It all began with a rolled-up white T-shirt and a cowboy hat in “Thelma & Louise”. The rest is history, the story of an icon. Because Mr Pitt is truly a fashion icon, not just because of how he looks on red carpets, but also because of his costumes, which are a part of our collective imagination: his unforgettable braces in “Seven”, his almost completely unbuttoned shirt in “Legends of the Fall”, his 1970s Hawaiian shirt in “Once upon a Time in Hollywood” – the movie that won him an Oscar – and his dinner jackets and military uniforms in “Allied” and “Inglourious Basterds”. He has gone from his iconic outfits in “Fight Club” based around eco fur, vests and his sculpted body, tailored suits in “Meet Joe Black” and the Miami style of “Ocean’s Eleven” and the white suit that showed up his tan, to rockabilly fashion – for those of us who can remember – in “Johnny Suede”. Damned in “Kalifornia”, mad in a straitjacket in “12 Monkeys” and hypnotic as Achilles in “Troy”. People magazine has proclaimed him the sexiest man in the world twice, which is a little like stating the obvious.
But if we take a step beyond appearances, there is a whole new world to be discovered. With Brad Gray and Jennifer Aniston, who was his wife at the time, he created Plan B Entertainment, which he took over completely after he and Aniston divorced. The company had a brilliant start with “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and Brad cares about artistic production. “I can choose ambitious products, maybe even ones that are difficult to do, which other people may not feel like investing in, but which I believe in”. Plan B now boasts a highly respectable filmography, and has won three Oscars for Best Picture “The Departed”, “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight”.
“For me, it’s important to develop over time. I like a challenge and get tired of always doing the same things. It’s always a pleasure to be recognised, but the important thing is never to stop and continue working with the same passion and interest, ” he says. He has unleashed his versatility in recent years, starting with his Fleur de Miraval rosé champagne. In fact, its label bears the name of the vineyard of discord, which he bought with Angelina Jolie, and where they were married in front of their three adopted and three biological children, before separating in 2016 in a never-ending divorce. But let’s not get into gossiping about the most beautiful couple in Hollywood, one that is almost too much of a totem to be true. Let’s move on. The big news about Château Miraval is something else: the historic recording studios used by legends like Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Sting have come back to life thanks to Brad and the French music producer Damien Quintard, who have redesigned them as marriage between cutting-edge technology, nature and history.
On his journey of exploration, Pitt has invested in cold fusion energy with Industrial Heat, given his love of nature and his childhood memories of Oklahoma and growing up in Missouri amid landscapes that are a mixture between the land of Mark Twain and Pitt’s films “A River Runs Through It” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”. He has also invested in the beauty industry, but he would not have launched his Le Domaine line “if I hadn’t noticed a real difference in my skin”, he says, citing the studies on the grapes from the French vineyard from which the product comes, and which he owns.
He has also made a business out of his focus on style, launching God’s True Cashmere, a company specialising in luxury clothing made in Italy, with a friend. He also cut the Gordian knot of the debate on male elegance when he broke all the rules of the red carpet at the premiere of “Bullet Train” by wearing a linen skirt and suits that came halfway between comfortable clothes and tracksuits, revealing unexpected colours from gecko green to bubble-gum pink, perfectly in line with the #Barbiecore trend and his own anti-conformist spirit. The new era of Brad Pitt style even has a Gen Z DNA: he will be 60 in December and is a curious case of rejuvenation, just like his character Benjamin Button.
Because basically, this is Brad. He has written a paradigm by way of his rebirth. He responded to public accusations of alcohol abuse and outbursts of temper with silence. He acknowledged his sins and recast them. It could have taken much less to bring his legend crashing down. And then he reappeared as an affable, ironic gentleman who mocks himself about being single and the passing years. “I’ve got to add this to my Tinder profile”, he commented, looking at his SAG Awards statuette, “I’m old. I no longer remember the first rule of Fight Club”. Always truly himself, and always convincing.
Oh, I almost forgot. Happy birthday, Brad!
Article edited by Claudia Chiari