It’s A Sin’s Olly Alexander praises Harry Styles’ gender-fluid fashion: ‘I respect his commitment to not caring what “a traditional man” should wear’

Olly Alexander was once asked to change the trousers he was wearing for a TV show because bosses thought they were sinful.

Explaining why he goes out of his way to be visibly gay, the It’s A Sin star told Cosmopolitan UK: ‘There have been questions from people (not on my team) going, “That might not be appropriate”.

‘I was wearing a pair of chevron trousers on a TV show. In rehearsals, a comment came back saying, “We think the chevrons are highlighting Olly’s crotch. Does he have a different pair?”

‘We blew up and they backed down. The chevrons went on TV and nobody said a f***ing thing.’

Olly, 30, said in the magazine’s latest issue: ‘It makes me angry. I’m a gay guy and I want people to know that, but it’s interesting to see how quickly people become uncomfortable when you want to assert your own sexuality.’

He is also impressed by Harry Styles’s eccentric fashion muscle, saying: ‘He just looks so good. It’s undeniable. I really respect his commitment to having fun, being playful and not caring what “a traditional man” should wear.

‘Gender-fluid fashion has been around forever, but seeing it in a more mainstream context is cool. I’m all for guys getting to express themselves, no matter what their sexuality.’

Olly – who rocks a rather glorious floral jacket in the magazine’s accompanying shoot – added his belief it would ‘make everybody’s lives better’ if queer history was taught more extensively in schools.

The musician and actor starred in Channel 4 drama It’s A Sin earlier this year, which tells the story of a group of young friends living through the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980s.

Speaking on the range of responses to the groundbreaking series, created by Russell T Davies, Olly said he discovered ‘quite a few younger people that had no idea… that this happened to a community not that long ago’, which set him aback.

However he believes it ‘totally makes sense’ seeing as so much of what the show portrayed ‘happened in silence’.

Read the full interview in the June issue of Cosmopolitan, out today.

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