Decoding Maya Jama and Stormzy’s couple style – and how they could conquer the fashion world
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The photograph of Maya Jama and Stormzy walking hand-in-hand down the street in Hydra wearing coordinating white outfits could be to 2023 what David and Victoria Beckham in his-and-hers leather trousers and biker jackets was to 1999. That is to say, a moment which crystallises their renewed power-couple status and cements them as the fashion double act of the moment.
I can’t have been the only woman in Britain trying to track down Jama’s perfect white cotton skirt, keenly aware, of course, that I could never pull off the bikini top part of the outfit. Equally, Stormzy is one of a tiny minority of men who can wear a white vest and get away with it.
Fyi, there’s no word yet on the provenance of the skirt but Free People and Reformation have similar styles. Jama’s raffia sandals are a £510 design by Chloé, which Jama helpfully photographed up close for an Instagram photo “dump” from her Greek sojourn. Stormzy’s look is also largely designer: his shorts are by Givenchy and his trainers are Balenciaga, though charmingly he did later change into Crocs.
Their relaxed yet polished outfits feel far more grown-up than the ones they wore when they were photographed together at Stormzy’s 25th birthday in 2018. He was in Calvin Klein boxers and Burberry checked shorts and Jama wore cut-off denim shorts and a bikini top. In the four years they’ve spent apart, Jama and Stormzy have each become style stars in their own right.
Jama was on the cover of Vogue’s August issue, describing how “she was just pinching [herself] the whole time” during the shoot with legendary photographer Steven Meisel, and she’s also the face of Dolce and Gabbana’s autumn/winter advertising campaign.
Her Love Island and red-carpet wardrobes (masterminded by stylist Rhea Francois) consist of body-con dresses which emphasise just how “exceptionally hot” (Vogue’s words) she is.
But no matter how glamorous she looks, Jama’s appeal is in how she’s always remained down-to-earth. When I interviewed her in 2018, she told me that if she has a big event, she gets her hair done the day before then sleeps on it, because it looks better – and she extolled the virtues of Gap hoodies.
Meanwhile, Stormzy’s style influence ranges from the unlikely heart-shaped sunglasses with which he’s become synonymous to the Banksy-designed stab vest which he wore to perform at Glastonbury in 2019, igniting a conversation that went far beyond fashion.
But he’s also at ease in the world of high fashion, thanks in part to the guidance of his stylist Melissa Holdbrook–Akposoe to whom he dedicated last September’s Mel Made Me Do It single.
This year alone, he’s attended the memorial service for Vivienne Westwood, walked the Met Gala red carpet wearing a cobalt blue rose-print Burberry suit and sat beside British Vogue editor Edward Enninful at the British fashion house’s LFW show.
When they were last together, Jama and Stormzy were only photographed together a handful of times. At the Elle Style awards and the Glamour Women of the Year awards in 2017, she dazzles in sensual, silhouette-skimming dresses while he looks dapper in crisp suits – an undeniably good-looking couple but perhaps lacking the coordinated Beckham-level finesse which began to emerge in October that year, when they were both in relaxed tailored outfits: his navy, hers cream.
Now back together with their personal brands much more elevated than when they were last together, fashion industry domination awaits. The only question that remains is the occasion they’ll choose for their official power-couple relaunch and, of course, what they’ll wear.
