Mike Bosset 
Freelance
After a decade fronting the ad campaigns of almost every big name in fashion, ascendant model Kit Butler is never not researching.
When you imagine models’ homes, there are two schools of thought. First, the futuristic, ultra-modern apartment you see in their scripted YouTube house tours, all steel and glass, a £3,000 midcentury sideboard just there to prop up coffee-table books. Or there’s the infamous shared house: more a frat than anything else, filled with newbies wanting to make it big. Maybe that’s why there’s a surprising homeliness to Kit Butler’s place in Oxford. In his living room, landscape paintings adorn the walls, and stacks of books sit on side tables next to knickknacks and odd lamps. As he talks, his mum Christine, who also lives there, chimes in from her spot on the couch.
The man himself is a little bit unexpected, too. With a Yankees baseball capjammed down over his face and an oversized sweater on, Butler is his version of unassuming. He has a habit of looking down and away when he speaks.
Jacket and polo shirt by Commission. Trousers by Wooyoungmi. Trainers by Puma x Noah. Watch by Cartier. Headphones, Mondo by Defunc.
Black top by Prada. Red top by Saint Laurent from Rokit Vintage. Kilt by Vivienne Westwood. Shoes by Dr Martens x Stussy.
It’s only after he takes off his cap that you might recognise his face. He’s probably stared down at you from Versace billboards and on Prada runways. Butler is, simply put, beautiful – a reductive description of someone who is paid to be good-looking. Nevertheless, it’s true. Under the cap is a neat set of brunette waves, a pair of hazel eyes and the granite cheekbones of someone who frequently gets told “You must be a model.” (Butler has the best possible response: “Yes, I am.”) But as is usually the case in the exacting world of fashion, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; great cheekbones and being 6ft 2in doesn’t necessarily make a model. Butler’s appeal, no doubt, is not only in his innate handsomeness, but just how many shades of that handsomeness there are. In some lights, he’s a 1940s movie star — directors frequently cast him to cosplay Second World War pilots or aristo Englishmen. There’s a boyish charm in there too, which brings in the preppy ads for Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, head tossed back in a smile. Yet, slick back his hair and add a flick of eyeliner, and he’s got the menace and severity to mean mug the camera in the name of high fashion. Photographer Brett Lloyd, a longtime collaborator of Butler’s, puts it best: “He’s got a great nose. He’s got all of his angles going. Cheekbones in the heavens. But it’s those eyes, you know?”
Coat by Marine Serre. Shirt and tie by Auralee. Trousers by Champion. Socks by Falke. Shoes by G.H. Bass.
Suit by Dior Men. Cardigan by Hades. Tie by Fendi. Watch by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
Born to parents Tim and Christine – Chris, chiming in again, describes herself and her husband as “ordinary academic folk” – Butler was more concerned with studying and rugby growing up. Next to school and a promising career as a flighty outside centre for the London Wasps, he might have been destined for a life of delightful normalcy; the fact that he’s model-beautiful almost an inconvenient snag in the plan. When he was scouted, it felt that way. Butler was discovered while working with his uncle in an aeroplane hangar, a gangly 16-year-old driving around a forklift on his summer break. Former model Mackie Alcantara approached him to tell him he should speak to an agency.
“I didn’t know much about fashion,” says Butler, now 26. “I didn’t know it was a real job. All I knew was what I’d seen in The Devil Wears Prada. So I actually slightly laughed at him and said, ‘Oh, good one, I’m gonna get back to work,’ and drove off.” Alcantara was persistent. He convinced him to come in for a casting, and Butler was signed on the spot while still at school. (Alcantara, for his part, knew he was in the right from the beginning: “Occasionally someone comes along who has something beyond just great looks, and I could see it here. It’s easy to photograph well, but you also need depth of personality and feeling to make a great photo – he had this the moment I met him.”)
Vest by Courrèges. Shorts by Vivienne Westwood. Boots by Untitlab.
Top by Dolce & Gabbana. Trunks by Wales Bonner. Shoes by Adidas.
