There were hints Shawn Mendes was coming to London. Old-school, pin-up style, pictures of the 24-year-old Canadian musician tearing off a rugby shirt have been splashed on black cabs and bus stops across town. In a screened-off corner of the Tommy Hilfiger Knightsbridge offices on Monday, I find him reclined on a cobalt blue chair, giggling away with the namesake American fashion designer.
Mendes is currently something of an enigma. He rose to fame young in 2013, with short singing clips on Vine, the video-sharing precursor of TikTok, before releasing international hits ‘Stitches’, ‘Treat You Better’, and, in 2019, ‘Senorita’, a joint single with his then girlfriend singer Camilla Cabello. But for almost two years there have been no new songs, and just a handful of public excursions saved for the most exclusive events — The Met Gala, The Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty and the Tommy Hilfiger fashion show in New York.
