Jonas Brothers’ style evolution: From Disney drab to fashion fab – New York Post

At the 2008 MTV VMAs, Joe Jonas was dating Taylor Swift and brother Nick was linked to Selena Gomez.

What a difference a decade has made.

Back then, the Jonas Brothers — real-life siblings Kevin, 31, Joe, 30, and Nick, 26 — were young Disney stars known for wearing purity rings, flat-ironing their hair and singing lyrics about online crushes.

This time around at Monday night’s 2019 MTV VMAs — where they’re nominated for four awards and will perform on the telecast — they’ll do it as fashion-crowd favorites.

“I think we proved [the fashion people] wrong; it took a few years but we got there,” says the band’s one-time stylist Michelle Tomaszewski. “Where they are today is a dream come true.”

They now favor bright, mixed patterns and polished streetwear-inspired looks that match their more mature and candy-colored new album, “Happiness Begins.”

And instead of begging brands to dress them, they’re wearing Prabal Gurung and sitting front row at Paris Fashion Week (Joe’s wife, “Game of Thrones” actress Sophie Turner, is a Louis Vuitton ambassador, while Nick’s other half, Priyanka Chopra, has a deal with Dior).

Tomaszewski first started working with the trio in 2006 at the behest of the teens’ manager, Phil McIntyre. She spent the next five years shaping their image and evolving their squeaky-clean look.

“Working with Disney, it was kind of hard to get them into the fashion labels that they wanted to be in,” she said. “We were definitely limited because a lot of brands didn’t want to associate.”

The ever-evolving collaboration, she says, was meant to make their fans consider them style inspirations as well as heartthrobs.

Some looks pushed the envelope — a braided headband on Joe and Cuban heels on Kevin — but she ultimately settled on ’70s and ’80s-inspired pieces. Those included blazers for Nick, rolled up at the sleeve and paired with a thin tie; brightly-colored skinny jeans for Joe, the risk-taking frontman; and “aristocratic, Oscar Wilde-inspired” accessories such as scarves and ascots for Kevin. It wasn’t until the 2008 MTV VMAs that she was even able to secure clothes straight off the runways.

As the group branched out into their own individual styles — Nick started a solo side project called Nick and the Administration, and Joe fronted a short-lived group, DNCE, while Kevin became a father to Alena, 5, and Valentina, 2 — they amicably parted ways with Tomaszewski in 2011.

Before Tomaszewski was enlisted to sharpen up their image, Nick, Joe and Kevin preferred Ed Hardy T-shirts, hoodies, jeans and old sneakers.

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Tomaszewski piled on the accessories — cowboy boots, jaunty hats, ascots, wallet chains and more. However, Nick was always the most understated. “There wasn’t a time where I ever thought that Nick didn’t do something right; he was always on point,” the stylist says.

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The looks from the 2008 premiere of the Jonas Brothers’ first movie, “Camp Rock,” were so special they were included in the book “American Fashion Menswear,” celebrating “style icons who have made lasting contributions to the way men dress.”

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After a few years in the public eye, the brothers toned down their flashy looks and stuck to modern suiting.

FilmMagic

After parting ways with their first stylist and experimenting with new music, new hairstyles and new facial hair, the JoBros began to shed their Disney past.

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Joe Jonas served as a blue-haired frontman to the group DNCE in 2015. He leaned into wacky colors, patterns and hairstyles.

WireImage

Reunited with new music, the brothers have never had more eyes on them. Avo Yermagyan looks for fashion-forward patterns, wider shoulders and streetwear-inspired looks for the new age of the Jonas Brothers.

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Nick soon hired a new stylist, Avo Yermagyan, for his solo career. He now works with the entire group, back together after a six-year music hiatus.

For the video of their hit single “Sucker,” Yermagyan secured them Prabal Gurung’s menswear looks straight off the runway from last year’s New York Fashion Week.

“I didn’t want to revisit the past with them. It’s a new sound, a new era,” Yermagyan told The Hollywood Reporter in March. “As the grown men that they are now, they all have their own lane.”

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