So its been awhile since I’ve dedicated a post to a style icon. And it was most recently that I became very passionate about the story behind one particular artist. An icon that every girl today emulates without even realizing it. This one goes to Patti Smith. the poet. the artist. the female bob dylan. the original thrift shopper. the style icon. the maverick. You’d most likely think Patti Smith, with her signature androgynous cool, her tousled angel hair, her oversized boysish jacket, a boater shirt tied at the waist(a homage to Ava Gardner) and her beat up jeans were anything but a fashionista and follower of high fashion. But when you look closer you’d find that her roomy jacket was designed my Ann Demeulemeester and her jeans? Ralph Lauren. Patti Smith discovered high fashion at the age of 7, by chance when she stumbled upon a stash of discarded issues of Vogue and Harper Bazaar. Her family could never afford to purchase high fashion magazines. To Patti Smith those outdated issues of Vogue and Harper Bazaar were windows into cultures and the world. And through those pages about Morocco and articles about what to wear while hunting Ms. Smith found herself. She created an identity that would later influence the likes of Christophe Decarnin of Balmain or even you with those distressed jeans sitting in your closet now.
Fashion became a major factor to her musical success. In my opinion without it she wouldn’t have had a career. Fashion and her personal style gave her balls and guts. It gave her confidence. With her white silk shirts, baggy trousers and severe asexual fringe, she was confident she had the look. “Baudelaire Catholic schoolboy,” she called it. The look that would appear on her debut album ‘Horses’
What I admire most about Patti Smith is how she has complete control of her personal style. And how she is entirely aware of who she is. After all, fashion and style is all about being mindful of who you are and then using all your strength to communicate that.
Is it weird that the last time I posted a style icon post I mention how much Freja Beha resembled Francoise Hardy and then I post about Patti Smith and she’s in my collage playing the character of Patti Smith from a recent photoshoot?