Shockingly, a 16-year-old juggling school and a modelling career wasn’t instant smooth sailing. On the eve of a Burberry shoot, Butler was punched in the face during a rugby game and turned up to set with a black eye swollen shut. Then creative director Christopher Bailey had thoughts, and Butler’s role was recast. Later, while on a school exchange trip to Paris and under the influence of a crush on a local girl, Butler got a poorly translated and badly done haircut that led to his axing from a high-profile campaign. “I didn’t work for four months until it grew back,” he says. “I got one of the most expensive haircuts anybody could ever get.”
But, despite Butler’s initial success, including his fair share of high fashion gigs, he began to plateau into a routine of mass-market bookings. Commercial modelling jobs pay the bills, but lack the creativity of editorial work, which is considered the truest test of a model’s capabilities. The idea being: anyone can do a department store catalogue, but not everyone can close Burberry. “I was drifting towards being very commercial. I was shooting a lot of the M&Ss, the Mangos, the Zaras,” says Butler. His high fashion career was revived in 2020 when he was personally cast by Balenciaga creative director Demna for the brand’s return to couture. “When I was told ‘Kit, you’re confirmed for the Balenciaga couture,’ I was on holiday and I said to my agent, ‘I think you’ve called the wrong person,’” Butler says.
Top by Dsquared2. Pants by Willy Chavarria. Shorts by Bode. Shoes by Puma x Noah.
Rugby shirt by Fendi. Top by Sunspel. Shorts by Costume Studio.
Post–Balenciaga rebirth, Butler’s client list reads like a stroll down New Bond Street: Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Givenchy and Burberry (this time with both eyes fully open). In 2023, he was named model.com’s Model of the Year, as voted for by industry peers – the title that has been claimed by the likes of Lucky Blue Smith and Jordan Barrett; Butler’s 2023 win ended Alton Mason’s run of five consecutive years. Over the course of his career, he has appeared on 34 covers, shot more than 100 campaigns and ads, and walked more than 170 shows.
Home in Oxford earlier this year, Butler again walked in the Silverlining charity fashion show to support people who have suffered from a stroke, as Butler’s own dad did in 2018. On set, he’s invited to contribute suggestions (says Lloyd: “I’ve been on set a few times where, at the end of the day, you can kind of see that I’m struggling, running out of ideas. [Butler] is very receptive like that. He’s like, ‘Brett, what about this? What if I do this?’”) and comes equipped with research about the client he’s shooting for. His mother joins in: “We thought, right, if you’re going to meet this big photographer, you need to know something about his work.” Butler makes a concerted effort to meet everyone on set and is happy to run a round of tea for the team – a rarity to the point of myth.
Blouse and trousers by McQueen. Armour leg and helmet from Costume Studio. Pinky ring by Bunney.
Denim set by Auralee. Jacket by Our Legacy. T-shirt by Two Steeples. Shoes by Acne Studios. Belt by The Vintage Showroom. Gloves by Massimo Osti Studio.
Butler has his goals in fashion, including a list of unconquered clients and photographers he’s working to book. But off set, he’s equally as enterprising. Outside his regular routine (keeping fit, reading, keeping up with his Oxford mates, plus “rock climbing, golf, tennis and a bit of martial arts… but don’t tell my agent”), Butler has plenty he wants to achieve. There may be a business degree on the horizon. He’d like to write a book with his brother. He’s not ruling out acting, or fashion design. There’s even a bit of joking-but-perhaps-not-joking about dance lessons.
There are whispers of a certain super title, an accolade very rarely suggested and even more rarely ratified. While there was a pack of them in the ’90s, in modern times only a handful of women have laid claim to the title – two of them are Hadids. For men, the numbers dwindle even further. Sean O’Pry, Jon Kortajarena, Tyson Beckford, Godfrey Gao and David Gandy may well be the only established male supermodels, alongside the reigning Mason. Butler’s potential ascension into those ranks is a beast he won’t look directly in the eye. And although he may joke about it (“I maybe shouldn’t say this, but Alton and I have sometimes joked and called ourselves the Kate [Moss] and Naomi [Campbell] of men”), let it be clear: he does not consider himself a supermodel.
“I just consider myself as Kit from Oxford, you know? Everything else is just extra. The recognition of, I suppose, my hard work in these last 10 years is very enjoyable. But awards aren’t my main drive. Titles aren’t my main drive. I just want to be able to be happy with the work that I leave behind and feel I’ve contributed more than just a pretty face.”
