A king rises: All hail Jeremy Allen White

From Shameless, to The Bear and global stardom, all while looking stylishly laid back

"I am a short king. ” With one line in a GQ interview, Jeremy Allen White became one of my newest heroes, and a bona fide Millennial Gent icon. This is not just because he is a celebrity who owns his height (yes, I’m looking at you Prime Minister Rishi Sunak), nor is it because he is a Hollywood star with a rocket strapped to his back thanks to his role at he head of Netflix smash hit The Bear and his upcoming turn alongside Zac Efron in pro-wrestling bio-flick The Iron Claw.

No, Jeremy Allen White, or JAW as I’ve taken to referring to him in shorthand, is one of my new heroes because he is a genuine style icon, a relaxed fit master standing shorter then 5’8”, and seems like a genuinely good bloke.

Starting with his clothes, and the reason he is becoming one of my most searched fits online; people who know far more about this than me have extolled the virtues of JAW’s style. From Mr Porter, Higsnobiety and Esquire to a few turns in GQ on either side of the Atlantic, his self-assured, relaxed fit fashion is a widely-accepted winner.

Praised for mastering the loose fit, and showing how a go-to accessory such as a baseball cap can have you defined as an “off-duty style icon”, JAW gives hope to those of us who feared the current trend for baggy jeans and 90s aesthetics would pass us by.

But reading interviews with White reveals something much, much more. The self-possessed candour which was evident in his turn as Lip in the US Shameless comes through in his interviews where he talks openly about the emotions of his kids growing up and graduating from cots to beds and blowing the meeting for a “Marvel-y” movie because he had an “attitude”.

Interestingly, much of White’ dress-down look was the result of his current trajectory to stardom. He started dressing down in the same outfit in the hope it would stop paparazzi from wanting to photograph him at his children’s sports games. He also took his mum to the SAG Awards as his date and her (very normal) reaction to meeting Cate Blanchett in person led to White and Blanchett talking and she is now producing one of his films.

So, for everything, from excellent clothes to a healthy outlook on life, Jeremy Allen White, I salute you.