ART DRESSING FOR THE PART

man of style: EDDIE REDMAYNE

This British actor with a multi-hued range also cuts a smart figure on the red carpet. Not bad for a guy who’s color-blind. By Haley Longman

Alphabetically, Hayden comes soon after Hawking. Of course, that doesn’t assure British actor Eddie Redmayne will cop the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as radical activist Tom Hayden in this year’s film The Trial of the Chicago 7. Just because he won the 2014 prize for playing physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything doesn’t mean he’s a lock. Still, wouldn’t paired Oscars look nice on the mantel?

Score Redmayne’s accent and defined cheekbones on the plus side for a style icon; his freckles, slender build and so-called “bedhead” maybe not so much. But, likely or not, this talented Brit has combined an already-impressive roster of thespian credits (he just turned 38) with a rep for choosing impeccable clothing and wearing it impeccably. Edward John David Redmayne grew up in London and attended the Jackie Palmer Stage School for the performing arts from the age of 10. He got his professional start in theater on London’s West End and did stints on television before landing roles in films such as The Yellow Handkerchief and The Other Boleyn Girl (both 2008). On stage in London, in 2009, he played a fictional assistant to painter Mark Rothko in a play fittingly titled Red. Three years later his star was rising, with a stint in the film My Week with Marilyn and his breakout role in the star-studded Les Misérables in 2012.

By then, the world knew Redmayne could act and sing, but the fellow had a knack for style too. British fashion powerhouse Burberry hired him for its spring/summer 2012 campaign; in the years following he was named to the “best-dressed” lists in both Vanity Fair and GQ, became an ambassador for the Swiss watch brand Omega and was chosen as Business Insider’s Most Stylish Man in the World Right Now. Yep, the entire world.

The Brit has been touted for his classic, cool style, his innate ability to look put together on even the most mundane occasions, such as when traveling from LHR to LAX, as he often does. Redmayne has a penchant for crewneck knits over slim-cut button-ups and is seldom seen without his signature structured collar, whether via a lapel on a jacket or a cowl on a sweater. And because some dress codes can be as unpredictable as London’s weather, layering is another of Redmayne’s everyday style go-tos; he’ll often wear a cardigan under a jacket or blazer and simply remove the coat should he feel overdressed.

For more formal events, each of his many suits—most often by Prada, Alexander McQueen, Tom Ford or Burberry—is tailored to fit him precisely, to the point of “almost hugging” his lanky 5-foot-11-inch frame. “I’ve always worn suits, so I’ve always felt at ease in them,” he told Men’s Health a few years back, perhaps recalling his teenage years at Eton College, where the dress code required starched collars and tailcoats.

“My dad is a dapper man,” said Redmayne, setting up a sly self-mock. “He wears suits for work, so maybe wearing them makes me feel subconsciously like I have a proper job.” Then he slipped the Freudians more ammo: “A well-cut suit feels like armor. If it’s tailored to fit, you feel strong.”

Strong in showbiz, just possibly, is taking Oscar home before you’re 35; Redmayne was the first male born in the 1980s to win the statuette. And that was no fluke; he nabbed another nomination the following year, controversially cast as a transgender woman in The Danish Girl. He also stars in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, a spin-off of Harry Potter, and gets top billing in 2019’s period drama The Aeronauts. If he shines in Aaron Sorkin’s

Chicago 7, he’ll be on the way to Hollywood immortality. Yet Redmayne doesn’t follow all Hollywood norms—he has no personal stylist, for example. Instead, Hannah Bagshawe, his publicist wife and the mother of his two children, has been dressing him for the red carpet. That’s why he informed the U.K.’s The Mirror back in 2016 that for his sartorial splendor “I can’t take much credit. “I’m color-blind,” Redmayne said with winning candor and humility, “so occasionally I’ll go for things that are slightly outlandish, and she’ll temper me back into the world of taste.”

Oscar-winning British actor Eddie

Redmayne is most comfortable in a suit—and a very slim-fitting one at that. “I like to feel the strength of the garment,” he says.