Timothee Chalamet has broken the ceiling on the fashion world as we know it by becoming the first man to appear solo on the cover of British Vogue since its inception in 1916.
Hot on the tails of Harry Styles’s solo pose on the cover of US Vogue in 2020, the British magazine’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful said he had been waiting “for the moment to feel right”.
Capturing the 26-year-old actor as “modern man incarnate, as an actor and as a person” Enninful feels that Chalamet’s cover shoot is timely and inclusive, stating “When we began talking about the possibility of this cover several months ago, it became immediately apparent that Timothee is just Timothee.
Neither tooled nor marketed by the Hollywood and fashion machines to appeal to teens or grandmothers, women or men, he is simply himself. He is a man for everybody.
And so here he is, a young actor at the peak of his early career, who calls to mind the Deans and DiCaprios of past decades, but with a relationship to a new generation that dismantles old-fashioned notions of masculinity as a matter of course.”
The photos were taken by Steven Meisel, best known for his work in American Vogue as well as his photographs of Madonna for her prolific 1992 book, Sex.
Chalamet has said that these new British Vogue pics are his favourite to date, and that becoming the first man to appear on the magazine’s cover is “extraordinary. And weird. And just an honour”.
In an accompanying interview with the mag, Chalamet reminisced about the time when he met briefly met Leonardo DiCaprio in 2018, whom he credits for giving him the best career advice: “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.”
He also opened up about Covid, the lockdown, and it forced him to grow up. “When COVID hit, it required me to take a step back and be humbled to the idea that the greatest rock star…No, I don’t want to use that word, sorry, sorry. Scratch ‘rock star’.
“But (everyone has to) deal with, like, taxes and the dentist and real adulting, you know? I should have been trying to get my adult feet under myself a little bit earlier than I did.
Timothee Chalamet is set to star in the upcoming Willy Wonka prequel, a musical about the Charlie And The Chocolate Factory character’s early life which is to be released next year.
See the full feature in the October issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 20 September.
