- Culture
- 19 May 03
People are very surprised when I tell them one of my big influences, fashion wise, is Brian Jones – he has implanted this notion of style in my mind, which I guess is unusual for a girl!
When the Beatles arrived with their clean suits, the Stones, Brian in particular, were having none of it. The Stones were definitely individual but Brian took it a bit further. He wore women’s clothes, especially trousers, as they were a better fit and were available in brighter colours. He was also a big fan of costume jewellery. Brian broke boundaries, and once he got going, everyone jumped on his bandwagon – his whole look was the starting point for ‘hippy chic’.
He was a fan of Ossie Clarke, the fashion designer to the stars, who ended up dressing Bowie. In fact, most of the suits today on the catwalk are copies of what he did. In turn, girls started dressing like Brian Jones, especially Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithfull, who were the first to try the whole ‘androgynous’ look.
Steve Marriott is the ultimate Mod. He was the real thing – I guess you could say the Mod revivial comes right back to him. Everyone from Paul Weller to Oasis have name checked him. With his clothes and hairstyles, he really had his finger on the pulse.
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He was a fan of street fashion – he was the first to wear striped jumpers, cravats, square toe shoes, white belts and hipster pants, which became the trademarks of the mod look.
Once the drug scene had changed, and people in the late ’60s were smoking pot and taking LSD, his direction changed, although he was still the quintessential mod. He started wearing velvet, and the hair got longer and the trousers got wider. He kind of became a bit of a rock boot-boy. But he stayed looking good until the end.