A New Kind of Hero

A very wise 5 year old explained to me recently a theory about happiness,

It was so simple yet profound, imagine you are carrying around an invisible bucket, the bucket contains your happiness, it can be filled by something as simple as a smile, yours or one you receive, by doing something kind for someone or hearing a funny story, likewise your bucket of happiness can be depleted by a crossed word or mean behaviour.

Someone who filled up all our buckets with happiness during the first lock-down this year was Captain Sir Tom Moore, along with our proverbial buckets he filled the coffers of the NHS charities with 38 million pounds by doing sponsored laps of his garden, breaking world records for fundraising.

Captain Sir Tom has broken another record, as the oldest ever cover star of GQ magazine, in the January issue, he is pictured looking resplendent wearing a tuxedo, draped in the Union flag, looking every inch the national hero he has become.

While GQ may have enlisted a stylist for the shoot (where he wore a Hugo Boss dinner suit no less) Captain Tom is no stranger to looking dapper, during his daily fundraising he was always immaculately dressed in his regimental tie, a perfectly pressed shirt under his pristine blazer with his military medals gleaming, polished to perfection, while the majority of us are still reaching for anything with an elastic waist, Captain Tom is debonair, the shot of the 100 year old stood next to his trusty walking frame is iconic.

In the year that celebrities became irrelevant, the hollow nature of  fame was highlighted during lockdown when for a few months there was no where to go and nothing to “plug” In 2020 our heroes have to have more substance, which is why Burberry chose Footballer Marcus Rashford MBE to front their latest youth charity campaign, Burberry released an image of Rashford wearing their signature checked scarf styled as a cape in reference to him being a hero, the Manchester United star has made headlines for his campaign to end child food poverty, causing the government to make a U-turn on their decision not to provide free meals during the school holidays. Using his platform for good, he flew in the face of the preconception about greedy footballers and made good, a modern day hero and now the face of Burberry.

2020 may have been a rough year, but our style icon game is strong, 2021 has a LOT to live up to. 

Image Credit GQ Magazine