Yahoo Finance Timothée Chalamet’s red carpet looks: from Call-Me-By-Your-Name-core to fully fledged Wonka Kardashian
Watch — just watch — as the world becomes Timothée Chalamet’s chocolate factory once again, for the wave of Wonka hysteria has arrived.
As the candy-coated press tour hit London at the start of December (and the global premieres continue), Chalamet is doubling down on his role as fashion’s favourite leading man: his shirtless torso was confined for too many months.
It has been a winding journey to his current candycore iteration — from Call Me By Your Name polo shirts through to headline hitting halter-necks. Here’s how the 27-year-old got there.
The prologue
Yes, Chalamet existed before the Call Me By Your Name x Lady Bird starship departed. Having popped up in a handful of short films and appearing in television series Homeland, he made his feature film debut in Jason Reitman's drama Men, Women & Children (2014). Cue the striped Uniqlo-cum-Gap style polo necks and asymmetric shredded skinny jeans.
Aside from knitwear from the kids section, Prom-style black suits were Chalamet’s port-of-call, and continued well into the press tour of Christopher Nolan's science fiction epic Interstellar (2014), in which the actor also featured.
Call Me By Your Name
So far, so heterosexual teenage boy. Then came Call Me By Your Name (2017), Luca Guadagnino’s chicken soup for the soul gay love story which put Chalamet on the map. In 2018, the then 21-year-old was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Elio.
Call it Chalamet’s style coming of age: at the Berlin photo call for the film, in February 2017, his purple, suede shirt-jacket, with turned up cuffs worn with narrow suit trousers cut just above the ankle and finished with subtle black boot — a look from Berluti’s AW17 catwalk, designed by Haider Ackermann — we saw the makings of the marvel. It’s a slender silhouette he would hold tight to in the years to come.
Haider Ackermann — he can fix it!
His distinct whiff of individualism continued into 2018: Chalamet opted for a gauche, all-white Berluti suit and tie to the Oscars, also designed by Ackermann. To Chalamet’s blessing, this was only the start of a fruitful partnership between himself and the Colombian-born French designer. They went on to work on parts of the press tour of Chalamet’s next feature film, Beautiful Boy (2018).
At its Toronto Film Festival premiere, Ackermann dressed Chalamet in a slim-cut dark suit with charming white blossom print. A month later, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Awards, it was an inverted lapel blazer with curved white detailing.
Ackermann was behind the striking co-ord Chalamet wore at The King premiere during the 2019’s Venice Film Festival — a grey satin suit with a double-belted waist, worn with a shining cowl neck shirt which winded the internet — second only to the Louis Vuitton harness he opted for (alongside his mother) at the Oscars that year.
The designer was also responsible for the star’s 2021 Met Gala look — a cropped white satin, double breasted jacket and tracksuit bottoms, and the pair went on to release a co-designed hoodie for Afghan women’s rights that same year.
Film festival special
“Timothée! Timothée! Timothée!" So shrieked the crowds as Chalamet swaggered onto Dune’s red carpet at the Venice Film Festival alongside Zendaya, sparkling in a padded shoulder, black crystal encrusted Ackerman suit in 2021. It confirmed what has now become a growing precedent in the warmer months: Chalamet’s bid to be the best dressed man on the Venice or Cannes carpet.
“He has definitely upped the stakes for men on red carpets everywhere,” says Georgia Medley, the stylist behind stars including Michaela Coel’s and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s best looks. “That started with the stone satin Ackermann look in 2019, and it has just ballooned from there.”
His Dune look found its way into the V&A Museum for the Fashioning Masculinities exhibition in 2022, however it was the red satin halter neck backless (cue more screams) Ackermann shirt-trouser set for the Bones & All Premiere, at the Venice Film Festival that year, that made his greatest mark in the fashion history books to date.
Willy-Jenner-Wonka
Chalamet’s spangling new post-strike era has arrived — and it is rooted in an unlikely new act starring Kylie Jenner. Months of speculation built until rumours of a relationship were confirmed in September, when the pair were seen kissing during Beyoncé's Renaissance tour.
Blink, and Chalamet is dripping in a floor length, latex trench. It could easily have been from Jenner’s new faux leather (plastic) brand KHY, or indeed borrowed from Kim Kardashian’s wardrobe from the Kanye years. Either way, it made its way to Tokyo in November, where the actor has entered his latest style chapter: Wonka-mania.
First came parma violet leather jumpsuits from Prada, with water breaks in the form of Alexander McQueen pinstriped, tailed tailoring. Then, for London’s premiere — all out candy land. In a Tom Ford, puce-pink velvet suit, he was reminiscent of a Gene Wilder-era purple jacketed Wonka. Chalamet kept to the narrow silhouette he discovered back in 2017, and has since mastered the art of adding delicious sprinkles of fun. The womenswear suit, designed by new Ford creative director Peter Hawkings, is based on the infamous Tom Ford for Gucci red velvet suit Gwyneth Paltrow wore to the VMAs in 1996, and was topped with a custom multi-colour Cartier lollipop-style necklace.
In Paris, it was a sparkling Tom Ford beaded top while on December 10, for the US premiere, he opted for a Jenner-esque black croc-effect suit. His girlfriend (not to mention her mother, Kris Jenner) were there to support.
“He has always taken risks and played with style in a more extreme way, which I think it's admirable, especially in menswear,” says Rose Forde, the menswear stylist whose clients include Josh O’Connor, Matt Smith and Cillian Murphy. Certainly the tremors have been felt across Hollywood. But at home? “I think he wears things maybe only he could wear,” she says. “I’m not sure he is kicking off trends so much.”
Time will tell if candy-crush dressing is a hit with the lads.
