Steve Averill (U2 Designer)

Hank Williams is responsible for starting the ‘country’ look – wearing Nudie suits and other cowboy fashions, which were hugely influential. There was an ‘other worldly’ quality to rodeo fashions that he tapped. Williams has been a fashion icon since the ’40s, but the look still retains its power.

Elvis Presley is a fashion icon for obvious reasons. He is the man behind the notion of rock’n’roll as we know it and that infiltrates and informs our sense of style in so many ways. His great strength is that he constantly changed his look.

David Bowie has been a massive style influence. Bowie always contended that one of his greatest assets was his ability to spot trends and he did that in both his music and his image. I always think that artists who dress well put a similar kind of effort into their music: Bowie is a classic example of this.

While Bowie had an influence on the culture as a whole, The New York Dolls were a huge influence on me personally. I was in my mid-20s at the time the Dolls, and people like Marc Bolan, were at large. Again there was great use of cowboy shirts, skate boots, dresses, second hand gems. The Dolls were five individuals with their own personal styles, yet they were looked unmistakeably like a group. Of course, they then went on to influence glam rock and, much later on, the likes of Placebo. That strain is still with us, and they were the real instigators.