Louis Partridge and I have been chatting for roughly 30 minutes when our conversation is derailed by a bout of juvenile giggling. You see, the 20-year-old actor – currently sitting on the cusp of mega-stardom, to say nothing of the front row at Prada – is giving me a whistle-stop tour of his iPhone’s camera roll. “My dodgy hypebeast phase,” he says, wincing good-naturedly as he rolls through a series of snapshots of his 14-year-old self absolutely living for Yeezy trainers (“I used to queue for them”) and Stone Island everything (“get the badge in”).
Much like Partridge, this moment is nothing if not endearing, possessing many of the hallmarks of a certain sort of British boy who came of age in the 2010s. While he might be wearing a simple white tee and jeans today, it’s clear that the Wandsworth-born internet sensation has always been “very into fashion”, though the fact he is now an ambassador for the aforementioned Prada never fails to surprise him. “I can’t believe they keep hiring me,” Partridge marvels when we meet for a cappuccino in Dalston, east London, not long after his return from Milan men’s fashion week this past January. “I’ve got an old photo [of me] wearing a Raf Simons jumper from about 2015, so to be able to meet him every time I go to a show is amazing. Not that I’ve told him that…” he says, trailing off.
Simons, the Italian fashion house’s co-creative director, is just one of the big names in fashion and film the actor now considers a friend. There’s Bryan Cranston, who gave him some sage advice on how to deal with his exploding fame (“just be grateful that you’re here and you’re working”); two-time co-star Millie Bobby Brown who “always made me feel calm and comfortable on set”, and whose wedding he will be attending later this year; as well as the new raft of young British screen talents he runs in something of a pack with, be they Kit Connor or Iris Law – not forgetting, of course, the American pop star and unofficial Gen Z queen Olivia Rodrigo, with whom he is rumoured to be in a relationship.
Partridge, with his Disney prince good looks (unruly chestnut hair tucked behind an ear, envy-inducing cheekbones, sleepy, wide-apart eyes), is at a peculiar juncture in his career where he is now greeted at film premieres by screaming fans, and has his movements followed by the long lenses of the paparazzi, but is still living with his parents and two sisters at the family home in Clapham. When he was younger, he says, he was “a bit of an annoying brat”, but now promises he’s “a good, solid brother”.