TLDR
Harry Styles returned to the BRIT Awards as both opener and main event, unveiling his new song “Aperture” on television for the first time and framing the moment with a high-fashion Chanel wardrobe and a rare red carpet appearance.
Spotlight Return to the BRIT Stage
The lights came up on bleachers, not a grand staircase, and Harry Styles was already sitting among his dancers when the 2026 BRIT Awards began. In a sea of black T-shirts and blue jeans, he claimed instant focus as the lone figure in light, office-ready shirting.
The 32-year-old launched into “Aperture,” the lead track fans have zeroed in on from his forthcoming album “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” The arrangement started intimate, then widened as he moved across the stage and a choir of voices rose behind him. According to Page Six, it was the first time he has performed any music from the new project on television.
Harry Styles opens 2026 BRIT Awards with show-stopping performance of ‘Aperture’
From Page Six:
• Harry Styles opened the 2026 BRIT Awards with “Aperture.”
• The song is from his upcoming album, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.”
• Styles wore a Chanel suit on the red… pic.twitter.com/klL9zNkFUR— nuprizm (@nuprizm) March 1, 2026
It was a full-circle homecoming. Styles last opened the BRITs with “As It Was” in the early “Harry’s House” era, then swept the 2023 ceremony with four major wins: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and British Pop Act. Returning as the very first performance again positioned him as the night’s unofficial host of mood.
Where earlier BRIT appearances leaned on exuberant pop star energy, this opener felt more composed. The choreography was shared with his dancers rather than dominated by them, and the framing suggested a veteran learning to make small gestures land in a massive arena.
Chanel Suit, Ballet Flats, and a Statement
Styles did not just come back to the BRITs. He also returned to the red carpet after a three-year absence, and he used the step-and-repeat to announce a new fashion chapter. Gone were the vivid Gucci suits that once defined his award-show persona.
Instead, he arrived in an oversized black boucle pinstriped Chanel suit from the house’s Metiers d’Art 2026 collection, layered over a light mint pinstriped shirt. Vogue identified the look as a runway lift, but on Styles, it read as a deliberate pivot into couture-grown-up.
He paired the suit with a gray and black tie, black ballet flats with bows, and a single gold pinkie ring. The shoes in particular extended his long-running experiment with gender-fluid styling, while the scruffy, lighter beard softened the tailoring. The result was glamorous but not fussy, like a rock star who now sits front row at fashion week as comfortably as he once stood in stadiums.
Onstage, he mirrored that theme in a lighter, office-chic look. A striped button-down, a black striped tie, and black pinstriped trousers kept the focus on his performance and the staging rather than on costume tricks. The white shirt against his dancers’ dark uniforms made basic shirting a standout.
First Look at a New Era
“Aperture” is one of the first concrete tastes of “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally,” which is scheduled for a March 6 release. For fans, the performance functioned as both a live debut and an album trailer, hinting at a sound that folds reflective intimacy into the groove he found on “Watermelon Sugar” and beyond.
The timing matters for his legacy arc. After the enormous success of “Harry’s House” and a long touring cycle, Styles stepped back from the high-visibility routines of pop stardom. A three-year gap between red carpets, plus a carefully chosen return at the BRITs, signals a star who now treats appearances like chapters rather than constant pages.
By opening the show, anchoring it with a new song, and walking in a Chanel look that fashion insiders will dissect for months, Styles turned one television performance into a statement of direction. It suggested an artist moving out of the boy-band-graduate lane and further into the territory of long-haul, fashion-backed, albums-first careers.
For Gen X and Boomer fans who watched him grow up in real time, the night was a reminder of how quickly pop heartthrobs can become fixtures. The question now is how this new album and this more measured public image will shape the next decade of Harry Styles.
Join the Discussion
Did Harry Styles’ BRIT Awards performance and Chanel-heavy return feel like the start of a new era for him, or a continuation of the star you have watched for years?
