Esquire

Brad Pitt is adamant that he is not a style guy. “If I have a style, it’s no style,” he tells me over the phone. I, for my part, disagree. There’s a damn good reason Esquire has covered his red-carpet and off-duty looks with some regularity over the years, and it’s not just because he’s Brad Fuckin’ Pitt, one of The Last True Movie Stars. It’s because, whether he’s hitting the red carpet in classic black tie or teaching an impromptu master class on casual dressing while popping out for coffee, the man seems to have an innate idea of what works for him when it comes to getting dressed. (Being Brad Fuckin’ Pitt does help, though.)

I’m about to jump in and tell him just that when he starts expanding on this idea of “’no-style’ style,” and I realize we don’t disagree—we’re just dealing with a good old-fashioned language barrier. “I like monochrome, without it being a uniform,” he explains. “I like simplicity. I like the details in the stitching, the way it feels. If anything, that’s the only divining rod I have.” In other words: unlike so many guys who care about the façade first and foremost, Pitt is tapping into something deeper. He’s focused on how he lives in what he wears. How it works with his own idiosyncrasies and predilections. It’s personal style, distilled—he just doesn’t call it that.

“It’s led by comfort,” he continues. “I like the feel of a Lecia camera or the way a watch feels. I don’t want to look ostentatious, but if you come close, you notice. I like how the lining feels. It’s those details that are important to me. It’s too exhausting to follow trends. And I despise billboards; I just don’t want to be billboard.”

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