An extensive history of hot couples and their even hotter wardrobes

Feel like pure shit just want Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson back together

25August 2021

A selection of couples who will not be making it onto this list: Tina Burner and Graham Norton, Naomi Campbell and Liam Payne, Pete Davidson and Kate Beckinsale, Lembit Opik and The Cheeky Girls, Brad Pitt and Sinitta, Channing Tatum and Jessie J, Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy, Billie Piper and Chris Evans, Tom Cruise and Cher. Not all that glitters is gold, and people on Raya are still god awful.

That being said, 2021 has proved tumultuous if you are particularly sensitive to hot people hooking up. After all, it was less love at first sight for Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly, but a chance to open a portal into a celebscape of chaotic, libidinous hell. See Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, for example, who have spent the past few months finger-sucking each other on Instagram. Or Feeld’s very own Taika Waititi, Rita Ora, and Tessa Thompson, or Bennifer, or Channing Tatum and Zoe Kravitz, who are riding BMX bikes around New York, cosplaying as 90s heart-throbs in baggy skater jeans and Chuck Taylors.

Hot people. They’re getting hot wired. Their aromatic pheromones – all leathery tobaccos and Tom Ford ouds, probably – spiralling out of control like a whirling dervish, as if they were Lily Allen sat outside the Chiltern Firehouse with a rotation of Marlboro Golds. And though we may be entering a new era of famous people fucking, being one half of a well dressed, genetically gifted couple has long been the paragon of prestige. How many times has the story of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony been rehashed on-screen? Dramatic sweeps of kohl matched only by the train of their Hollywood togas. Or Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn? The latter of whom both Bella Hadid, and Ugly Betty, have taken style cues from.

From Goldie and Bjork, to Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee, to Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage, below, we dissect the allure of hot couples and their even hotter wardrobes.

01 / 20

CAROLYN BESSETTE-KENNEDY AND JFK JR

Though many remember the late Bessette-Kennedy for her pared-back Calvin Klein looks, she was as much a patron of Yohji Yamamoto and New York’s thrift stores, as she was her place of work. Though JFK Jr’s tailored looks were synonymous with his “American prince” tabloid title, Bessette-Kennedy has become a byword for 90s minimalism, kept alive by the resurgence of 00s fashion, namely skimpy knitwear, bandanas, and kitten-heeled mules. She would have loved Vestiaire, which is presumably where Ryan Murphy’s costume department is headed for the upcoming Bessette-Kennedy American Love Story.

02 / 20

PAMELA ANDERSON AND TOMMY LEE

The pretty girl, goth guy pairing is a time-worn relationship trope. And it was honed by Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in the 90s, who first met at a New Year’s Eve party at Hollywood’s Sanctuary club. 96 hours later and they were married in a barefoot ceremony in Cancun. Lee, who was rarely seen in anything other than a tank top, leather trousers, and sunglasses, was renowned for “bingeing on groupies, drugging heroically, and swallowing small light bulbs for kicks” as the New York Post once described him. Anderson, on the other hand, was the vision of 90s glam, complete with pencil thin eyebrows, stringy platinum extensions, and, of course, a world famous boob job. On the red carpet, she’d wear bubble gum latex dresses, brocade corsets, and see through slip dresses – offsetting Lee’s what’s-a-shower grunge appeal with pure sex and feminine excess.

03 / 20

ISABELLA BLOW AND LEE MCQUEEN

While not romantically affiliated, Isabella Blow and Lee McQueen were perhaps the most codependent, and memorable tag team that fashion has fostered. Blow, a magazine editor, was credited for discovering and pushing McQueen into the limelight once he graduated from Central Saint Martins. She’d sit front row in a coterie of Philip Treacy creations, with taxidermy birds, toy ships, and peacock feathers dangling from her bob. While McQueen would dress, quite deliberately, in everyman check shirts and tracksuits, Blow would wear sheath-like, space-age pencil suits, embroidered and embellished within an inch of their life. Inseparable enfant terribles, McQueen took the decision to end his life just three years after Blow’s death by suicide.

04 / 20

KURT COBAIN AND COURTNEY LOVE

When Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love first got together in the 90s, they would soon be hawked as figureheads for the grunge movement, inspiring a fledgling Marc Jacobs as well as plenty of runways today. Slack and hurriedly put together, the duo’s signature style – his, a breton top and red sunnies and hers, a white silk slip – has become the ultimate Smiffys confection. Yet, despite Love’s frequent foray into old Hollywood glam, as seen via the slash of a red lip and Marilyn-indebted scarf dresses, it’s the singer’s risqué on-stage looks for which she is most remembered. Think low plunging, torn halters, and sheer vests. Or that one mesh mini dress and fairy wings combo at Glastonbury.

