Harry Styles dressed as Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and the internet is going wild for it

This Harry Styles Ariel look should be part of your world

Harry Styles attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019
(Image credit: Theo Wargo|Getty)

Well, this is one fashion influence we didn't see for Harry Styles: Ariel from our favorite Disney movie, The Little Mermaid. 

The "Watermelon Sugar" singer, Gucci god and veritable style icon is going viral on social media today thanks to a leak of photos from his 2019 Saturday Night Live appearance as host and musical guest.

In the pictures, the former One Direction boy bander is outfitted in a princess-worthy seashell bra, green tail and a wig of Ariel's signature long, red hair, with a few fun-loving accessories like a flute of champagne and a lit cigarette to boot. (He is a rock star, after all.) 

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Not surprisingly, the cheeky photos of a near-shirtless Harry Styles caused a—pardon the pun—tidal wave of reactions across social media.

One Twitter user joked "can you draw me like one of your french girls?" quoting an infamous scene from yet another classic movie, Titanic.

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Another post depicted the Harry Styles Ariel pics as works of art hung in a museum, with the caption: "I just think that Harry Styles as Ariel..."

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Many fans of the 27-year-old jokingly used the photos as the "official announcement" of Styles getting the lead role as the mermaid princess in the upcoming live-action adaption of 1989's The Little Mermaid. 

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You might remember that this isn't the first time that Harry Styles and The Little Mermaid have been entangled in the public consciousness.

The singer-actor was actually up for the part of Prince Eric in the live-action remake of the Disney classic, which is set to star Halle Bailey as the titular princess, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, and Awkwafina voicing Scuttle.

However, Styles turned down the role of the puffy-shirted prince, telling The Face magazine in 2019: "I want to put music out and focus on that for a while." The royal role, instead, went to actor Jonah Hauer-King.

Many Twitter users joked about the movie connection, with one posting: "So that’s why harry turned down the role of prince eric, he wanted to be ariel all along." 

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Ironically enough, the shirtless snaps revealed one of the singer's many tattoos: a mystical mermaid, inked on his forearm. According to Hollywood Life, when asked about the inspiration for his then-fresh tattoo back in 2014, Styles replied with a smile: "I am a mermaid."

Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. 


More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York


When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere.