Coming in hot with an end of year confession: I have drank the Marty Supreme Kool-Aid. While many are mocking the ping-pong press stunts and shrieking at Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner’s outrageous promo tour style, I am here for this circuit break in normal Tinseltown programming.
Who wants to see another Dakota Johnson naked dress or Lily Collins Francophile look (with greatest respect to both) when there’s tangerine Chrome Hearts numbers on offer? Note the plural there. The greatest part of Chalamet’s Marty Supreme makeover is the fact that he has roped co-star Gwyneth Paltrow into sporting his searing streetwear and girlfriend Kylie Jenner into modelling custom couple’s red-carpet wear. Is there anything better than watching Hollywood’s hottest double act do a Posh and Becks in matching fiery biker(esque) gear? We know you loved it too. We’re only sorry that the movie is coming out on Boxing Day, rather than at Cannes, where this outlandish display of style (in the loosest of terms) would really have made a splash.
If you haven’t committed that release date to memory, then you’re missing the point. Chalamet’s MO during this awards season (yes, there’s talk of an Oscar nom, possibly a win) is to get people in cinemas come 26 December. Marty Supreme, in contrast to the actor’s other blockbuster projects, is an indie film. It does not have the advertising budget of the Dune franchise. And so, Chalamet is putting his own money and red-carpet reputation behind promoting the A24-produced film. He cares and caring is cool.
It’s early days. By the time the Academy Awards rolls around, we may well be completely over the use of mandarin, which Marty believes should be the colour of ping-pong balls in the film. Even if it’s a wonderfully zingy suit imagined by Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford. Or red-hot leather separates conjured up by Sarah Burton for Givenchy. But how fun to invite the world’s best designers to also have fun at the end of a year that has put huge pressure on fashion to perform. The designer debuts are done, the critics are signing off for Christmas, and everyone can bask in the warm light of Chalamet’s amber glow. Because who doesn’t want to dress Timothée Chalamet? Amidst the method dressing and merch drops – which of course sold like hot cakes – we’re forgetting that when Chalamet is working the cameras, he’s working hard for fashion too.
Take yesterday’s Givenchy look, which Jenner complemented with a blood-red Latex dress at home. The average person isn’t (shocker!) aware that former Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton is doing excellent things at the house, as one of the few women in top spots creating clothes to, as she puts it, “empower a woman through feminine archetypes”. Thanks to her version of Marty Supreme-core – quite the opposite of her usual sculptural tailoring and “mind-for-business, bod-for-sin” dresses (Nicole Phelps’s brilliant words, not ours) – Givenchy was, for a brief moment, big news for a generation accustomed to queuing for Supreme drops.
We know Chalamet can be cloying (hot, but cloying). You only need to rewatch his SAG Awards speech discussing his pursuit of greatness to get the ick. But we need the Timothée Chalamets of this world to think outside the box and wear sparkly harnesses. What is the point of this industry if everyone dresses the same?