Ahead of her time, Yoko Ono is the definition of “multi-disciplinary”. The artist-slash-musician rose to prominence in New York’s downtown art scene in the early 60s, performing with experimental art collective Fluxus before creating the conceptual artworks we know and love today: 1964’s Cut Piece, 1966’s Mending Piece and Yes Painting, and the infamous Apple (1966) that would mark the beginnings of her relationship with John Lennon.
As avant-garde as Yoko’s art was, her style was very much of its time. Think Mod boots and cropped trench coats in the 60s, and leather hot pants, slinky slip dresses, and mega platforms in the 70s. And while she’s much, much more than just a Beatles’ wife, she kind of did write the rulebook for rockstar girlfriend dressing (fur coats, floppy hats and knee-high boots — they’re all there!). On the occasion of Yoko’s 90th birthday, we look back at some of her most iconic outfits of all time.
In her studio, 1967
Yoko Ono began her artistic practice in the early 60s, with projects that spanned the realms of installation, performance, film and music. In 1960, she began hosting a series of concerts and art shows in affiliation with experimental art collective Fluxus. The following year, she held her first major public performance at Carnegie Hall. Around this time, she also began creating the conceptual art installations that have become somewhat of an artistic hallmark, including Painting to Be Stepped On (1960/1) and Cut Piece (1964). Here, in her London studio, Yoko wears a slouchy cable knit sweater to record herself singing, perhaps in preparation for her 1967 Music of the Mind concert in Liverpool.
At Vienna Airport, 1969
Yoko met John Lennon in 1966 at London’s Indica Gallery, where she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit Unfinished Paintings. The couple married three years later. Here, the duo board a plane at Vienna Airport not even a month after tying the knot, Yoko wearing an all-white get-up — trench coat, floppy hat and Mod boots — similar to her wedding look.
At the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam, 1969
One of Yoko’s most iconic outfits is actually more of an infit: a set of crisp white cotton pyjamas worn during her infamous honeymoon bed-in with husband John at Amsterdam’s Hilton Hotel.
At Cannes, 1971
In 1971, Yoko attended the Cannes Film Festival to debut Apotheosis, an experimental 17-minute short directed by herself and John. To the presentation, she wore a pair of leather hot pants — a Yoko signature — and matching knee-high boots.
Arriving at Heathrow Airport, 1971
Before 2022’s blade sunglasses revival, there was Yoko Ono. She first wore these shield-style shades in the early 70s and they have since gone on to become one of her style signatures. Here, John and Yoko are pictured arriving in London for the paperback release of her book Grapefruit — a collection of thoughts, poems, drawings and ideas.
At home, 1971
As you may have gathered by now, Yoko loved a pair of hot pants. Here, at home in Tittenhurst Park, she wears an itsy-bitsy paisley-printed romper, similar to the look she wore to the launch event of art book Grapefruit that same year.
Backstage at the Grammys, 1975
It wasn’t all hot pants, all the time for Yoko. For the 17th annual Grammy Awards at New York’s Uris Theater in March 1975, she wore a slinky green pastel slip dress with a feather boa and an embroidered bag that perfectly complements John’s rhinestone ‘Elvis’ pin — the result of a life-long obsession with the star. Yoko would later wear the look to the premiere of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band On the Road off-Broadway production.