Famous people: they're not like us! Don't be deceived by the mistakes they make (like normal people) and the average life cycle of cradle to grave (like normal people), because famous people aren't like normal people. They are just like one another, though. The titans are united in their classic tuxes and baseball caps pulled over chins at the supermarket. But the new gen like to do things differently, swimming with the tide of Wow That's Unusual and drawing up menswear outside the lines of what famous men should look and dress and act like.
Take Timothée Chalamet and Harry Styles. They're both blessed with a lick of cherubim curls, yes. They're also both into knitwear, too; the big, colourful kind you once saw on nursery school teachers that like wooden beads and talking to children as if they're hosting a live ASMR recording. Which sounds jarring. But for 2020, these slouchy, Balamory throw-ons are cooler, better-crafted and, unlike most big trends, they don't take themselves too seriously. It's just a bit of fun, friend. Clothes should be fun!
What's more, like all good celebrities born post-1992, such moments were made via the magical, maddening world of social media. For Chalamet, it was Instagram: a mirror selfie, resplendent in a white vest, and an oversized emerald cardigan complete with varsity stripes and white floating mallards. And for Styles, it was TikTok. Not that the former Directioneer was hosting a make-up tutorial to a tropical house remix of Taylor Swift. Rather, the star's choice of JW Anderson – first worn during an appearance on The Today Show earlier in the year – propelled TikTokkers (TikTokites? TikTokonians?) en masse to knit their own version.
The move towards technicolour knitwear isn't a total anomaly, though. Salvatore Ferragamo, Marni and Hermes were but three brands to showcase reimagined cardigans for A/W '20 – the latter in particular going for play group knits that dialled primary-coloured geometrics down with neutral bases. And though Gucci is well-known for Grand Budapest spectacle, the autumn season saw creative director Alessandro Michele go decidedly Cobain. If farm yard animals and Play-Doh shades are too much, this is a permissible route for you also.
Because, as it turns out, there is one way to be like the denizens of the Hollywood hills. You may not have a publicist, and you may not have a face on a billboard by Heathrow, but you can have one big and cool and colourful kumbaya cardigan. Just like them.
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