Same Styles! Copy of Harry’s cardi winds up in the V&A
HIS penchant for pearls and periwinkle gowns cemented his status as a fashion icon.
But it was a patchwork cardigan worn by Harry Styles that truly captured the imagination of his fans, with thousands attempting to create their own versions of the colourful top on social media.
And one of those replicas has become so renowned in its own right that it has even gone on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Liv Huffman’s recreation is being displayed alongside the original JW Anderson design worn by Styles, 27.
The former One Direction star had donned the flamboyant knitwear at a rehearsal for US broadcaster NBC’s Today show in February last year.
And the Colourblock Patchwork Cardigan – comprising yellow, green, red and orange squares with blue trim and black buttons – was then recreated by the crochet enthusiast, 23, in a video on social media site TikTok in June last year. It garnered 3.8million views, sparked the hashtag #HarryStylesCardigan and inspired thousands to create their own versions for themselves or occasionally even for their pets. The original woollen design – priced at £1,250 – was part of Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson’s Spring/Summer 2020 men’s collection. Recalling the frenzied reaction, Mr Anderson said: ‘I started noticing a lot of girls posting these cardigans and naturally I was like, “Wow this phenomenon is happening on TikTok” – [there were] a group of girls starting to knit this sweater and it was like an avalanche.’
Speaking on BBC series Secrets of the Museum, he recalled how he later put a how-to tutorial video of the sewing pattern on YouTube. ‘I felt we should just give out the original pattern,’ he said.
‘We had it on our website and you could download it and it ended up crashing the website.’
The V&A has Britain’s national collection of textiles and fashion, featuring items dating from Egypt 5,000 years ago up to the present day. It includes a dress worn by Princess Diana to a fashion event in 1989 and the ornately embroidered wool suit made for King James II’s wedding in 1673. Speaking about Miss Huffman’s design, V&A’s fashion curator Oriole Cullen said: ‘It really is an unprecedented fashion phenomenon.’