05 / 20

GOLDIE AND BJÖRK

The 90s also made way for the most unlikely but ultimate power couple: Goldie and Björk. Together, they came decked in XXL puffers, truck loads of Stüssy, and bright, colour blocked rain macs. Yet beneath the gaudy, grilled-teeth influence of the West Midlands, Bjork retained her ethereal edge with sweet teapot bags, penny loafers, and twisted plaits.

06 / 20

AMY AND JORDAN

“People always talk about Amy and Jordan being nihilistic but I’ve never felt that, I think they have a naïve innocence, they’re sweet in a way. And funny – there are dark moments, but there’s a level of pop culture irony,” Greg Araki told Dazed in 2015. The protagonists of the director’s cult classic, Doom Generation, Amy and Jordan are grungy, drug-buzzed kids who pick up a handsome drifter on their travels. Jordan wears a flannel shirt, frayed jeans, and a cowboy hat, while Amy, played by Rose McGowan, dresses in a punk-rock wardrobe to reflect her boisterous coming of age, donning black Dr. Martens, deep-cut vintage sundresses, and oversized leather jackets.

07 / 20

Natural Born Killers (1994)

MICKY AND MALLORY

Mickey and Mallory Knox. Their story, Natural Born Killers, a murderous rampage through the US wasteland, was originally banned in Ireland for the lead couple’s morbid fascination with carnage. A blood lust which could be read on the wisp of Mallory’s crimson scarf, her head-to-toe red outfit, and Mickey’s sheer t-shirt and gaudy western leather jacket. The jewel in this film’s sartorial crown, however, is Mallory’s “tramp stamp”, a Kafka-like beetle which slithers over her studded belt like a dark mark.

08 / 20

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DICKIE AND MARGE

Call Me By Your Name pales in comparison to costume designer Ann Roth’s vision of the Positano elite. Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow) are the It couple of Ivy League breeding – if you couldn’t tell by Paltrow’s kitchen towel skirts, creamy knitwear, and resort-ready bandeaus, that is. Would Mr Porter exist without Jude Law’s camp collars, knitted polos, and white linen slacks? Probably not!

09 / 20

MADONNA AND TUPAC

As much as they kept their relationship a secret from the press, it’s well known that Madonna and Tupac briefly dated during the 90s, whilst at the top of their respective games. In a letter dated January 5, 1995, Tupac wrote to Madonna, explaining his reasons for their breakup “in case anything happened 2 me”. In it, he speaks of the struggles which came with dating a white woman – one who allegedly said it was her job to “rehabilitate all the rappers and basketball players,” though the rapper did apologise for not being “the kind of friend I know I am capable of being.” On account of their secrecy, there is little evidence of Tupac and Madonna’s fling. The photos which did make it through, however, speak to the couple’s inherent cool. Him, in a bandana and a weighty pendant necklace, and her in a lilac crochet sweater and slick backed hair.

10 / 20

PATSY KENSIT AND LIAM GALLAGHER

Patsy Kensit met Liam Gallagher in a Manchester club, soon marrying the Oasis frontman in 1998. For a brief moment in time they were hailed as brit pop’s answer to the royal family – though, that’s perhaps a contradiction in values. With Gallagher in his trademark tinted shades and parkas, she stepped out in low cut strappy slips and bandeaus. She was the glam to his grunge, the Hershesons blow dry to his beloved monobrow – a tale as old as time.

11 / 20

IMAN AND BOWIE

It was OG supermodel Iman’s hairdresser who first brought his client and David Bowie together on a blind date, sowing the seeds for what would become one of the most enduring love stories to ever hit the tabloids. The duo’s respective style is well-trodden ground, but safe to say they looked like ethereal deity following their 1992 marriage, which “rained” as the model complained in her autobiography. Highlights include quite literally anything Iman pulled from Azzedine Alaia’s atelier – among them sphincter-like bodycons and high-collared leopard print dress-coat ensembles.

12 / 20

BUFFY AND SPIKE

Of all the 00s pop cultural references – which fashion loves to plunder – little is made of Sarah Michelle Gellar in Buffy. Costume designer Cynthia Bergstrom is long overdue her roses, pulling custom looks from Issac Mizrahi, as well as countless understated runway pieces from the early aughts. Fan favourites include Buffy’s long-sleeve white shirt, worn with a giant silver cross necklace and a high ponytail, and the long blue shiny jacket and stretchy purple pants she wears while sprinting down the halls of Sunnydale High. Team this with boyfriend Spike’s Demna Gvasalia-worthy saggy leather jackets and platinum blonde dye job and the cult series fast becomes truly Buffy The Outfit Slayer.