When you imagine models’ homes, there are two schools of thought. First, the futuristic, ultra-modern apartment you see in their scripted YouTube house tours, all steel and glass, a £3,000 midcentury sideboard just there to prop up coffee-table books. Or there’s the infamous shared house: more a frat than anything else, filled with newbies wanting to make it big. Maybe that’s why there’s a surprising homeliness to Kit Butler’s place in Oxford. In his living room, landscape paintings adorn the walls, and stacks of books sit on side tables next to knickknacks and odd lamps. As he talks, his mum Christine, who also lives there, chimes in from her spot on the couch.
The man himself is a little bit unexpected, too. With a Yankees baseball capjammed down over his face and an oversized sweater on, Butler is his version of unassuming. He has a habit of looking down and away when he speaks.
Jacket and polo shirt by Commission. Trousers by Wooyoungmi. Trainers by Puma x Noah. Watch by Cartier. Headphones, Mondo by Defunc.
Black top by Prada. Red top by Saint Laurent from Rokit Vintage. Kilt by Vivienne Westwood. Shoes by Dr Martens x Stussy.
It’s only after he takes off his cap that you might recognise his face. He’s probably stared down at you from Versace billboards and on Prada runways. Butler is, simply put, beautiful – a reductive description of someone who is paid to be good-looking. Nevertheless, it’s true. Under the cap is a neat set of brunette waves, a pair of hazel eyes and the granite cheekbones of someone who frequently gets told “You must be a model.” (Butler has the best possible response: “Yes, I am.”) But as is usually the case in the exacting world of fashion, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; great cheekbones and being 6ft 2in doesn’t necessarily make a model. Butler’s appeal, no doubt, is not only in his innate handsomeness, but just how many shades of that handsomeness there are. In some lights, he’s a 1940s movie star — directors frequently cast him to cosplay Second World War pilots or aristo Englishmen. There’s a boyish charm in there too, which brings in the preppy ads for Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, head tossed back in a smile. Yet, slick back his hair and add a flick of eyeliner, and he’s got the menace and severity to mean mug the camera in the name of high fashion. Photographer Brett Lloyd, a longtime collaborator of Butler’s, puts it best: “He’s got a great nose. He’s got all of his angles going. Cheekbones in the heavens. But it’s those eyes, you know?”
Coat by Marine Serre. Shirt and tie by Auralee. Trousers by Champion. Socks by Falke. Shoes by G.H. Bass.
Suit by Dior Men. Cardigan by Hades. Tie by Fendi. Watch by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
Born to parents Tim and Christine – Chris, chiming in again, describes herself and her husband as “ordinary academic folk” – Butler was more concerned with studying and rugby growing up. Next to school and a promising career as a flighty outside centre for the London Wasps, he might have been destined for a life of delightful normalcy; the fact that he’s model-beautiful almost an inconvenient snag in the plan. When he was scouted, it felt that way. Butler was discovered while working with his uncle in an aeroplane hangar, a gangly 16-year-old driving around a forklift on his summer break. Former model Mackie Alcantara approached him to tell him he should speak to an agency.
“I didn’t know much about fashion,” says Butler, now 26. “I didn’t know it was a real job. All I knew was what I’d seen in The Devil Wears Prada. So I actually slightly laughed at him and said, ‘Oh, good one, I’m gonna get back to work,’ and drove off.” Alcantara was persistent. He convinced him to come in for a casting, and Butler was signed on the spot while still at school. (Alcantara, for his part, knew he was in the right from the beginning: “Occasionally someone comes along who has something beyond just great looks, and I could see it here. It’s easy to photograph well, but you also need depth of personality and feeling to make a great photo – he had this the moment I met him.”)
Vest by Courrèges. Shorts by Vivienne Westwood. Boots by Untitlab.
Top by Dolce & Gabbana. Trunks by Wales Bonner. Shoes by Adidas.
