His ground breaking career was as much about
style as it was about music — David Bowie plundered a wild array of
influences to redraw the boundaries of fashion and blur the lines between
masculine, feminine and other-worldly.
In the middle of Burberry’s London fashion show, a model showed her palms
to photographers, displaying a name written in big black capital letters:
“Bowie”. To the sound of the late singer’s hits, the British label’s CEO
and creative director Christopher Bailey welcomed the few hundred people
invited to the unveiling of Burberry’s new menswear collection as London
Men’s Fashion
Week drew to a close.
“He’s a complete legend. We will all miss his creativity, his style and the
elegant way that he approached everything,” said Bailey, who was born in
1971, the year Bowie released seminal song “Life on Mars”. “I grew up with
him. He’s kind of been an undercoat to my creative life
forever,” he told reporters in the city where Bowie grew up.
A brilliant and visionary musician, David Bowie experimented with a
kaleidoscope of images and styles as a counterpoint to his musical
adventures. One of his best-known hits is named “Fashion”. Dubbed the “King
of Style” by some fashionistas, he had recently worked
with British designer Sir Paul Smith on the artwork for his latest album,
“Blackstar”.
“A lot of people are considered celebrities today when they have only
experienced popularity for one or two years, but he was exposed to the
public for about 46 years, and so his talent was very very clear, very
impressive,” Smith said. For London Collections: Men the designer recreated
his first shop replete with items that influenced him — including many
nods to the singer, such as a book of Bowie photos.
Tributes from sartorial taste-makers flowed from beyond London. For French
designer Jean Paul Gaultier, whose avant-garde work includes designs
influenced by Bowie, the musician was an “absolute rock star” and a “cult”
in his own right. “Personally, he inspired me with his creativity, his
extravagance, his sense of reinvention, his allure, his elegance and
playfulness with genre,” he added.
The flashy makeup and striking red mullet of “Ziggy Stardust”-era Bowie
inspired Gaultier’s 2013 ready-to-wear spring-summer collection. Fellow
French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac saluted Bowie on France’s RTL
radio station, declaring Bowie “a cosmic pioneer in all fields.” (By:
Edouard Guihaire, AFP)
Photos: AFP and Burberry/Paul Smith Facebook