Stevie Nicks
Stevie is one whose personal style has remained almost the same since the year she broke into the music world with Fleetwood Mac.
Her costume consists of floaty layers, shawls, long dresses, velvet, lace and silk, giving her an air of mystery. In her early days, she would often wear a Top hat and her clothes reflected the time, wearing bat wing sleeve tops, maxi dresses and flares. Later as her fame and stage presence grew, more long, floaty dresses made of crushed velvet, lace and silk were worn, with large baggy hats, with Elizabethan style plumes eminating from the top of them.
I've always loved Stevies footwear, huge platform boots made of suede to lend a hand to her 5ft 1inch frame on stage. Her hair, always blonde, in the earlier days straight with a fringe, later permed and layered.
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth always had a sense of grandeur about her, even in her later years. Dripping in jewellery, expensive clothes and majestic furs. She was the ultimate Hollywood icon.
Her make-up was always perfect and her eyebrows deserve a websitie of their own.
Although I have nowhere near the same diamond and gold budget Elizabeth had, I do on occassion wear a disgusting amount of Jewellery, an amount so much that Coco Chanel would be turning in her grave.
Edie Sedgwick
As I have already written an in-depth blog of how Edie has impacted me, there is little left to say.
However, Edies make-up alone is something that I have adapted for myself. Once sporting a pair of inch thick eyebrows, I scaled down the look for something more suitable for everyday use. I still have the line above my eyelid and admittedly I still own eyebrows that are slightly thicker than my own. Unfortunately I now have to limit my use of shoulder dusters as the holes in my ears have stretched to a dangerous point.
Brigitte Bardot
As well as the simple classic French dress sense, Bardot also had "THE" hair. I confess, I have used Brigittes hair as a mould for my own (not literally). Her hair however, always looked ever so slightly more effortless. Brigitte Bardot, like Edie has iconic make-up. The smokey feline eye has been used timelessley by women in the limelight over the years. Sadly, I cannot pull this look off, it makes my eyes look small and tired.
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull held a Dandy-esque, 60's, psych sensation to her wardrobe. She was often seen wearingt smart jackets or crombie style coats with flared or tight trousers and smart shirts. She also wore more feminine items like baby-doll dresses with large collars. Her hair, like Bardots had an air of effortless elegance, though less volumous than Bardot.
Jim Morrison
Not so much Jims early (more attractivge) days of leather trousers and blousey shirt, interestingly, Jim Morrisons few later years after he had gained weight and a beard. No, it is not the extra padding and facial hair I crave, but Jims revolutionized style. Jim Morrison adopted a more relaxed, casual look, with riding boots, military jackets and slacks. I'm sure I am just one in millions of people who have been influenced by Morrisons political, radical dress.
Amy Winehouse
Whenever I'm feeling daring or bored of vintage or ethereal dress, I reach for my gold hoop earrings, chunky bracelets and may accompany the jewellery with bigger hair than usual and a change in make-up. I do not however imitate - this would only result in "Oi Amy" as it did five years ago when I had black hair and definately avoided looking like Amy!
Grace Slick
Grace Slick as I mentioned briefly in a previous post is the Queen of psychedelic West Coast Acid Rock. She was hippie exemplified, vegan, LSD user, activist, rock star and her image embodied it. Grace would often wear long maxi dresses, Indian style suits, military jackets, flared suits, or plain beatnik turtle necks and black boots. Her hair, natural brown with a heavy fringe cut in. Her psychedelic print clothes mirrored her psychedelic lyrics.
Katie-Jane Garside
Katie-Jane, the lead singer of Daisy Chainsaw and Queen Adreena (most famously) has a design all of her own. Like her voice, her clothes have a child-like sometimes kinderwhore vibe, often ripped, exposing skin. Her hair however, once dread locked, is tousled, long and a dirty blonde tone. Katie-Jane habitually wears real flowers in her hair and with this combination, projects an otherworldly aura.
Marlene Dietrich
Many People would regard Dietrich as a style icon because of her ostentacious mink coats and diamonds. I deem her a style icon because quite frankly, she used to wear mens clothes. Marlene was one of the first women to start wearing masculine cuts in shirts and military style mens hats, without looking neither like a man nor a woman in mens clothing. She has influenced people like Madonna who also played with gender identity and left the door open for the rest of us to toy with androgyny.
Aunty Kim
Unless you watch the mind-numbingly simple soap-opera, Eastenders, it is unlikely you'll know who I'm talking about. Kim or 'Aunty Kim' is the comical, confident, often brazen sister of Denise. Kim adorns herself in faux-fur coats, tight fitted dresses and shoes suitable for the Jewish Princess. Kims hair is asymmetric, coloured and modern. She too wears a little too much inexpensive jewellery. Much like myself, Kim seldom dresses appropriately for occasion. I love her!
There we have it, the top eleven people who have encouraged the final outcome of how I dress now. I would love to know if anyone else has a list like this and who's on it?!