Shockingly, a 16-year-old juggling school and a modelling career wasn’t instant smooth sailing. On the eve of a Burberry shoot, Butler was punched in the face during a rugby game and turned up to set with a black eye swollen shut. Then creative director Christopher Bailey had thoughts, and Butler’s role was recast. Later, while on a school exchange trip to Paris and under the influence of a crush on a local girl, Butler got a poorly translated and badly done haircut that led to his axing from a high-profile campaign. “I didn’t work for four months until it grew back,” he says. “I got one of the most expensive haircuts anybody could ever get.”
But, despite Butler’s initial success, including his fair share of high fashion gigs, he began to plateau into a routine of mass-market bookings. Commercial modelling jobs pay the bills, but lack the creativity of editorial work, which is considered the truest test of a model’s capabilities. The idea being: anyone can do a department store catalogue, but not everyone can close Burberry. “I was drifting towards being very commercial. I was shooting a lot of the M&Ss, the Mangos, the Zaras,” says Butler. His high fashion career was revived in 2020 when he was personally cast by Balenciaga creative director Demna for the brand’s return to couture. “When I was told ‘Kit, you’re confirmed for the Balenciaga couture,’ I was on holiday and I said to my agent, ‘I think you’ve called the wrong person,’” Butler says.
Top by Dsquared2. Pants by Willy Chavarria. Shorts by Bode. Shoes by Puma x Noah.
Rugby shirt by Fendi. Top by Sunspel. Shorts by Costume Studio.
Post–Balenciaga rebirth, Butler’s client list reads like a stroll down New Bond Street: Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Givenchy and Burberry (this time with both eyes fully open). In 2023, he was named model.com’s Model of the Year, as voted for by industry peers – the title that has been claimed by the likes of Lucky Blue Smith and Jordan Barrett; Butler’s 2023 win ended Alton Mason’s run of five consecutive years. Over the course of his career, he has appeared on 34 covers, shot more than 100 campaigns and ads, and walked more than 170 shows.
Home in Oxford earlier this year, Butler again walked in the Silverlining charity fashion show to support people who have suffered from a stroke, as Butler’s own dad did in 2018. On set, he’s invited to contribute suggestions (says Lloyd: “I’ve been on set a few times where, at the end of the day, you can kind of see that I’m struggling, running out of ideas. [Butler] is very receptive like that. He’s like, ‘Brett, what about this? What if I do this?’”) and comes equipped with research about the client he’s shooting for. His mother joins in: “We thought, right, if you’re going to meet this big photographer, you need to know something about his work.” Butler makes a concerted effort to meet everyone on set and is happy to run a round of tea for the team – a rarity to the point of myth.
Blouse and trousers by McQueen. Armour leg and helmet from Costume Studio. Pinky ring by Bunney.
Denim set by Auralee. Jacket by Our Legacy. T-shirt by Two Steeples. Shoes by Acne Studios. Belt by The Vintage Showroom. Gloves by Massimo Osti Studio.
Butler has his goals in fashion, including a list of unconquered clients and photographers he’s working to book. But off set, he’s equally as enterprising. Outside his regular routine (keeping fit, reading, keeping up with his Oxford mates, plus “rock climbing, golf, tennis and a bit of martial arts… but don’t tell my agent”), Butler has plenty he wants to achieve. There may be a business degree on the horizon. He’d like to write a book with his brother. He’s not ruling out acting, or fashion design. There’s even a bit of joking-but-perhaps-not-joking about dance lessons.
There are whispers of a certain super title, an accolade very rarely suggested and even more rarely ratified. While there was a pack of them in the ’90s, in modern times only a handful of women have laid claim to the title – two of them are Hadids. For men, the numbers dwindle even further. Sean O’Pry, Jon Kortajarena, Tyson Beckford, Godfrey Gao and David Gandy may well be the only established male supermodels, alongside the reigning Mason. Butler’s potential ascension into those ranks is a beast he won’t look directly in the eye. And although he may joke about it (“I maybe shouldn’t say this, but Alton and I have sometimes joked and called ourselves the Kate [Moss] and Naomi [Campbell] of men”), let it be clear: he does not consider himself a supermodel.
“I just consider myself as Kit from Oxford, you know? Everything else is just extra. The recognition of, I suppose, my hard work in these last 10 years is very enjoyable. But awards aren’t my main drive. Titles aren’t my main drive. I just want to be able to be happy with the work that I leave behind and feel I’ve contributed more than just a pretty face.”
