Jonah Hill Is Dressing for Bliss

Last week, actor and GQ style god Jonah Hill was spotted out in Venice wearing a casual look I can only describe as blissful—and that points a happy way forward for our post-pandemic style.

To start, Hill’s outfit is a great example of a very particular kind of Los Angeles-centric transitional dressing—the kind of ensemble that could take you from an afternoon Erewhon jaunt to an evening Online Ceramics gallery opening. It also had the right amounts of all the components we want to wear now: cozy (a slouchy, just-barely-tie-dyed cotton tee), cool (deeply covetable patchwork denim), and fun (little leopard slippers!). Of course, he paired it all with a peace sign and a smile.

While the slippers may be the outfit’s pièce de résistance, the jeans are the clear focal point. We are deep into the patchwork era, a pre-pandemic trend heralded by designers like Emily Bode—and that took on new meaning given our sudden homesteading. Now, a pair of old denim reworked or repaired with vintage calico fabrics feels like looking in a mirror, a portrait of our crafty collective resilience. And Jonah’s clearly been digging this pair. He also recently wore them with a bright floral button-down, and today, he even posted the original paparazzi pic to his Instagram with the caption “81 and Havin’ fun ☮️”—an escalation of his ongoing caption-game joke that no one knows how old he is. (For the record, he is 37.)

But there’s something a little more than good style happening here. “The bliss point” is a term borrowed from food science that refers to the sensory moment when a consumer likes a product the most—like when a Cheeto begins to melt on your tongue and you’re already reaching for another. Hill’s look suggests a corollary concept: the sartorial bliss point. In a strange time for personal style, we’re asking: how can we find a new outfit formula that will keep us getting dressed to go out and greet the world each day?

Jonah has found the bliss point—he just looks truly happy wearing what he’s wearing. Your own bliss point may or may not involve vintage denim, or a slip-on statement shoe. After a year of slouch-wear, it might even mean the svelte embrace of a dialed-to-the-nines suit. If it makes you happy, it’ll get you there.