Shawn Mendes Is Pushing Past the Envelope

3 min readWhen Shawn Mendes sat in the front row at the Gucci resort show in Times Square this past May, he had one key takeaway: “I felt like I was a part of something iconic that people in 20 years would be referencing,” the 28-year-old musician says.Turns out, he’s even more a part of it than he initially believed. Today, the Gucci brand ambassador been revealed as one of the faces of the new era of the Italian fashion house in the Primavera campaign.Photographed by Michal Chelbin, the campaign features Mendes alongside other A-listers in their fields, like model Alex Consasi and a man you might know from the football field, Tom Brady. The collection is a celebration of the first runway show from recently installed creative director Demna (born Demna Gvasalia) and a look at his interpretation of the 105-year history of the brand.The clothes themselves—sexy, bold, provocative—were compelling on their own. But it was Demna himself who pulled Mendes into the new era of Gucci. “He just had so much sincerity, humility, and groundedness to him,” Mendes says. “I felt really connected to his vision.”One of the biggest factors in that vision was the shape and silhouette of the clothes. “That's what I know about fashion: silhouettes are so important,” Mendes says. “I guess being a performer, everything on stage is shot in a silhouette.”TheStewartofNY//Getty ImagesMendes at the Gucci show in NYC earlier this year.In the campaign, Demna’s eye for proportions is evident as Mendes confidently wears a fitted black T-shirt with trousers from the collection. The simple look feels distinctively Demna-era Gucci, with the shirt shaping the body. The darker styling, paired with Mendes’s tattoos and a black glove, gives the look a more confident edge.“He's really working with the shapes of the human body that are flattering, that feel natural, that feel organic. And that, to me, is my number one thing,” says Mendes.Mendes is speaking from a place of creative evolution of his own. He finished his “On the Road Again” tour celebrating his most recent album Shawn and the 10-year anniversary of his debut record, Handwritten. The tour was a big step for the singer as he reflected on his career while introducing a more mature direction for his music, which is now influencing his personal style.Taylor Hill//Getty ImagesMendes performing at Artists for Aid in January of 2026.“I'm trying to let go of this idea that I've had about myself: that to care about fashion is to care too much about yourself,” he says. “I've started to really enjoy fashion—enjoy the clothes I'm wearing, really enjoy looking a certain way in public, and finding real excitement and joy in that.”As he transitions to a new creative chapter, Mendes is embracing a sexier, more vulnerable style as he enters this next decade in his career. He’s leaning toward something refined, masculine, and fashion-forward through his partnership with Gucci and Demna.“It was constantly pushing myself a little further than I've ever been,” he says of working with Demna. “I really trust him. For some reason, I just trusted him to bring me into a new place in a way that was special for me.”He’s pushing himself musically, too. “I've been setting up a studio in Brazil for the last little while, so I'm headed into the studio today—kind of the first day of starting up my next album. So that's what I'm working on. I have so many ideas in my head and my heart, but there's nothing I could say in solid terms. All I could say is that I think it's going to be very special this time.”