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At the recent Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai, the ever-stylish Harry Styles—one of the night’s performers—had an unlikely and incredible answer when asked who inspires him the most: Canadian country legend Shania Twain. “I think both my music and fashion main influence was probably Shania Twain,” Styles told Entertainment Tonight. “Yeah, I think she’s amazing.” We couldn’t agree more, Harry, particularly when it comes to wardrobe: Some of his best recent fashions (many courtesy of Gucci) have recalled not only the on-stage personas of Mick Jagger and Elton John but also those of the Queen of Country Pop.
Twain had, at the height of her career in the late 1990s, a real knack for the kind of glitzy costumes pioneered by Bob Mackie in his work with Cher and Diana Ross in the 1970s and ’80s. Twain’s famous leopard-print coverall from the video for “That Don’t Impress Me Much” is the gold standard of her over-the-top style. Styles also loves an animal print. And his recent look on the Today show (a masculine Gucci suit with an oversize, feminine lapel) recalled the shocking pink number Twain wore to the 1999 CMA Awards (sans bustier).
It seems that Styles is inspired by even some of Twain’s current fashions. On a recent tour, she played with classic rocker style, sporting the brash Rolling Stones tongue-out logo (done in crystals). That’s a look Styles has made his own with faded band T-shirts. And though her Texas-ready girly plaid (with matching cowboy boots) at a 2013 rodeo a few years ago is maybe a bit too country for a British boy, Styles did his own twist on it with a blush-color flannel suit at a BBC appearance. Throw in a shared love for silk blouses and glittering gold, and Styles and Twain start to look something like fashion twins.