On a recent Saturday evening, the streets surrounding Madison Square Garden were thick with sequins. It was the third week of the pop megastar Harry Styles’s concert residency, which runs through September 21st, and crowds had started forming several hours before the doors were scheduled to open. Almost everyone headed to “Harry’s House” (the title of both the show and the album it promotes) had, it seemed, dressed for the occasion—being a Harry Styles fan is an aesthetic commitment as much as a musical interest. The steps of the James A. Farley Post Office, a monumental limestone edifice across the street from the Garden, were an ocean of young people in platform shoes and dramatic eye makeup, oblivious to the more mundane happenings around them. “Why are all these people dressed like freaks?” a man in a fishing T-shirt asked loudly while attempting to navigate the glittery gantlet along Eighth Avenue.
Embracing the residency format is a canny move for Styles: tickets to the fifteen nights of shows sold out within hours of their release, and many showgoers planned to be there for more than one performance. Styles’s devotees span ages and genders but are on average youthful and feminine, and they speak of him with a possessiveness that comes from having grown up alongside him. In 2010, after Styles auditioned for the seventh season of the British talent-spotlight show “The X-Factor,” producers packaged him together with four other aspiring singers to form the boy band One Direction, a Voltron of sparkly smiles and indie haircuts that created near-Beatlemania levels of adulation. The breakout star of the bunch, Styles débuted as a solo artist seven years later and has since cultivated a persona that balances spectacle with expertly packaged intimacy: feather boas, soul-deep eye contact, lyrics that gesture at a frank and very un-boy-band-like interest in matters of sexual pleasure.
As the sun started to set and the hour of the show neared, the energy outside the Garden intensified, and cheers rose up whenever Styles’s name appeared on the monumental LCD screens above each door. His fans seemed unfazed by the tabloid frenzy surrounding Styles’s involvement in the movie “Don’t Worry Darling,” whose production had been plagued by rumors of off-camera drama and intra-talent feuds. After the show that night, Styles would be flying to Italy to help début the movie at the Venice International Film Festival, where he would pour gasoline on the gossip inferno by appearing to spit in the lap of his co-star Chris Pine. (Reps for both parties denied any instance of nonconsensual expectoration.) At around 7 P.M., the doors to Madison Square Garden opened, and the crowd surged indoors. Outside, brightly colored feathers, shed from hundreds of boas, danced along the sidewalk like the most cheerful of tumbleweeds.
Sophie Lopez, 24, music business development, and Nicole Lindblom, 24, engineering student, Miami.
Tell me about your outfits.
S.L.: We decided we’re going to spend the night at Harry’s House, so what better way to do that than in pajamas?
N.L.: We knew this was the vibe instantaneously.
Nisha Rajamohan, 24, genetic toxicologist, Warwick, Rhode Island.
Did you really give up a prosthesis for these tickets?
No way. A real one is way more expensive than concert tickets.
Kaitlyn Mahan, 20, makeup artist, and Molly Cannon, 20, student, Philadelphia.
Are you following the “Don’t Worry Darling” drama?
K.M.: It’s crazy. The whole Florence Pugh thing! People are saying Harry and Olivia broke up, which I’m not sure about.
Will you see the movie?
K.M.: Probably not in theatres. I’ll wait until it’s on HBO Max or something. I think, for Harry, the acting is just something fun for him to do. I hope he sticks to music mainly.
Dejia Solomon, 18, college student, Long Island, New York.
I’m here with my friend. This is our last hangout before I’ll be gone for a few months, to college.
Why did you choose this show for your farewell hangout?
We saw Harry together in November, but we weren’t really friends. But after we saw the show—that’s what made us become so close. It was everything: coming together, enjoying the music.
Kurt Vernon, 57, gastroenterologist, and Kara Vernon, 15, high-school student, Cary, North Carolina.
Kara: My dad was, like, “We’re doing something on September 3rd.” He didn’t tell me what.
How long did you manage to keep the secret?
