Harry Styles’ Shorts and Sweater Vest Outfit In Amazon’s ‘My Policeman’ Is So Important

Harry Styles fans, please take a moment today to thank Annie Symons. Why? Because Symons is the costume designer for My Policeman—which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video—and she’s the absolute genius who dressed Styles in short shorts and a cozy sweater vest. As a beach outfit. We owe her for life.

Based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Bethan Roberts, and directed by Michael Grandage, My Policeman follows an aging woman named Marion, who reflects on meeting her husband, Tom, and slowly uncovering his secret love affair with another man. But before Marion knew anything about Tom’s “friend” Patrick, she just knew Tom as her friend’s hot brother. As an older Marion (played by Gina McKee) watches her aging husband (played by Linus Roache) she remembers the day their relationship began on a beach in Brighton, England in the 1950s. And given the outfit that her future husband was wearing on that day, who could blame her for falling on the spot?

Now played by Emma Corrin, a young Marion lounges on the beach with her friend and shamelessly eyes up her friend’s brother, Tom. This is, of course, Harry Styles. But this is not just any Harry Styles. This is Harry Styles in the tiniest pair of navy blue shorts you’ve ever seen. The minuscule flaps of fabric, bless their soul, barely cover a third of Styles’ thighs. The legs are endless! And the shorts are tight around those thighs, too. They are essentially the exact opposite of the long, baggy, cargo shorts that have denied us men’s thighs for far too long, and they are glorious.

And we simply must discuss what designer Annie Symons—again, a certified genius as far as I’m concerned—paired with the world’s smallest shorts: a white collared button-up and a sweater vest. A sweater vest. On the beach! With tiny shorts! Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, etc!

In contrast to those itty bitty pants, this knitwear is a little bulky, a little worn down, and a lot cozy. It’s absolutely the perfect choice to soften Styles’ strikingly handsome, chiseled face. Without the sweater vest, this beautiful man in tiny shorts might have screamed “rich douchebag.” But with the sweater vest, he’s kind, approachable, and non-threatening. He’s wearing a sweater on the beach, for Pete’s sake. He is, at least in Marion’s mind, husband material. (He’s not, of course, in the end—at least not for her—but you wouldn’t know it by the clothes.)

I have no idea if this is a realistic outfit for a man in the 1950s, and I also frankly don’t care. In an interview with Variety, Symons said she cared less about historical accuracy and more about creating a feeling for the film. “I approach it emotionally and visually,” she said. “That’s the most important thing.”

While Symons sadly did not touch on this iconic shorts-and-sweater-vest combo in that interview, she did explain why she changed Tom’s police uniform to blue, even though the original uniforms for the time period were black. “I felt it would be better if they were bluer,” Symons said. “It gave Harry an aura that made him seem more attractive and youthful and less authoritarian. When you have a young, handsome actor like Harry, you work with that. You don’t run away from it.”

She’s right and she should say it. Harry Styles in shorts and in a sweater vest should win an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and a MacArthur genius grant. This is a look for the ages.