It’s no secret that Timothée Chalamet is easily one of young Hollywood’s most fashion-savvy stars. Even if he had worn a shirt at this year’s Oscars, the biggest pre-show story of the night might still have revolved around Chalamet’s outfit. In an unpredictable and brilliant move, he wore a cropped, sequin blazer by Louis Vuitton’s womenswear designer Nicolas Ghesquière, who has dressed generations of brainy cool-girls the world over. It felt like the culmination of Chalamet’s rise as one of our time’s most devoted fashion enthusiasts, a journey that has sparked memorable collaborations with Stella McCartney, the artist-turned-designer Sterling Ruby, Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, and the late Virgil Abloh. He’s not just been wearing meme-able outfits—he’s been deepening his relationship with and appreciation for fashion’s most compelling minds.
Which makes the clothes Chalamet wears away from photo calls all the more interesting.
At last weekend’s edition of Coachella, which has become such a fit bonanza it has spawned its own genre of “festival style,” Chalamet showed up looking about as regular as possible. On one day, he wore black combat boots, slim Prada Linea Rossa joggers, a large white long sleeve Supreme T-shirt, and a sun-faded Chelsea FC hat. The only indication that he might be a celebrity, and not a PA for Brockhampton’s seventh-most-famous member, was his Cartier glasses and diamond rings. (He’s been a “friend of the house” since last year.) Another fit, which he wore to the influencer-palooza known as Revolve Festival, was slightly flashier, and a bit sloppier: along with the same hat and shades, Chalamet wore an Encore Records graphic tee, long flame-emblazoned basketball shorts, and cooked white Chuck Taylors. A nice outfit if you’re a USC fraternity pledge, and a funny one if you’re Timmy Chalamet, who seems dangerously close to wearing the ultimate in irony-pilled garments: Guy Fieri’s infamous flame shirt.
Elsewhere, Chalamet looks more like a Gallatin student on a hungover bagel run. He tends to wear slim track pants, and what I’d call Weird Sneakers—ersatz versions of classic designs, like these Tretorn high-tops. He is also fond of roomy hoodies, and is often pictured wearing light transitional outerwear like windbreakers, fleeces, and nylon shells. His graphic T-shirt collection rivals that of any high schooler in the greater New York metropolitan area. There is nothing wrong with Chalamet’s fits, to be clear. As most of us were reminded during the pandemic, normal clothes are great. His style isn’t basic, or worse try-hard—it’s simply kind of random. Call it Timmy’s post-swag era.
This puts him in a class all his own. Most young, hot celebrities tend to embrace big time fashion glow-ups as soon as paparazzi start tracking their every move. When Jacob Elordi popped off on Euphoria, his wardrobe of Aussie surfer chillness was completely Celine-ified overnight. Ashton Sanders, maybe one of the only young actors more obsessed with fashion than Chalamet, has some of the most wacky and original personal style not just in Hollywood but anywhere.
It’s not like Chalamet doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing, stylewise: Remember, this was the guy who, as soon as he could have been dressed by any luxury house on the planet, became an acolyte of menswear’s great unsung romanticist Haider Ackermann (who calls Timmy his “little bro”). Who developed a friendship with Abloh, and wore some of his most daring early designs for Louis Vuitton Men’s back when the establishment was still unsure of what to make of the late designer’s first collections for the house. Who did all that, proudly, without having a stylist. Chalamet has proven he’s got a keen sense of visual messaging. So what to make of his post-swag era?
Maybe we’re catching Chalamet on off days. When he’s trying to go incognito. If you couldn’t go outside for a cold brew without starting a riot, you might also throw on Adidas sweats, an Eddie Bauer jacket, your favorite tie-dye hoodie, and a ball cap (pulled low over your eyes) before leaving the house. He certainly wouldn’t be the first celebrity to put on a disguise before hitting the town.
I asked one of Twitter’s foremost Timothée Chalamet fit-ologists, Haroon Ayub, if they had any insight. Ayub, who once compiled a Twitter thread of every time Chalamet has worn Stella McCartney garments, sees Chalamet’s Coachella fits as geared toward comfort. “Even in places where he likely knows he will be spotted (such as Coachella), the fits are far more casual and focused on practicality” than you might expect, Ayub says, citing the juxtaposition between Chalamet’s flame shorts and diamond Cartier jewelry as “striking.” In fact, Ayub sees plenty worth celebrating in Chalamet’s wardrobe, like a “sense of eccentricity” and boyishness that you don’t often see from other celebrities.
Maybe the reason we don’t see other celebrities dressing like Chalamet is because he is actually onto something. Perhaps he’s tired of the internet spiraling out of control every time he wears a big fit. There’s never been more discourse around what famous people—particularly famous men—wear as there is right now. Perhaps Chalamet has found a sense of freedom in dressing as regular as possible. There is something almost aspirational about his anti-style: in an era where you don’t have to be famous to feel relentlessly perceived the second you step outside, the idea of simply not caring about what you wear can feel strangely compelling. It was certainly disarming when Chalamet showed up to the 2021 Met Gala in sweatpants and Chuck Taylors under a creamy white Haider Ackermann dinner jacket. Timmy called it an homage to Mr. Taylor, but it also felt like a throwback to the sincere spirit of the ’90s, when celebrity outfits embodied comfort and cool.
Plenty of other celebrities have gone post-swag before him. For every Jonah Hill, whose sense of personal style has blossomed into something rare and beautiful over the course of his career, there is a Leonardo DiCaprio, whose closet seems to consist of a few pairs of cargo shorts, some graphic tees, and a bunch of baseball caps—and who seems to almost revel in his post-swag freedom. As it stands, Chalamet, who starred in Don’t Look Up alongside both actors, seems way more likely to inherit Leo’s off-duty style mantle than Hill’s.
Or maybe there’s an even simpler answer. Perhaps Chalamet has realized his major red carpet moments are made all that more impactful when they’re just that: moments.