Kurt: Three days, until she figured it out. Her brother lives up here, so I was going to tell her we were going to New York to see him.
Are you really besties?
Kurt: I’ve got the bracelet to prove it.
Kara: I made it for him for Father’s Day.
You give him a bracelet, he gives you a Harry Styles show.
Kurt: We’re even now.
Micah Williams, 20, dancer, Chicago.
Is this a “Clueless” skirt?
It’s Harry’s 2021 Grammys look!
Oh, I can’t believe I missed that reference.
My friend and I actually had a terrible night that night, and so we decided we’re going to make good outfits based on it. We’re going to reclaim that night.
What made the night so bad?
I absolutely cannot say.
Kyle Hamberger, 19, college student, Syracuse, New York, and Mandy Condes (reflected in Hamberger’s glasses), college student, 18, Verona, New York.
M.C.: I put his outfit together. It’s out of his comfort zone, but I’m really glad he let me do it.
How do you feel wearing it?
K.H.: I actually feel pretty great.
Jakayla Hardy, 18, recent high-school graduate, New York City.
What’s it like to go to a show on your own?
I make concert friends! My closest friends don’t really listen to this music, so they wouldn’t have come with me anyway.
Kendal Haffner, 18, nanny and professional axe thrower, and Kerri Haffner, 46, nanny, Bangor, Pennsylvania.
Which one of you was a fan first?
Kendal: I started it, and then I sort of forced it upon my mom, so I’d have a best friend to take me to the shows.
Kerri: It wasn’t hard. I developed a love because his music is great.
What was the first song you got into?
Kerri: “Falling” is the one that touched my heart the most. I have three daughters, one of whom deals with a lot of emotional issues, so that song really got to me.
Emre Sevindik, 21, retail worker and photographer, and Ashley Arellano, 25, denim fabric assistant, New York City.
A.A.: I’m wearing one of Harry Styles’s ’fits that he wore during his Kraków concert. He had the striped top, white leather pants, and then he had the Gucci shoes—
E.S.: The red Adidas Gazelles.
Are you also wearing a Harry look?
E.S.: Yeah, I’m wearing a Stockholm ’fit. I did the rhinestones myself—hopefully they don’t fall off.
Michayla Bedell, 20, barista and singer, Charlotte, North Carolina.
My friend dragged me to this show, but I’m thriving. I love it here. I’m in a metal band, so Harry Styles is one of my more out-there musical interests.
You could do a cover of a Harry song.
My band has talked about doing “Kiwi.” It’s already pretty upbeat. All we have to do is change the tuning—the energy is there.
Juan Rosado, 53, project manager, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
I like your pearls.
My daughters did that to me.
Adrianna Radicioni, 15, and Kiersten Effrece, 16, high-school students, Philadelphia.
How did you get here today?
A.R.: My dad drove us. He went out to dinner.
Heather Massa, 41, Pilates instructor, and Autumn Massa, 14, high-school student, West Babylon, New York.
Heather: I was going to come in jeans.
Autumn: I was, like, “You can’t wear jeans!” I told her she needed to get a feather boa, too.
Where do you go to get a boa on short notice?
Heather: Party City, it turns out.
Dan Pelosi, 40, food and life-style creator, Brooklyn.
Are you a mom?
I’m not a biological mother, but I have a serious maternal instinct, and many people in my life refer to me as Mom.
Who are you here with tonight?
I’m here with my nieces and my sister. They have this thing that’s basically the Santa tracker, but for Harry Styles, and it tells people where Harry is exactly at any moment. They know he’s going to Venice right after this.
Are they up on all the gossip?
Oh, definitely. They’re fifteen and thirteen. I was being careful about how much to bring up with them, because I didn’t really want to have conversations about sex and things. I’m treading lightly.
Isabella Patterson, 20, college student, Nashville.
What are you expecting tonight?
I think this is going to be the best night of my life. ♦
Sourse: newyorker.com