13 / 20

LIL’ KIM AND BIGGIE

Rumour has it that Biggie first came across Lil’ Kim as a teenager, when she was rapping on the corner of Fulton Street, when he immediately asked her to join his entourage. “He became my friend, my lover, my everything. I was his biggest fan,” Kim told Entertainment Weekly in 2016. “He knew I would be the biggest female rapper. I think I inspired him to want to do different things and be different. We were a match made in heaven, like Sonny and Cher or Ashford and Simpson.” This was before Kim began to take huge risks with her fashion, but still, both figureheads were paving the ground for hip hop’s aesthetic. Biggie spearheaded the biggie coat and biggier cross necklace, while she purveyed hoop earrings, corset bustiers, and chain link belts.

14 / 20

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ROMEO AND JULIET

Yes, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was noted for its penmanship and prowess over verse and pentameter, but fashion wise, it was really very boring. Knee breeches and pokey tudor shoes? Ew! Baz Lurhmann’s retelling of the style crossed lovers on the other hand offered an amped-up, sexed-up bonanza. Costumed by Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, respectively, the Montagues and the Capulets stood as sartorial opposites, decked in fitted black outfits festooned in jeweled embellishments, open Hawaiian shirts, and cargo pants. With Juliet dressed in flowing fabrics and clean, pale dresses, she was the heavenly angel sent for Romeo’s knight in shining armour.

15 / 20

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SAILOR AND LULA

David Lynch’s Wild at Heart is a madcap road movie which follows Lula (Laura Dern) and Sailor (Nicolas Cage) as they pinball between filthy motels and desolate roadside bars. While they thwart the chokeholds of the assailants sent after them, the lewd costuming of the dastardly duo still resonates today – filling up moodboard social media accounts and runways, alike. Sailor’s pop-collared, reptilian-skinned blazers, are as much an emblem of the runaway film as Dern’s hot pink body cons, leopard-print leotards, and grandma tights.

16 / 20

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TRIP FONTAINE AND LUX LISBON

Oh to see oneself in the reflection of Trip Fontaine’s tangerine aviators, his beaded necklace taut above his shrunken, leather trucker jacket. It’s what The Virgin Suicides’ Lux Lisbon stared into when she finally captured the school heathrob’s attention. Though Lisbon, perhaps because she was dressed in a nighty-like prom dress, if not school uniform – remember this is Sofia Coppola, it’s a study on girlhood! Universal teenage girlhood! – could not prevent Fontaine from abandoning her, post-coital, because he just suddenly became sick of her.

17 / 20

MIA WALLACE AND VINCENT VEGA

They danced together so it counts. Mia (played by Uma Thurman) and Vincent (played by John Travolta) have become the unlikely fashion proponents of Quentin Tarantino’s hilarious baptism of blood, Pulp Fiction. While Mia was modelled on a female reservoir dog with Chanel shoes and slick, crisp shirting, she ultimately went against the fashion of the time, sporting cropped trousers and paisley bandeaus. And if the mob wife’s outfits ever represented a need for control, then Vincent’s reflected the total lack thereof – “I wanted a linen, rumpled suit because he’s a mess with the long hair and the earrings and I wanted him to have the same outfit that he’s been sleeping in, been living in,” costume designer Betsy Heimann told Dazed.

18 / 20

Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves in The Matrix (1999)

TRINITY AND NEO

They kissed so it counts. Practically suffocated in black latex vests, lug-sole boots, floor skimming coats, and incy wincy sunglasses, The Matrix duo have long been raised to Vetements moodboards season after season, as well as cheesy Halloween fodder. In the upcoming, fourth edition of the franchise – the trailer for which was released today (August 25) – Trinity and Neo are reunited, although they don’t exactly appear to recognise each other.

19 / 20

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

QUEEN AND SLIM

Costume designer Shiona Turini was challenged with creating only two outfits for Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, who go on the run after killing a racist police officer in Melina Matsoukas’ 2019 feature Queen and Slim. So while the film takes a microscope to American racial politics, so too does it fashion. Having pulled references from iconic Black activists and the glory days of hip hop, Turini dressed Queen in a zebra-print dress and snakeskin boots, and Slim in a velvet Sean John tracksuit.

20 / 20

LINDSAY LOHAN AND SAMANTHA RONSON

What a moment. When pop and queer culture came to an astronomic collision in 2008, it produced a canonical celebrity pairing. Lindsay, uber femme, in Hervé Léger bandage dresses and auburn extensions, and Sam, tomboyish in nippy waistcoats and the occasional fedora (unfortunately), had their relationship splashed across the tabloids until it came to an untimely halt in 2009. Gone now, yes, but never, ever forgotten. We thought we wanted Bennifer – but what if it was SamLo all along?

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