We Need To Talk About Brad Pitt’s New Look

Despite having a full head of hair, as a 58-year-old male of the species, Brad Pitt is now well into Official Mid-Life Crisis Territory. Unfortunately for him, however, he already has a six-pack and a motorbike (several of them, in fact) which means that should he find himself questioning his mortality, virility and status, those particular clichés have already been ticked off years ago.

But why bother with a mid-life crisis when you can have a mid-life makeover? This isn’t a crisis, it’s a renaissance! Welcome to the Brad Pitt: Fashion Boy era we now find ourselves in – and, may I say, what a delight it is to be here.

To be very, very, very clear: Brad Pitt is very, very, very good looking. He is objectively hot. I don’t think many people, whatever their sexual preferences and proclivities, would dispute that. He is a genetically modified Fit Person, an obvious crush, but with enough spirit and substance to not be too basic a crush. He both looks his age and doesn’t at all – which is appropriate for a man who has played both an immortal 20-something (1994’s Interview with the Vampire) and a person who literally ages backwards (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008).

But like a lot of very, very, very good looking men, Pitt has had the privilege of playing it safe with clothes for a long-time. His looks? Classic red-carpet tuxedos, or the off-duty LA dad look of battered jeans and lumberjack shirts. That is, until now.

For the Bullet Train press tour, Pitt has debuted his most experimental wardrobe to date, finally embracing his architecture and design-obsessed side via his clothes.  Wearing a series of looks by private-label designer Haans Nicholas Mott, it’s a look straight out of the art dude playbook: contrasting stitching, raw edges, odd colours (peach! Apple green!), funky suits with sneakers (Adidas x Gucci the latest) like you’d see at any private view. It’s lo-fi yet luxury. It is brilliant. And let’s not forget The Skirt. In the ultimate display of secure masculinity, Brad Pitt – the most alpha of leading men – wore an actual skirt.

A cadre of the A-list’s young guns – Harry Styles, A$AP Rocky, Lakeith Stanfield, Nabhaan Rizwan, Timothée Chalamet – are already familiar with taking red carpet risks. They aren’t averse with trying anything. Dresses and harnesses, plunging jumpsuits and feather boas? Bring it on. In the process they have helped broaden our narrow, copy-and-paste definition of masculinity. Still, what a delight to see Pitt join them.

The mid-life makeover is not new territory (consider post-divorce Jeff Bezos in his lairy shirts and too-tight trousers). But what keeps Pitt in epic-not-tragic territory is that he appears to be doing it so firmly on his own terms. He does not seem desperate to pursue youth or status or women via his clothes. You get the impression he is not trying to be something he is not (i.e. younger) but using clothes as a tool to show who he really is.

In keeping things interesting, fun even, Pitt is revelling in the sartorial liberation that should come with age. As he told Variety of the inspiration behind the skirt look: ‘I don’t know! We’re all going to die, so let’s mess it up’.