Fashion Icons

[kola]

they became the 80's version of flares, after a time... seriously uncool to wear... now they are very trendy, i picked-up loads of them about three years ago and squirreled them away for future use... now they sell like hot-cakes.
i used to wear quite a few in the early 80's, black polyester ones with band-names printed on them[:D]
the holy grail of skinny ties is...(drum-roll) the black one with piano keys on it, as sported by anyone who played a synth on a guitar-strap ...and now much sought after!!!

not forgetting "KING" who had the airbrushed Doctor Martin boots - big 9-hole ones, with artwork on the sides... you could even get clear plastic ones with a baby's face on them ("space baby"), that was quite a look...

i also went in for the echo&thebunnymen intellectual wino look for a while (big raincoat and ripped jeans)...

[WolverineSyr]

I still have a ton of skinny ties! Including a very nice black one.....

I also have a nice marroon one with a snake-like design on it - I think that one's from the '50's though.

I hope they make a comeback. I'm ready.

[design_femme]

[quote][i]Originally posted by kola[/i]
<br>i also went in for the echo&thebunnymen intellectual wino look for a while (big raincoat and ripped jeans)...
[/quote]

me too. Did that all throughout high school. And I'm chick.

I think Howard Jones' look (black beret, black trench, long scarf, spiky brightly colored hair) in his "What Is Love?" video also goes with that Bohemian, intellectual look. (Hell, the video was filmed in Paris, so go fig.)

[KYYX4ever]

Don't forget Duran Duran's influence on countless boy and girl wavers....the fedora, little jazz shoes, elf boots, fake military outfits, all of that. Not to mention countless Nick Rhodes and John Taylor hairstyle imitations, by girls AND boys. I saw that EVERYWHERE, all over the West Coast and Pacific Northwest back in the day...the bleached bangs flopping oh-so-cute over the eyes. My fave look, personally. Other new wave bands looked similar, but DD were truly the masters at it. If I ever saw a guy with those John Taylor bangs, I had an instant crush.[:I]

[vco]

Japan--they introduced the fashionably dressy look w/ lots of makeup and carefully coiffed hair towards the latter part of their career. Duran Duran borrowed liberally from them in terms of appearance and musical inspiration. DD had a bigger mainstream following, but it would be hard for, imho, anyone to say that Japan wasn't a direct influence on DD & shouldn't at least share part of DD's credit as being a trendsetter.

[getyourbootson]

I don't mean to sound offensive, but I have no idea where you got the idea that Duran was influenced by Japan. I highly disagree. I love both bands, but how can that be when they were both doing similar things at the same time? I don’t find any Japan influences in Duran’s music, nor their style.

That would be just like saying, The Cure owes Siouxsie and the Banshees credit for influencing them, or vice-versa. It just doesn’t make any sense. How can either influence the other when they are both around at the same exact time and doing the same exact thing. I love both bands, but they are different in their own ways.

Similar bands might encourage, motivate and inspire each other. But influence each other? I don’t think so, especially where Duran is concerned with Japan. I think they (Duran) might have a high regard for their (Japan) talent, but that is as far as it goes.

Furthermore, Duran was doing synths and New Ro when Japan was still a Glam Rock band. /

[guyinsf]

I was also skeptical about Japan influencing Duran Duran but since I don't know anything about Japan, I didn't want to bring it up, but someone else was thinking the same thing. The reason I scratched my head when I read that was I was looking at the first duran duran album cover and it's dated 1981 and the look is already very new romantic with the big hair and heavy makeup. So if Japan was influencing DD at the end of Japan's career and DD came out with their debut album around 1981, does that mean Japan had been around for years before 1981? If the answer is yes, than maybe DD was influenced by Japan but if the 2 bands started at the same time, then the argument of Japan influencing DD would be so valid.

[guyinsf]

I meant to say in the last sentence
"then the argument of Japan influencing duran duran WOULDN'T be so valid."

[getyourbootson]

Japan first started coming out with the New Ro sound in ’79 sometime with Life in Tokyo. Duran Duran, while not releasing anything in ’79, were already playing stuff like Planet Earth. Wasn’t life in Tokyo produced by Giorgio Moroder (sp.?)? And since Duran Duran has always said they were influenced by Disco (Chic), it makes sense that they would both have similar influences. But if you think about it, Duran Duran had a vision from the very beginning in the late seventies, which was to take punk, rock-and-roll and disco and shove them altogether and come up with something new, which in my opinion, they kept that vision for some time and grew from it. Japan, on the other hand, had a vision (or maybe they didn’t) and decided it wasn’t working, so they changed their format. Japan was a Glam Rock band, then all the sudden they were “New Ro.”

However, we are talking about fashion here, and I have to remember that. But, the reason I refer to the music is because I think the music influences greatly the way a band decides to portray themselves, fashion wise. But I don’t think Duran would be influenced by a band that “suddenly” decided to start recording New Ro sounds when they were already working on it before Japan.

So in that respect, I think that the New Romantic movement in general had an influence on both bands. More than just Japan were dressing that way back in ‘79/’80 A LOT of people and bands were doing it.

[Abercrombie-Ai]

I like David Gahan's Blazers.[:)]

[getyourbootson]

Speaking of Dave Gahan, if it wasn't for him, I don't think anyone would have worn white denim jeans!

[vco]

Disagree if you want (I take no offense at all, just difference of opinion), but if you listen to "European Son", "Life in Tokyo", "Halloween", "Methods of Dance" and then compare it to the material of DD's 1st album, you'll see a lot of similarities. I never said DD ripped them off, but I do believe (and many DD fans I know feel the same--I'm one of them) that they were influenced heavily. Yes, I know about the quotes about being influenced by Roxy Music and Chic, but most bands don't credit either contemporaries or bands just before their time with being an influence.

http://blogalive.blogspot.com/2005/01/t ... japan.html

http://fans.frenziedsilence.com/sylvian/about.php

[getyourbootson]

I see your point. For example, Quiet Life (the song) does have a lot of qualities that Planet Earth does. I see a lot of similarities with both of those songs. And yes, that album was released a year or two before Duran's debut. However, I still disagree, hehe. Maybe we can agree to disagree. ;o)