After Emily Ratajkowski was spotted snogging Harry Styles in Japan while wearing a puffer jacket from The North Face, sales for the gorp core staple boomed. We like to see this moment as just the start of this power couple’s potential influence on the trends of tomorrow.
And Ratajkowski and Styles certainly aren’t the first. Hollywood is an emotional rollercoaster of will-they-won’t-theys until it all ends in a very messy and very public divorce. Luckily for the hopeless romantics out there, this isn’t always the case. Some celebrity couples blossom in both love and style, and their wardrobes become one-stop shops for their soon-to-be nepo baby offspring.
There have been some iconic celebrity couple looks over the years, from Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s double denim to FKA Twigs hard launching her relationship with photographer Jordan Hemingway in plaid on Instagram.
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So if you’re in the mood to take a page from some of your favourite celebs’ book and keen to start curating your relationship to this level, take a look at our round-up of stars who have made couple coordination look easy, unlike their tumultuous love lives.
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From when they first started dating in January 2021 to their Dolce & Gabbana-sponsored wedding in 2022, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker certainly caught our attention with their style (and excessive PDA). Kardashian was preppy with former flame Scott Disick, now she’s gone punk with the Blink-182 drummer. Opting for black leather, sultry corsets and platforms, Kardashian is one gothic veil away from getting a matching head-to-toe tattoo with her beau.
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Kim Kardashian’s style is three-fold: pre-Ye, during Ye, and post-Ye. Getting together in 2012, Kanye West sent Kardashian’s entire wardrobe to the dump. Replacing bodycon dresses with cycling shorts, luscious locks with a sleek platinum low bun and her 72-day marriage for a 6-year one. The relationship even scored her an invite to the Met Gala to which she is now a regular attendee. Talk about ‘it’s who you know, not what you know’!
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Unlike Zoë Kravitz’s impeccable style, her relationship with Channing Tatum came as a shocking surprise to most. With her father, Lenny Kravitz’s, iconic wardrobe to raid through, Zoë has inherited taste. Known for her subtle glamour consisting of bias-cut slip dresses and feline frocks throughout her Catwoman era, Tatum’s laid-back style is more than compatible. Since dating Kravitz, Tatum went from cringe-worthy Magic Mike-influenced white tank tops to effortlessly cool oversized tees and baggy jeans.
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On-and-off couple, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, finally sealed the deal in a double wedding extravaganza in the summer of last year. For the second of the two receptions, J.Lo teamed up with Ralph Lauren to create a high-neck mermaid gown.
Wearing matching darker hues day-to-day, their style is a masterclass in understated coordination. Since 2002, the couple have grown up beyond their younger Y2K looks into a sophisticated, married pair. Hopefully, this time it will last.
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It’s a well-known fact that the internet hates women. We’re too open, too discreet, too loud and of course too quiet. Trying to navigate public life as a femme-presenting individual has always been an uphill battle. Just look at what netizens did to Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber—fabricating a false feud in order to up the stakes and create some organised chaos.
So, when images of Harry Styles and Emily Ratajkowski caught in an intimate embrace hit Twitter, I knew that pretty quickly the internet would be fixated on burning the female model for having what the public deemed as be far too many romantic encounters. Oh, and the fact that no-one expected Styles to kiss (or dance) like that…
Men in the spotlight have always benefited from the Lothario and charmer archetype. Leonardo DiCaprio can go from one 24-year-old to another and still be deemed a soul-searching bachelor. But when Taylor Swift has multiple boyfriends in one year, she’s pronounced as an 18th century harlot who’s clearly more interested in collecting male trophies than she is in gaining the public’s respect. And…the cycle continues.
Now, there’s a couple different points important to touch upon with the Styles x Ratajkowski coupling, first of there’s the highly unhealthy attitude some fans have towards the former One Direction singer and his romantic choices—safe to say, if you don’t fancy being at the end of torrents of online abuse from Styles superfans, stay away from the ‘Fine Lines’ singer (we’re thinking of you, Olivia Wilde).
Okay but seeing harry styles make out with em rata was NOT the first thing I needed to see this am
— xiomara✨ BLM (@xiobabyy) March 26, 2023
harry styles and emily ratajkowski spotted kissing in tokyopic.twitter.com/h6xwL1Tzy5
— alvira MY DAYYY (@kiwixnasty) March 26, 2023
But even more insidious than that, is society’s deep-rooted issue with female sexuality and the concept of a woman straying from the traditional monogamist ideal. Since her divorce from Sebastian Bear-McClard in September 2022, Ratajkowski has been romantically linked to the likes of Pete Davidson, Brad Pitt and Eric André.
@eddie4656 ♬ original sound - Eddie45//•
@screenshothq When will women be able to avoid misogynistic standards? #emrata #feminism #misogyny #harrystyles #petedavidson #emilyratajkowski #ericandre #celebritydating #popculture
♬ Aesthetic - Tollan Kim
Of course, no-one blinked an eye lid as Davidson made his way through Hollywood’s many eligible bachelorettes. And if there was discourse surrounding his dating history, it was almost always filled to the brim with praise and kudos for bagging such desirable women.
For Ratajkowski, the situation is entirely different. You only have to take a minute or two doom-scrolling on TikTok to find a collection of videos shaming the 31-year-old, decreeing how she’s definitely the wrong girl for Styles, and claiming that she’s clearly “trying to make [her] ex-husband replaceable.”
It should also be noted that the Harry’s House artist has had his fair share of celebrity romances. He’s been linked to a handful of Victoria’s Secret models including Kardashian heiress and problematic tequila brand owner, Kendall Jenner.
We’ll never fully escape the grasp that celebrities’ dating lives have on us, it’s a symptom of social media we’re never going to completely banish or dismiss. However, it’s entirely possible to love Harry Styles, Pedro Pascal, or Bad Bunny, and stop misogyny from dominating our screens.