Hundreds attend Harry Styles lookalike contest to celebrate ‘London legend’

Hundreds of people have gathered in central London to attend a Harry Styles lookalike contest to celebrate the “London legend”.

Men and women assembled in Soho Square on Saturday afternoon to see which Styles doppelganger would win the £50 cash prize.

This event celebrating the former One Direction member follows similar competitions in New York and Dublin, which involved Timothee Chalamet and Paul Mescal lookalikes.

Event organiser Katrina Mirpuri told the PA news agency that she organised the Styles-themed event as “it was time that London should have some fun”.

“He’s a bit of a London legend. He’s always out on his Lime bike, and he lives in London, so it just felt right to choose him, and he’s not too hard to impersonate.

“But also, everyone can kind of have their fun dressing up as him.”

The competition which featured 13 contestants had categories for best hair, best dressed, best lookalike and worst lookalike.

The winner of the best lookalike prize went to Oscar Journeaux, a 22-year-old singer and guitar player in west London rock band Parla.

Mr Journeaux was dressed in a brown leather jacket, scarf and sported a similar hairstyle to Styles.

Ms Mirpuri, a 29-year-old journalist from west London, said the event was very much inspired by the Chalamet and Mescal contests.

“The Timothy Chalamet and the Paul Mescal lookalike contests were obviously a hit, and people looked like they had a lot of fun. So I thought London should have some fun,” she said.

While last month’s New York event featured a surprise appearance by the real-life Chalamet, Styles did not appear at the London event on Saturday.

The 30-year-old rose to fame in 2010 after appearing on the X Factor, and enjoyed a successful career as a member of One Direction.

The Brit award-winner, who launched his solo career in 2016, has also had a successful film career, starring in blockbusters such as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.