was a peak for everything, and I had to prepare for it.

But writing has no peak—I’m 77 years old, but I’m still writing, and my new novel will be published this year. This July. I just finished it. I’m very happy!

HS: Congratulations! After your book Norwegian Wood became such a huge hit [in the late 80s], was there some response, kind of like an artistic defiance there to make your next books more surreal?

And do you think any part of that was a subconscious reaction to…it becoming so popular in a way that felt unnatural to you, as someone who wanted to remain living as an ordinary person?

HM: In Japan, Norwegian Wood sold over two million copies at that time. So I was kind of depressed for a year or so because it became so popular. I don’t want to be popular.

But I recovered from the depression, and I started to write something different. So that was my turning point, I guess. But how do you think about your albums that have sold well?

HS: Yeah, I get it. I think there’s a point when you’re making something, when it feels so pure to you; a really beautiful moment where it’s finished and it’s just yours.

Then there’s almost a sadness at the handing-over. You have to let it go, like sending your kid off to school, and then it feels somewhat detached from you.

But only in the last couple years have I realized how much of people’s responses to it are not necessarily about me at all. I think I’m of less importance.

And that can be quite scary, realizing that it’s not about me, but it can also be really freeing to know actually, my job here is to just remain a person, and to keep recording that. That’s what my job is. Rather than me being supposed to deliver the answer and let everyone know what life is about.

I think there’s freedom in realizing that actually my job is to let people watch while I ask the questions. Because questions are more interesting than answers.

HM: Yeah, I feel the same thing about my books, I’m just offering the question, not the answers. There are obviously going to be critics and suchlike who say this guy’s the winner and that guy’s the winner, but I don’t like that world, so I just stay away from it. I’d rather be just running.

And I get the same vibe from you. You’re probably not the person that cares about getting awards or how many records you sold, and you probably place some more importance on, you want to live the life you want to live.

You win an award because somebody else says you’re worthy of an award, but what’s more important is what you think is of value to your life.

HS: I’m in a field in which there’s so much opinion on who’s the best, with all these rankings of who sold the most, who’s won this award—even though music is such a subjective thing and isn’t really tangible like that.

The thing that I’ve found, in the rest of my life but particularly in running, is the idea of trusting myself to do exactly what I say I’m going to do.

To say to myself, I know that you can do something difficult, and that you can get up and train when you don’t want to train, and that you’re able to push through hard things.

Having that kind of self-integrity—no one can run a marathon for you. Whereas there are a lot of people who help me make music, put the music out, put on a show and make me look good at it! But running is a conversation with myself.

Creative Director: Molly Hawkins; Produced by: Someday Studio; Executive Producer: Andrew Gallo; Executive Producer: Wyatt Whitaker; Wardrobe Stylist: Harry Lambert; Makeup Artist: Carol Dotti; Hair Stylist: Candice Birns; Set Designer: Kelly Infield; Full Stop Management: Jeffrey Azoff, Tommy Bruce, Tom Skoglund; Hand Printing: Lloyd Ramos; Post Production: Imagine.

Q:In the early days of photography, which word for a foodstuff did people say when having their picture taken?Test your knowledge

In the summer of 2024 Harry Styles was taking time out after a 22-month world tour. He had turned 30 earlier that year. Staying in a house outside Rome with his friend Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci, Styles invited Martin Parr, the British photographer and Sunday Times contributor, to capture him at home and off duty.

Parr died in December aged 73. This is the first time these photographs have been published.

Harry Styles in Italy, summer 2024, photographed by Martin Parr

MARTIN PARR / DMB

Harry Lambert: Let’s start by talking about your relationship with Martin Parr. How did these images come about?

Harry Styles: Martin is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. He’s a British icon and his photography has a sense of humour that is often lost in what is considered to be “high art”. I love his lens, the way he looks at the quieter side of British culture and sees something special. He’s the photographer that, while everyone else is doing fashion shoots, he’s taking pictures of what’s going on to the side — and he’s seeing something special in that.

The shoot came about when I spent the summer in Italy in 2024. It was a big, important, transitional moment for me — to stop working and be settled somewhere for a while. I was settling into that life and a new space. I was aware of how pivotal that time in my life was going to be and capturing it with someone like Martin felt like a fun opportunity.

The images and the shoot were never meant to be for any outside use. However, when Martin sent them I fell in love with them and he was keen to see them published. Before he passed we’d discussed offering them to The Sunday Times Magazine, a publication Martin loved.

Parr joins Styles and friends for dinner, summer 2024

COURTESY OF HARRY STYLES

When we started working together you weren’t comfortable allowing people to shoot in your private space, but you allowed Martin into your inner world, to meet your friend Alessandro. How did that feel for you?

This shoot happened at a time when I was really struggling with trying to be as private as possible. I felt like that was becoming increasingly difficult. I’m so glad that we did it. I found it really inspiring to watch Martin at work. There are a lot of people who aren’t lucky enough to enjoy what they do that much. I found how he works, his curiosity and explorative nature, really inspirational.

When I heard that Martin died I was sent a picture of him — he’d been in the mountains just three days before — and he was lying on a snowmobile with his camera, with his eyes closed. And I thought he was so in it until that very last moment. He really lived and walked the walk, doing what he loved.

Styles in Italy with Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci, now at Valentino

MARTIN PARR / DMB

I don’t think I’ve heard you say how we met. I’m intrigued to hear how you remember it.

