BETHANY WILLIAMS coat, £1,510, at saksfifthavenue.com
(Picture: William Waterworth)I arrive mid-shoot and Micheal Ward is standing magnificently in a floral-jacquard Maison Margiela jacket. Seeing me, he shouts out in a low, dulcet voice: ‘What’s good bro? Have a snack if you want!’ then smoothly refocuses on being photographed. As you’d expect from his modelling past, he’s a natural in front of the camera, making graceful transitions between laughing with crew to striking a serious pose, the embodiment of good vibes.
I follow Ward around the studio where he meticulously combs through a rack of clothes, constantly consulting with the stylist and his PR as he considers looks that range from cool 1970s-style streetwear to intricate Dior suits. ‘I can only ever wear those things editorially, so I like to take advantage of that.’ He muses on his selection process: ‘It’s about knowing what resonates with me the most, instead of something being imposed on me.’ He has become something of a fashion darling since his meteoric rise as Jamie in Netflix’s rebooted Top Boy. Last spring he fronted the Simone Rocha and H&M collaboration alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones, and he cut a handsome figure among blue skies and fluffy clouds in the late Virgil Abloh’s first-class Heaven on Earth AW20 campaign for Louis Vuitton. In November, he attended his first ever British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall and was a paparazzo’s dream in a vibrant Ozwald Boateng suit. He was active in the process of creating this look with his stylists Zadrian + Sarah, too, he says. ‘I’m Jamaican and you saw I was wearing a yellow shirt and the black and green Ozwald print that he famously uses. For me, it was like a nice tribute to Jamaica, especially for my first BFA.’
