Why Bella Hadid and Marc Kalman Were the Most Important Menswear Couple of 2022

For the supermodel Bella Hadid and her art director boyfriend, Marc Kalman, fashion is fundamental. The pair, according to Page Six, were first photographed together in New York City back in July 2020, seen exiting Café Leon Dore in Nolita—the epicenter for a particular streetwear-minded set.

Aside from sparking a rash of “Who is Marc Kalman?” service journalism—it’s not hard to be the “lesser-known” one when you’re dating the most famous model on the planet—their union has spawned some of the most exciting celebrity style as of late. Which is no small feat! Between the fashion-killa instincts of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky on one side of the spectrum and the clashing sensibilities of Justin and Hailey Bieber on the other, 2022 has been a rich text for so-called “couples dressing.” Hadid and Kalman planted themselves right in the middle this year while hitting various global fashion weeks, attending the US Open, and generally traipsing around New York City. Somewhere during that time, their idiosyncratic wardrobes began to meld—making them, from where I sit, the most important menswear couple of the year.

For her part, Hadid’s kooky-prep personal style has only gotten weirder and more sublime over the last few years. She puts clothes together like she’s plunking caviar on a Lay’s potato chip, mingling vampy, high-fashion designer pieces with heady vintage and archival picks, deploying dead-on precision. She also has great taste in menswear. “I dress like a little boy,” Hadid told Vogue earlier this year. “You couldn’t catch me in a dress willingly at this point in my life.”

Cue Kalman, who also has a knack for spiking his steady wardrobe of Hanes white tanks, skater graphic tees, Dr. Martens 1461s, and not-just-“baggy”-but-baggy jeans and work pants with some top-shelf downtown pieces, like a Supreme black leather zip-up jacket and his trusty worn-in Still Kelly hoodie—which, of course, Bella has borrowed. (For the record, Kalman’s been working behind the scenes in art, music, and fashion for years with the likes of Travis Scott, A Bathing Ape, and his creative partner Corey Damon Black. The arty publication 1985 once described him as “a young Fabien Baron, Charles Saatchi and Steve Jobs all rolled into one.”)