The Art of Evolving Your Personal Brand
He’s the award-winning rockstar with an adorable accent, wild androgynous fashion, and artful tattoos. He’s the next Mick Jagger or David Bowie.
No! He’s the wonderful actor from Dunkirk who is set to be in that psychological thriller next fall! He’s dating the film’s director who is ten years older than him.
You’re wrong; he’s the cutie pie singer from The X Factor who got grouped into that boy band by Simon Cowell.
If you haven’t guessed yet – all the voices in my head are talking about the same human. Each one of these identities belongs to the incredible Harry Styles, who teaches all about how you can evolve your personal brands to stay fresh.
It’s true that 28-year-old Harry Styles first came onto the scene when he auditioned for the X Factor…and was quickly eliminated. This marks his first shapeshifting: following his boot from the show, he was brough back to join the boy band one Direction, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands in history. Now if the story ended here, it would have been an incredible one! Random contestant on singing competition reality show gets catapulted into top tier fame!? It’s amazing!
So when the boy band fizzled, as they so often do, I expected that to be the last of Harry and the gang (and for many of the other boys, it was). But boy was I wrong! After taking some time to really think about who he wanted to be as an individual, as an artist, and a future icon, Styles went on to release a self-titled solo album in 2017 (one of the top ten best globally that year) and introduced himself as a nascent fashion star. He started wearing suits embroidered with dragons, skirts and dresses, nail polish. It was wild and different for the time, and people LOVED it!
Harry Styles’ style has become an entrenched part of his evolving personal brand. It has helped us see him apart from One Direction. Honestly, it’s hard to even REMEMBER that he was in a boy band in the first place, which is an incredible feat. And now with the release of his third album, his clothing has become even more iconic, flamboyant, and eclectic. Through the album, Harry’s House, we see a more mature rock musician dressing in predominantly vintage styles that have individuated him even further. His new looks are kookier, more playful, and feature very bright colors. He looks like a trendy candy striper half the time!
Harry has utilized fashion to direct how he wants us to see him. And in our case, there are so many tools we can use to evolve our own personal brands and styles beyond just fashion. We have our social media presence, how we sign off our emails, where we host our birthday parties. Harry’s evolution inspires me, because it reminds me that we always get to write the story of how we want to be seen so we can always stay in style.
