Busy Being Børns

Sartorial advice and reflections on the power of “getting weird” from pop music’s most colourful new chameleon

- Amy Marie Slocum

Listening to the latest BØRNS single, “Faded Heart” — and you should listen to it if you haven’t already; it’s a jam — you might briefly mistake the 25-year-old for yet another 1970s-swagdevotee. Listen more closely, though, and the song turns out to be more complex than the same old moves that pop music has built its empire on. Ask about the specific influences behind his second studio album, out in early 2018, and the Michigan native lists great American musicians and composers from the Beach Boys to Roy Orbison to Les Baxter. Indeed, everything about BØRNS seems to derive from a deeper source, or perhaps several sources pooling together in vivid iridescence.

His wardrobe is no less colourful or varied. He’s often found in flowy shirts and tight pants à la Keith Richards on the Sticky-Fingers tour, and his long wavy hair appears to give him-Samson-like powers onstage. Now that he’s popping up at fashion week front rows, rubbing elbows with the top brass at Gucci and collaborating with the white-hot designer Jahnkoy, BØRNS has emerged as the embodiment of a modern men’s style that’s retro and forward-looking all at once. You would do well to study the next few pages and see how he does it.

You moved to Los Angeles fairly abruptly a few years ago. How has the city influenced your style?

It wasn’t really a move; it was sort of an accidental four-year vacation. To be honest, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been in LA for four years because I’ve been touring so much. Since working on this new record I’ve reacquainted myself with the sounds, the heat and the spice of life here, which is really nice.