Harry Styles: ‘I’ve learnt how to slow down’
After a 22-month world tour and turning 30, Harry Styles took a moment to reflect and recharge in the summer of 2024. He spent time in a house outside Rome with his friend Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci. During this period, Styles invited British photographer Martin Parr to capture his life off duty and at home. This marks the first time these photographs have been published.
In an interview with Harry Lambert, his friend and stylist, Styles opens up about his relationship with Martin Parr, marathon running, his newfound appreciation for slowing down, and his decision to delete Instagram. The conversation delves into Styles' personal growth, his iconic image, and the importance of taking time for oneself.
Harry Lambert: Let’s start by talking about your relationship with Martin Parr. How did these images come about?
Harry Styles: Martin is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. He’s a British icon, and his photography has a sense of humor that is often lost in what is considered to be “high art”. I love his lens, the way he looks at the quieter side of British culture and sees something special. He’s the photographer that, while everyone else is doing fashion shoots, he’s taking pictures of what’s going on to the side — and he’s seeing something special in that.
The shoot came about when I spent the summer in Italy in 2024. It was a big, important, transitional moment for me — to stop working and be settled somewhere for a while. I was settling into that life and a new space. I was aware of how pivotal that time in my life was going to be and capturing it with someone like Martin felt like a fun opportunity.
The images and the shoot were never meant to be for any outside use. However, when Martin sent them I fell in love with them and he was keen to see them published. Before he passed we’d discussed offering them to The Sunday Times Magazine, a publication Martin loved.
When we started working together you weren’t comfortable allowing people to shoot in your private space, but you allowed Martin into your inner world, to meet your friend Alessandro. How did that feel for you?
This shoot happened at a time when I was really struggling with trying to be as private as possible. I felt like that was becoming increasingly difficult. I’m so glad that we did it. I found it really inspiring to watch Martin at work. There are a lot of people who aren’t lucky enough to enjoy what they do that much. I found how he works, his curiosity and explorative nature, really inspirational.
When I heard that Martin died I was sent a picture of him — he’d been in the mountains just three days before — and he was lying on a snowmobile with his camera, with his eyes closed. And I thought he was so in it until that very last moment. He really lived and walked the walk, doing what he loved.
I don’t think I’ve heard you say how we met. I’m intrigued to hear how you remember it.
When I moved to London I started meeting a lot of people — lots of different types of people — and it was such an eye-opening experience for me. I’d never seen people dress so differently. It blew my world up in a lot of ways. I was 19 and I realized there were parts of this that I wanted to discover for myself.
I learned that getting dressed up can be fun, that I like wearing a suit and I like trying new looks. But I remember the first time I went back to where I grew up [Styles was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, before moving as a child to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire], wearing a pair of Chelsea boots. People were, like, “What the f*** are you wearing? They’re not football trainers.” I was ripped for wearing Chelsea boots! But from the first time we met at a pub [in 2014] and you showed me the clothes you’d brought with you, I felt like you didn’t take any of it too seriously — and that was refreshing to me.
I remember when you went solo and I saw you at one of your first live performances. I felt you were scared, vulnerable and a bit nervous. It was the first time I’d seen you like that. Was it because of the pressure of that first performance? Did it feel like starting again?
When you’re in a band with four other people, there’s so much room to hide. There’s only ever so much weight that’s on your shoulders. The first couple of times on stage [without One Direction], I’d think, “What do I do with my hands?” But I also felt very alone all of a sudden. I was lucky to have the opportunity where people were interested in what I was going to make, but I put a lot of that pressure on myself, wanting it to be correct. With that first album [Harry Styles in 2017] I was trying to explore what music I would make by myself, but in that moment I felt there were a lot of people who had put faith in me and I didn’t want to disappoint people or let them down.
Britney and the schoolgirl outfit, Elvis and his white jumpsuit, Madonna and her pointy bra… I wondered what you feel is that iconic image that you’d want people to remember you for?
For me it was the jumpsuit with the red hearts and the white T-shirt underneath that I wore at Wembley Stadium. When you move at such a fast pace there’s always the question of, “Am I enjoying this enough?” During that show, that fear left my body and there was a sense of calm. I could see my parents dancing together and in the encore, when we played Sign of the Times, it started raining and it was as though we’d paid for the rain. It was perfect timing. I remember having a massive smile on my face. I thought, “How can I ask for any more joy?” I felt so full in that moment. I felt like I was flying.
