Intergalactic glam: Though the 1973 video for “Life on Mars?” doesn’t feature the same eccentric bodysuits as videos like “Starman,” it’s a lasting lesson in Bowie’s fearless fashion and bold beauty. The glam rock god appears in an icy blue suit with eyeliner to match, glossy pink lips, and Ziggy’s signature dyed red hair. Though the look is one of his most well known, it turns out that fashion’s biggest Bowie fan — former Gucci creative director Frida Giannini — was inspired by a different suit Ziggy rocked that same year. The Italian house’s shimmery fall/winter 06 show lifted inspiration from the gold costume Bowie wore on 1973’s Aladdin Sane tour. “Bowie’s shameless androgyny helped women express their masculine strength without losing their feminine glamour and sensuality,” Giannini told Vogue.
The Thin White Duke’s “Golden Years”: 1976’s funk-inflected Station to Station brought with it a new (and the last true) Bowie character, the suavely suited Thin White Duke. The self-described “mad aristocrat” look saw Bowie don crisply cut three-piece ensembles and slick back his newly blonde hair. He largely explored the controversial persona through extensive touring, and this classic Soul Train TV performance perfectly captures Bowie’s new take on power dressing. The look’s slightly boxy shoulders and statement collar paved the way for 80s new wave’s fling with business casual style — later embodied by The Talking Heads’ David Byrne and his massively oversized suit.
The enduring trendiness of “Fashion”: We’d be remiss to omit Bowie’s 1980 style-centric single “Fashion,” which arrived with a truly bizarre music video that featured all kinds of contemporary clothing. The costumes include many garments that would emerge as lasting 80s trends: the masquerade parade wears shabby chic looks not unlike Japanese anti-fashion designs, while the video’s dance troupe favor workout wear. Though “Fashion” seems like a snapshot of the 80s, Bowie’s own outfit reads remarkably current. He tucks an unbuttoned black shirt into what appears to be a baggy, unbuttoned khaki jumpsuit. The neutral colors and billowy utilitarian vibes seem reminiscent of Katharine Hamnett’s designs from the same era, but Bowie’s gently mussed-up mousey brown hair makes it look as though he just stepped off one of J.W. Anderson’s androgynous runways.
50s throwbacks in “Modern Love”: Bowie might not have been rocking the exact same mustard suit that inspired Phoebe Philo’s fall/winter 11 Céline collection, but he certainly cleans up in custard. Bowie stated that the track — lifted from 1983 smash Let’s Dance — was thematically inspired by 50s blues boy turned eccentric funk pioneer Little Richard, but the Starman deftly adapted Richard’s early style, too. A blonde Bowie quiffed his hair in Little Richard’s rockabilly pompadour, and rocked a loose, light yellow suit with the same unbuttoned sharpness as the New Orleans legend. In the video, Bowie is backed by a full section of sax players, many of whom sport striped suits while grooving to the energetic and jazzy effort.
Tilda Stardust shines on: In what was perhaps the most stylish conspiracy theory ever concocted, one Tumblr user sought to prove that Tilda Swinton and David Bowie are actually the same person. But alas, “Tilda Stardust” was debunked when the pair appeared alongside each other in Bowie’s “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” video in 2013. Though androgynous icons IRL, the pair flipped the script by playing a small town husband and wife styled in casual 60s silhouettes, like Tilda’s Audrey Hepburn drainpipes. Instead, models Saskia DeBraw and Andreja Pejic play a gender-bending celebrity couple who invade Tilda Stardust’s home, while Norwegian stunner Iselin Steiro appears as a noisy neighbor styled in the vein of 70s Bowie. In its five-decade-spanning stylistic approach, “The Stars” is a powerful reminder of the enduring fashion iconoclasm of the Starman — an intergalactic glam warrior and sharply suited rocker who re-wrote all of fashion’s rules.
Credits
Text Emily Manning