Whatever the occasion, John Legend always manages to look both effortless and expertly put together. On the red carpet, he knows precisely what works for him and he's become something of a poster child for excellent formalwear, whether he's wearing bold Gucci tailoring, eye-catching suits from Paul Smith or playful kilt-tuxedo hybrids from Alexander McQueen.
Elsewhere, the EGOT's downtime fits are equally impressive. He's regularly seen on the streets of New York City draped in excellent outerwear from Dunhill, Dries Van Noten and Balmain, while for transatlantic travel he can oft be spotted rocking velour 3.1 Phillip Lim tracksuits.
Hardly surprising, then, that a host of big fashion brands are clamouring to dress the star. What's more, earlier this year the “All Of Me” singer landed his first designing role, which has seen him work with US brand Sperry on a range of limited-edition boat shoes, loafers and sneakers.
We hopped on a call with Legend from his studio-cum-office in West Hollywood to discuss his favourite past outfits, why he prefers not to dress like his contemporaries and which of his music videos stand out most to him.
I'm always conscious about how I look. I care as much about how I look on stage as how I look when I go out to the grocery store.
I love classic shapes and great tailoring. I love to add a personal touch to everything I wear, though. So while I have a real respect for the classics, I try to put a little twist on them. An example of that is the Alexander McQueen suit I wore to the Grammys last year, which had front pleats. It had classic elements, such as the top half of the jacket, but had this extremely evolved silhouette.
Alexander McQueen really does stuff that works for me. It's playful, but traditional. Not just the Grammys suit, but there have also been other instances. I wore a floral suit for Jimmy Kimmel Live! last summer – that was amazing. It just works for me. It nails that middle ground of being out there, but remaining stripped back.
I look back at certain pairs of jeans or shoes and just go, “What was I thinking?” A lot of my early career is peppered with fashion mistakes – a lot of my press looks from back in, like, 2005 especially. But it felt right at the time. And that's the thing about fashion. You're in that moment and you're embracing that moment. And you are who you are in that moment. And you may look back ten years later and be like, “What was I thinking?”, but at the time it made sense to who you were.
Since the beginning of my career I've noticed fashion in music change. What men are wearing has changed for the better. It's more gender-fluid. It's more colourful. It's a lot more impressive. During the early part of my career people were taking fewer risks. I feel like now people are embracing being a little more risky with what they wear, which is so much more interesting. Things were getting boring.
I try to avoid using current artists as fashion inspiration. I feel like it's better to go back and look at the artists that I grew up looking at or other references from the past. I don't want to do the same thing as anyone else in the game right now – I'll leave that to them.
Harry Styles, Kanye West and Pharrell have all got their own thing going on. You can really see and appreciate their style as their own. I love what each of them is doing. Would I copy? No.
I've worked with my stylist, Dave Thomas, since 2008. We coordinate on everything together. We even worked together on the recent Sperry collaboration, just so that my voice came through and it came from a genuine place. He knows my style and what I like extremely well.
A lot of thought goes into my tour outfits. Dave Thomas and I meet with the creative team, who are usually designing all the other stage aspects. We want to make sure everything flows and looks good together. We want fashion to be a part of the story that we're telling the audience, so things need to be the right colour to fit the mood.
I loved wearing Paul Smith on my Christmas tour a few years back. I love Paul and we've worked together a lot over the years – he's always so accommodating. I wore an aqua suit and also wore a scarlet one. We were going with a kind of mid-century look and, as I was singing traditional Christmas songs, it worked. I was channelling Nat King Cole, but with a little more pop.
Growing up there were two style narratives influencing my style. On the one hand you had the urban streetwear movement going on and on the other you had the preppy thing, which was dominated by brands such as Tommy Hilfiger when I was in high school.
I prefer my understated music videos. My favourite music videos I've done have always been the ones where I'm not too dressed up. I like my outfit to look a part of the story, but not become the only story. Sometimes it makes sense that the fashion is more of a lead character in the story, but a lot of the time my music videos have been ones where the narrative is on romance, love and human connection, so you don't want that to be overshadowed by what I'm wearing.
Outkast's “Hey Ya!” was such a breath of fresh air. The music video was so different to anything we'd ever been given. It was so fresh: what the guys wore was unlike anything we'd really seen before in music or beyond. It was brand new and it was like the industry hit the refresh button after seeing that. People started to really make an effort. It was a cultural shift.
John Legend's Sperry collaboration is out now. sperrytopsider.co.uk
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