Why We Love Harry Styles in a Dress

While 2020 was indescribably horrendous, it's fair to say that Harry Styles's Vogue cover was truly the highlight of the year. As soon as Tyler Mitchell's photos of Styles in a Gucci gown graced my Twitter feed, they served as my lock screen for the month of December. My best friend, Kayla- who I first bonded with over our love of One Direction when we were 15 years old- and I threw our masks on and checked every drug store in Astoria to find a copy. We had no luck. Even the Barnes and Noble in Union Square (which is highly romanticized on TikTok these days) couldn't come through for us.

Of course, I ended up subscribing to Vogue for the year in order to get a copy. During a time when everything was on a screen, I needed to hold that serotonin boost in my hands. Of all of the history we don't want to remember, Harry Styles becoming the first man to grace the cover of this magazine alone is a piece of the puzzle we shouldn't forget.

I'm sure my professor and my colleagues in my graduate level course thought it was a bit silly when we logged onto our Zoom class and I announced that Harry Styles was on the cover of Vogue. And I embarrassed myself even further when my professor asked to see a picture from the photoshoot and I immediately showed her my lock screen. And while this might be typical Becca behavior that none of my friends are surprised by, it was definitely a random way to greet my peers. But I wasn't alone in this hyper-fixation. Not only did stores sell out within hours of putting out the issue, but the internet was flooded with Harry Styles in all his glory posing in a powder blue gown.

If you're out of this realm, you might be wondering why on earth we all flipped out. Sure, maybe we've gone a little stir crazy during the pandemic and will take any amount of sunshine we can get. But why did this cover boost our serotonin so much more than every other photoshoot he's done?

The thing I find the most attractive about Harry Styles is not his hair, or his eyes, or any of the other attributes our society considers definitive of beauty. Harry has this authentic way about him and he dares to show the world every part of himself. In his Vogue interview, he says, "when you take away 'there's clothes for men and there's clothes for women,' once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play". Harry Styles is so over these bizarre social constructs that have tried to define him from the day he was born.

And that my friends, is really f*cking hot.

You see, it's not that man + dress = instant sex appeal. While some men, like Harry, rock it, we've all seen those outdated Disney Channel gags where Cole Sprouse or another *fill the blank teen heartthrob* throws on a pageant dress for shits and giggles. It's the fact that he so publicly gives the middle finger to toxic masculinity is what we find so attractive. I get the same feeling when I see Luke Hemmings throw on some eye shadow or the rest of his bands paint their nails. It's the practice of being countercultural and completely owning it, even when you know showing your true colors will come at a price.

It's so basic of me to say that "the sexiest thing you can be is sexy", but no matter how many times we say it, there's always someone that just doesn't understand. This issue of Vogue naturally came with backlash; a whole lot of were people confused as to why Harry would pose in a gown AND why we all love him for it. But quite frankly, if more people took a page out of Harry's book and put their true selves on display (and treated people with kindness while doing it, too)...then I think the world would be a lot more attractive.

Photos by Tyler Mitchell for Vogue, December 2020