Robert Pattinson has a knack for dressing like a nice, normal guy on a press tour, whether or not he is playing a (seemingly) nice, normal guy in whatever project he is promoting at the moment. The latter appears to be true in the upcoming A24 rom-com thriller The Drama, in which he stars opposite Zendaya. Unlike his costar, who is the queen of method dressing, Pattinson’s accompanying wardrobe hasn’t taken on much thematic flare. (Following a micro-era of Frankenstein greens, Marty Supreme oranges, and Springsteen blues, it is, frankly, a welcome sight.)
In the Kristoffer Borgli-directed film, Pattinson plays a Brit named Charlie Thompson, the director of the Cambridge Arts Museum; appropriately, this character wears intellectual-looking tortoiseshell glasses, crisp windbreakers, weathered flannels, and clean leather boat shoes. He dresses, as my colleague Sasha Mutchnik once said is her preferred style for a man on a first date, a bit like an NPC. Frankly, it is not entirely distinct from the way Pattinson himself tends to dress when he’s off the clock.
This week while he was doing press in Rome, the actor wore a crisp, springtime ensemble that was a few notches up from nice and normal—an outfit I could see on a hip graphic designer or, dare I say, a downtown art director (complimentary): a herringbone work jacket with a brown leather collar over a taupe polo with a worn-out button placket, and breezy white pants that may as well have been lifted right off the album artwork for the 1999 Backstreet Boys album Millennium. An otherwise neutral look, the outfit saw a splash of color in the form of gray-and-yellow Dior “Roadie” sneaker boots.
The actor has worn Dior while carrying out his promotional duties for years—he’s one of the industry’s longest-standing celebrity brand ambassadors, having been a face of Dior Homme since 2012. But since he’s been working with stylist Taylor McNeill, he’s also been dressing a little looser, a little swaggier. McNeill is best known for her outré partnership with Timothée Chalamet, whom she has also dressed in a few pairs of breezy white pants this year: once last month, in a tactical set from the English label Adon, and again at the Academy Awards a few weeks ago, where the Oscar nominee sported a custom, all-white Givenchy suit, which featured a lofty pair of milky trousers.
(The Swedish rapper Yung Lean, another trend bellwether, also wore a great pair of baggy white trousers while performing at a musical festival in Perth, Australia last month.)
Between Rob, Timmy, and Lean, there must be some trend brewing on the slouchy, skater-boyish white pants front. For whatever it’s worth, I recently bought a glossy pair of white wide-legged drawstring pants too, and so far they feel just right for this terribly delayed spring.
