I wish i could say that David Bowie has influenced me throughout my life but sadly he has not... not through dislike to him of course, simply the fact that he was not listened to in my house as a child.. i think my first memory of him was from his hit "Lets Dance" from the same titled album in 1983 and since then he has fascinated me. Since becoming a vinyl collector i have managed to acquire all of his LP's and they are regular visitors to my record player. Its not just his music or the artwork that fascinates me is his ability to change his persona and what a body of persona's he has....Davie Jones, The Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane covering all genres from glam rock to rock and roll. In 2013 he pulled it out the bag with his first album in 10 years "The next Day" with a series of amazing videos to go with it. The album ending the year on a high topping the 2013 most selling record chart and amazingly the whole thing was kept a secret from the press until its release and he sounds and looks as good as he did way back when he was just Davie Jones...well he certainly looks better. Today i want to celebrate not just his Birthday and achievements but his fashions. David Bowie was not a dedicated follower of fashion he was a fashion leader...he even penned a song entitled Fashion for his 1980 album Scary Monsters. We all like to think that David Bowie fell from space ready for action in his winged sparkly catsuits and face paint...but no he started off as a very dapper young man all suited and booted. The year 1962 saw David as a fashion leader starting off the trend at his school with tapered trousers and even dyed his quaffed hair with food colouring while playing with the band The Konrads. Not sure who decided on their artwork but Bowie's future album covers certainly suggests he had a hand in it
Then with the late 60's David Bowie's first major style shift came OUT with the mod and IN with the Hippie Era. During his Mod years he worked at an advertising agency and i guess the suits went with it and with his escape from the job he hated into full time performance came his dalliance with long hair, maxi dresses, blouses and of course his first marriage in 1970 to Angie Barnett, the wild child daughter of a US army Colonel. Angie was a major influence in Bowie's persona changes and the next few years were certainly a roller coaster ride for them. His first outing in a dress was the cover of "The man Who Sold the World" with Bowie reclining like a Pre Raphaelite in a dress designed by Michael Fish the designer whom is accredited to starting the Peacock Revolution and of course the Man dress worn by both Bowie on stage and Mick Jagger, and it all started from here i guess with outlandish outfits worn to shock, impress or simply to feed his desire to find or maybe to just forget himself.
From here on he certainly hit the scene big time more for his outlandish ways, along came Ziggy stardust with his hair dyed red too match the colour of a photo of Marie Helvin styled by Susie Fussey from the Evelyn Paget Ladies Salon who then went on to be the The Ziggy Stardust Tour Hair stylist and wardrobe assistant before meeting an marrying Mick Ronson. The hair style was taken from a magazine featuring a Kamsai Yamamoto fashion show. Ziggy's make up was the brainchild of Pierre Laroche originally from Algiers whom came to England via France and joined the tour after working for Elizabeth Arden for 5 years and needed to break free due to there need to make him work a little more "conservative", he went on to become THE make up artist to the stars and was responsible for Bowie's most famous looks.
Bowie went on to hire Kansai Yamamoto after attending the first Japanese Fashion show to be held in the UK in 1971 to design his outfits for is Aladdin Sane Tour which included the outlandish space samurai suite and one legged/one armed body suits and of course this is when the iconic lightening bolt made an appearance.
His zany fashions took many twists and turns but in the mid seventies he went to a Temptations concert and from then his music took a much more soulful turn and his fashions took a step back and once again took on the persona of his music. He opted for Yves Saint Laurent tailored suit in powder blue's and in came his "Thin White Duke" look. Bowie loved the dandy side of tailoring and the famous Ola Hudson (guitarist "Slash"'s Mum) monochrome suits certainly showed the "thin" in his White Duke look with 26" waists to go with his pale make up. Ola was costume designer to the stars including Yoko Ono, Diana Ross and Ringo Starr. After Starring in the cult Movie The Man Who Fell to Earth Bowie saw a turn in his life and he took off to Berlin to be amongst the burgeoning music and art scene, moving in with Iggy Pop and taking on Brian Eno's cut up strategy for writing songs cutting up words from papers piecing them together as song lyrics, here his monochrome image stayed giving him that moody look with quiffs and leather jackets
Come the 1980's and once again Bowie was back on the fashion trail coming too life as a new romantic and once again turned to the designer Natasha Korniloff whom designed the famous cyber clown suit for his Ashes to Ashes cover in 1980, she was also attributed to his "Pierrot in Turquoise" outfit for his stage debut in 1967.
In 1997 Bowie commissioned one of Britain's most loved designers Alexander Mcqueen while he was the chief designer at Givenchy to make him a Union Jack frock coat complete with cigarette burns to wear while looking over our green land for the sleeve of Earthling.
Now here in 2014 we look back to last year which saw the release of his long awaited album, filming for Luis Vuitton advertising campaigns, sell out Bowie Retrospective at the V&A and to top it off he was crowned Best Dressed man of all time by BBC History... beating kings, queens and political bigwigs.
All Hail David Bowie i say and may he keep delighting our ears and eyes or more years to come.
Many Happy Returns Mr jones
