Josh Hartnett is having a big fall. The 48-year-old actor and former teen idol has re-entered the pop culture conversation in recent years thanks to appearances in Oppenheimer and The Bear, and now stars alongside Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway in Verity. He’s also got Below, a new Netflix limited series on the way. All this has meant a steady stream of red carpets and high-profile appearances, and Hartnett has been dressing every bit the leading man. Now, with the temperatures finally dipping, he’s added some truly excellent outerwear to his lineup of next-level tailoring.
Hartnett has been working with stylist Dolly Pratt Lanvin, and the duo has been on a particularly good run that kicked off in mid-September. “He loves fashion, and that’s what makes my job so fun,” Lanvin tells GQ. There’s been a custom Gucci suit with a subtle windowpane pattern and slightly flared trousers, a collarless blazer and slouchy pants from Jacquemus, and a double-breasted Burberry suit that was gray, but certainly not boring. Hartnett’s more casual looks are where things really start to get interesting.
Even before overcoat season officially arrived, a couple of excellent transitional-weather fits popped up around New York City. In one, Hartnett wore pleated Jacquemus pants with an exposed button fly, a relaxed long-sleeve tee, and bright-red leather shoes—the latest case for red as menswear’s color swerve of the season. Lanvin recalls that the minute Hartnett put them on, he turned to her and said, “I feel like these are meant to be on my feet.”
The very next day, he went in the opposite direction: a simple, monochromatic ensemble of a black tee tucked into black trousers with black boots that recalled the slick ’90s minimalism of Calvin Klein and Helmut Lang. Connecting both outfits were Oliver Peoples sunglasses featuring burgundy-tinted lenses and Hartnett’s apparent favorite long-sleeve tee of the season: a relaxed-fit boatneck design from the great everyman brand Buck Mason.
Early last week, when temperatures dropped in NYC, he and Lanvin took it as an invitation to break out the serious outerwear. First came a wool coat from Canadian outerwear label Mackage, cut in a classic balmacaan silhouette and worn with a black sweater and pinstriped trousers—both from downtown New York label R.Swiader. “Fall is all about texture and pattern play,” Lanvin says, of the mix of glen check, pinstripes, mélange wool, and suede. On paper, that’s a lot happening at once, and yet, on Hartnett, it somehow reads as restrained. It might not exactly fit the definition of Power Clashing, but it’s an advanced-level skill nonetheless.
A day later, it was another great look framed by a stellar overcoat. This time, Hartnett reached for a double-breasted topcoat from Paul Smith, worn with a burgundy R.Swiader sweater and NN.07 trousers. A pair of Hollywood-beloved Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses finished off the look. If his previous outfit was a symphony of textures and tones, this one was proof that sometimes just two—in this case, burgundy and navy—can be just as effective.
That willingness to play with texture and tone might be the most useful lesson the rest of us can crib from Hartnett’s recent run. None of the outfits are particularly complicated: a great coat, a long-sleeve tee or sweater, and good pants. The fun happens between them. Glen plaid bumps up against pinstripes and mélange wool. Bright-red shoes add a dash of unmissable color to an otherwise quiet look. Tinted lenses provide the X-factor of an unexpected accessory. Above all, though, Hartnett’s recent run has made one thing abundantly clear: it’s officially time to get into a stellar overcoat.