When I moved to London I started meeting a lot of people — lots of different types of people — and it was such an eye-opening experience for me. I’d never seen people dress so differently. It blew my world up in a lot of ways. I was 19 and I realised there were parts of this that I wanted to discover for myself.

I learnt that getting dressed up can be fun, that I like wearing a suit and I like trying new looks. But I remember the first time I went back to where I grew up [Styles was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, before moving as a child to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire], wearing a pair of Chelsea boots. People were, like, “What the f*** are you wearing? They’re not football trainers.” I was ripped for wearing Chelsea boots! But from the first time we met at a pub [in 2014] and you showed me the clothes you’d brought with you, I felt like you didn’t take any of it too seriously — and that was refreshing to me.

Styles and Lambert on a photoshoot for Vogue in 2020

With Lambert at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles on February 1

STELLA BLACKMON

I remember when you went solo and I saw you at one of your first live performances. I felt you were scared, vulnerable and a bit nervous. It was the first time I’d seen you like that. Was it because of the pressure of that first performance? Did it feel like starting again?

Styles, left, with One Direction in 2011

ALAMY

Britney and the schoolgirl outfit, Elvis and his white jumpsuit, Madonna and her pointy bra… I wondered what you feel is that iconic image that you’d want people to remember you for?

Wearing a Gucci outfit on stage at Wembley Stadium as the heavens open, 2022

After Love on Tour [Styles’s world tour ran from September 2021 to July 2023] you chose to take time out — the first proper break you’d had in ten-plus years. What has life been like for you for the past two and a half years?

At the end of the tour the idea of taking time out felt insane. I didn’t know if I could do it. But it was the right time for me — we’d finished the tour in July and I was turning 30 in February. It was time for me to stop for a bit and pay some attention to other parts of my life.

Italy has become really special to me over the past few years. I drove from London to Rome during Covid, in that time when you could travel. I’d spent all my years before that touring — with little gaps in between — and if I had a week off I’d never have driven somewhere, I would have got there and back as fast as possible. Presented with this time, I drove there — and I thought, I’m going to enjoy doing this. When I was in Rome, the city just taught me how to slow down.

Italy became so important to me because I was so used to everything moving so quickly and being on the go, but then I remember going to a café and sitting and having a coffee and thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I sat down and had a coffee — if I’ve ever sat down and just had a coffee.” I was suddenly learning, through my friends, that eating a meal is more than just sitting down and refuelling. I realised the pleasure in just being in the moment of what you’re doing. The Romans are the best at that — that’s their speciality. The pace they’ve taught me has been so special.

HARRY'S COLLECTION IS HERE – HA HA HA HA!!!

And now his own fashion line: His new Gucci fashion collaboration "HA HA HA" is the cherry on top of an incredibly successful year for pop superstar Harry Styles. Sit back and enjoy the looks, along with Harry’s casual remarks on style, sex, and raising children.

THE QUESTION EVERYONE IS REALLY ASKING ABOUT HARRY STYLES RIGHT NOW: What can’t this man do? Mega singer! Super entertainer! Great actor! And as one of the boldest fashion icons on the planet (we're talking: sequin jumpsuits! pink feather boas! ruffled dresses!), it was only a matter of time before he launched his own fashion line.

As of last week, fashion fans and Harry stans can shop the HA HA HA collection – a collaboration named after the initials of Harry and Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele – and admire Mr. Styles in the brand-new campaign photos.

"I’M NOT DROPPING BREADCRUMBS OF SEXUAL AMBIGUITY"

That Harry chose Gucci, his go-to fashion house, as his partner makes total sense – the brand that regularly outfits him in flamboyant looks. “I’m so glad we finally brought this project to life,” beams Harry (28). “I’ve known Alessandro for years, and he’s always been one of my favorite people. Watching him work is truly inspiring.”

“HA HA HA” is a perfect blend of vintage and avant-garde, reflects Harry’s fashion enthusiasm, and is sure to sell like hotcakes.

Similarly fast-paced was the ticket sales for Harry’s world tour promoting his May album Harry’s House. He performed 15 (!) times at Madison Square Garden alone. Demand was so overwhelming that more shows were added for the following year.

Then there were the two films he made that practically broke the internet. The futuristic thriller Don’t Worry Darling, full of scandal (a rumored love triangle between Harry, director Olivia Wilde – also his girlfriend at the time – and lead actress Florence Pugh, plus reported crew drama). And and My Policeman, a touching drama (streaming on Prime Video) in which Harry plays a gay policeman in 1950s Brighton alongside The Crown’s Emma Corrin. With $83 million in box office earnings, it was a solid cinema success.

While critics were mixed on his experimental acting choices, the film’s content and Harry’s fashion sense drew criticism from some: In queer circles, he’s sometimes accused of queerbaiting – that is, benefiting from the aesthetics and community of LGBTQ+ people without explicitly identifying or taking a stance himself. Time and again, fans and media call for Harry to take a clear position on his sexuality.

In an interview with the British Guardian, he said:

“I’m not dropping breadcrumbs of sexual ambiguity to be more interesting. In loose clothing or album covers, it’s a decision: Who do I want to work with? What do I want to wear? It’s not about trying to look one way or another, or dressing a certain way to seem cool. Sometimes I think, sexuality is so fun. Honestly, I can’t say I’ve given it more thought than that.”