After Love on Tour [Styles’s world tour ran from September 2021 to July 2023] you chose to take time out — the first proper break you’d had in ten-plus years. What has life been like for you for the past two and a half years?
At the end of the tour the idea of taking time out felt insane. I didn’t know if I could do it. But it was the right time for me — we’d finished the tour in July and I was turning 30 in February. It was time for me to stop for a bit and pay some attention to other parts of my life.
Italy has become really special to me over the past few years. I drove from London to Rome during Covid, in that time when you could travel. I’d spent all my years before that touring — with little gaps in between — and if I had a week off I’d never have driven somewhere, I would have got there and back as fast as possible. Presented with this time, I drove there — and I thought, I’m going to enjoy doing this. When I was in Rome, the city just taught me how to slow down.
Italy became so important to me because I was so used to everything moving so quickly and being on the go, but then I remember going to a café and sitting and having a coffee and thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I sat down and had a coffee — if I’ve ever sat down and just had a coffee.” I was suddenly learning, through my friends, that eating a meal is more than just sitting down and refueling. I realized the pleasure in just being in the moment of what you’re doing. The Romans are the best at that — that’s their speciality. The pace they’ve taught me has been so special.
Also, in that time my sister [Gemma] had a baby — and at any other time in my life I would have missed a lot of that. To be there to get to know my niece as she’s growing up, it’s so obvious to me what’s real. It was really obvious that was where I wanted to be.
I remember bumping into you in a street in London last year and it felt like I’d met a different person. We went for a walk and there was a sense of lightness in you that I’d not seen before. Has something changed?
I’d always thought, or hoped, that I was the kind of person who didn’t need the dopamine hits that doing this job often gives you. But I hadn’t actually removed myself from it and it’s hard to eliminate the doubt that maybe if it all went away, I’d really miss it. That’s always been a fear for me. So living my life in a way where I could really like who I am away from this world has been so powerful for me. Without question that has influenced the work I’m now making because it came from a place of pure freedom.
It was important to get away from the image I had of myself. Since I was young I’d been seeing this version of me that other people see and that was constantly being mirrored back at me. That’s especially the case in the way we use social media now — for everyone — and I’m not immune to that. In having time away from everything, it’s allowed me to have conversations with myself on a deeper level that I didn’t have time to explore before.
I’ve made small changes, like not having Instagram on my phone any more. I feel so much healthier in my relationship with this world that I’m stepping back into.
It seems this new-found freedom included running marathons around the world [Styles ran a time of 2hr 59min under the name Sted Sarandos at the Berlin Marathon in September]. Has running been an important part of this time for you?
Since I was 16 I’d always had some sort of schedule or structure to my life. A part of this time was learning how to not be working all the time. Having a constant schedule is not natural, but doing nothing isn’t natural either. So I wanted to do something where I could achieve something that would fulfill me and give me some sense of structure, but in a way that wasn’t work. I used to run in my early twenties and wanted to do a marathon, but being young I didn’t stretch well enough and didn’t look after my body, so I ended up not doing it.
As I was approaching my 30th birthday, I thought it was only going to get harder to start running again. I knew I could approach it in a better way now. So it was healthy for me to have something as an outlet that gave me some structure in a moment where I was spending a lot of time by myself. It showed me that I could do difficult things by myself. Running wasn’t about being perfect, or the best, and it has been really rewarding.
Running a sub-three-hour marathon in Berlin in September
That leads us back to Martin Parr capturing this time in your life through these images.
Martin captured a chapter of my life that will always be important to me. I was learning how to slow down. That’s why these pictures that we took and this album — which is an audio representation of a long diary entry — are so special. How lucky am I to have these recorded versions of that couple of years of my life? And going into this next chapter I’m very excited for the tour, but if we were only doing two shows and my niece and sister were there watching me, that would be as fulfilling as I need it to be. And, when I listen back to the album, I can hear that I was having fun during this time. It’s fulfilling to make something you’re proud of.
Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is released on March 6. The Last Resort 40 Years On, an exhibition of Martin Parr’s photographs from New Brighton, opens at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol on February 20.
