‘Is that a boy, or is it a girl?’: Mick Jagger and Patti Smith
First Year, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Fashion), FINETE! I concluded this semester with a fashion history essay on the topic of androgyny. It was titled “‘Is that a boy, or is it a girl?’: Mick Jagger and Patti Smith’. Anyone who is interested in fashion history, punks or the 60s should read on.
In the past year, music has become a massive influence to my design as well as having a big influence on what I do on the weekend and what I spend my spare cash on (which is usually pretty thin on the ground these days). Next year, i’m thinking my second major may be in music. In the future, i’d love to be able to combine a fashion/music career, although i’m not sure at this stage how exactly i’ll do that.
Here is an excerpt from the essay:
As a self confessed outsider, Patti Smith moved to New York City at age 20 after the birth of her first child. The cover of her iconic album ‘Horses’ displays a young woman of whose distinctive features are part of the reason she lends herself so well to androgyny. She is tall and lean, pale with dark hair – completely unlike the ‘ideal’ female of the 70s, who had blonde Fawcett locks, a curvaceous sports-toned figure and a tan. Patti Smith was boyish and could easily have been mistaken for Joey Ramone. Smith describes herself as ‘full of references… I flung my jacket over my shoulder, Frank Sinatra style’.
and another…
Jagger, as mentioned earlier displays all the flamboyance of a French aristocrat prior to the Revolution – coiffed hair, makeup, colour and glamour. The quote ‘it is natural that men with strong exhibitionistic desires should admire women at the same time as envy them for their opportunity for bodily and sartorial display’, could be entirely true of Jagger – he befriended, dated and married beautiful women. In contrast, Smith’s look could be described as quite minimalistic. Comparisons could be drawn to Anglomania, a style populated by George Bryan Brummell, the influence of which continues to echo through fashion today. Anglomania can be described as a ‘no frills’ style – colour palettes were usually natural or monochromatic, garments were free of adornment, wigs were simplified and later, their use was retired completely. This was the period in which the dark men’s business suit became a wardrobe staple. Smith not only wore the punk uniform, but also a uniform which Flugel describes as ‘useful’, ’simple’ and ‘sober’. This uniform aimed to redefine the modern man and meet the catch cry of the Revolution – ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ – three words that accurately summarise the political and social motivations of the Punks.
Here is a whole lot of beauty..
Zu&Cco 