Dripped out in Gucci in the middle of the Summit Media studio is James Reid. You may have heard of him. Dressed in a designer bowling shirt, gem-spangled blue jeans, and Chelsea boots sharp enough to kill a man, Reid is oozing cool on this fine Holiday afternoon. I ask him if this is his favorite look out of the four he wore for this day.

"I lean more towards retro-feeling clothes and style," he says. "I think that's why it kind of resonates with me, like the patterns and the cuts, everything."

Gucci is a staple in his closet, the actor claims. How many phases of style has Reid gone through, hell, even he doesn't know anymore. "I can say I've come a long way," he quips, gesturing at his current ensemble. "There was that skinny jeans phase. And then I went through the more classic looks, very James Dean-motorcycle vibes. I've gone through my hippie phase, as well."

Clothes maketh the man and Reid definitely has it made. He's a celebrity who has tried his hardest to stay honest with himself throughout his career. A little too honest at times, I might add. He's always tried his best to maintain this semblance of genuineness amidst the gauntlet of fame, even if this meant extra heat coming his way.

"I try to be real," as Reid puts it. "I think Careless has always been very misunderstood and I'm also a very grossly misunderstood person simply because I don't like to be out in the media all the time, having to defend [myself against] every single thing that people say about me."

For a second there, it felt like everyone had Reid all figured out. He was plugged into the Filipino entertainment system as a teenager fresh out of Pinoy Big Brother, and just made sense as a would-be matinee idol. And he was. Reid was good at it, too. The public responded accordingly, evidenced by a legion of fans who followed him and his former partner, the equally stellar (President) Nadine Lustre, everywhere they went, hanging on to every small thing they said. Ah yes, the love team culture wars. What a very real, very serious thing for the Filipino celebrity content machine. What would we do without it, aye? 

Their legend rivaled the biggest love teams of their generation (AlDub, KathNiel, LizQuen, etc.). There was a time in the early 2010s when some JaDine fan could make a plausible case for him being the heartthrob of that generation, along with maybe a Daniel Padilla or an Alden Richards. Of course, Reid proved that he could hang with the best of them. He's grown so much since then.