By Courtney E. Smith
Fashion concerns the way you adorn yourself with clothing and accessories, but the real essence of it is the style and manner in which one goes about doing just that. There’s something captivating in the confidence that certain women have to carry off a piece that not just anyone could wear. We find ourselves fascinated by their uniqueness and the story they tell us about themselves with their sartorial choices. Those women are fashion icons.
Musicians and fashion have a mixed history, at best. There are arguably more tragedies on the GRAMMYs and MTV VMA red carpets than any other awards, which is a huge part of what makes them so much more fun to watch. But there are also so more opportunities for a personal connection to fashion in music than other forms of art, starting with stage costumes which many, including Lady Gaga, Dolly Parton and Karen O wear to evoke the theme of the deeply personal music they’ve written and are performing.
There’s also the look that women develop to support their persona–it’s their everyday sense of style that keeps us captivated by musicians like Jane Birkin, Beyoncé and Gwen Stefani. Some are barrier breakers and tradition buckers, like Patti Smith, Laura Jane Grace and Beth Ditto. And there are those who keep us riveted by shining on the red carpet, like Eartha Kitt, Rihanna and FKA twigs.
These metrics, and the certain je ne sais quoi that some women exude, were the factors that determining the women who made the list of the 35 most fashionable women in music history.
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35. Courtney Love
(Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images)
Courtney Love was among the leaders of the thrift-store chic look in the grunge era and made a sharp left turn when she went Hollywood in the late ’90s. What makes her iconic is her ability to shift between the two looks now; going from fitting in on the front row for major American designers like Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs to manhandling her guitar while rocking a slip on stage. Love is a master at creating a stage persona with more is more and then paring it down for sartorially enviable daytime and red carpet looks.
34. Lily Allen
(Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
When Lily Allen came on the scene her thing was a mix between chav and ’60s girl group vibes, with flourishes of ’90s ghetto fab. But her overall spunkiness caught the eye of some very important people in fashion, including Karl Lagerfeld who has dressed her in Chanel for major red carpet events since 2007. Her style, outside of when she sits front row at Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, is the very definition of eclectic, making her a master of the high-low mix.
33. FKA twigs
(Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
FKA twigs is one of the most fashionably adventurous musicians around, capturing the attention of fashion mag editors and designers right out of the gate. She not only embraces out-there designs but has the wherewithal to pull them off. By working with stylist Karen Clarkson, twigs has turned creating an exterior id with fashion into a fine art.
32. Shirley Manson
(Pat Pope)
Nihilism meets neon. Industrial meets classic. Feminine meets masculine. The remarkable thing about Garbage front woman Shirley Manson’s style over 20 years is that it remains both paradoxical and in-your-face. Her fashion choices are never meek, always as unique and bright as her trademark red locks.
31. Janelle Monáe
(Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Janelle Monáe’s thing is having a uniform. You will almost always find her in what she describes as hers: a jacket and pants, black or white clothes and her hair in a quiff. That choice is in part to honor her past; the mother who was a housemaid, the step-father who worked at the Post Office and the father who was a garbage collector all wore uniforms. What she does with accents, accessories and customization to make the uniform special and suited to each event makes her exciting to watch.
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30. Lana Del Rey
(Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Nostalgia is a look, or so Lana Del Rey is out to prove. Her soft-spoken persona coupled with copious American flags and clothes and a hairstyle that hint it a idealized idea of a the better days of a past America have captured the attention of a slew of fashionistas. It also gives her free reign to go from white frocks and a flower crown to a leather jacket and jeans without breaking character; where those things might seem contradictory, the reality is she’s playing every character in Rebel Without a Cause.
29. Tina Turner
(Courtesy Hip-O Records)
When you think of Tina Turner, the first image that comes to mind is probably a micro-mini dress, a long, beautiful wig and those legs. From her ’60s polyester days to her ’80s leather dress days, she made the idea of a stage costume that allowed a focus on dance to become a mainstream thing, paving the way for the stage spectaculars we expect from Beyoncé, Madonna and Katy Perry today.
28. Patti Smith
(Courtesy of Arista Records)
Proto New York punk pioneer Patti Smith brought androgyny to a scene full of disco queens, spandex outfits and frilly Karen Carpenter dresses. She is the origin of the American idea of effortless cool.
27. Dolly Parton
(Keystone/Getty Images)
Everyone knows Dolly Parton’s famous quote about her style, delivered with a wink and a laugh; “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” Over the top is her motto, from all the chiffon and ruffles she wore in the ’60s to the flowered maxi dresses she swayed around for the ’70s to the cosmetic surgery she explored in the ’80s and the short and sparkling outfits she’s worn since the ’90s.
26. Björk
(Courtesy One Little Indian Records)
From that swan dress at the Oscars that no one will ever forget to her visual partnerships with Michel Gondry and Juergen Teller to those twisted buns only she seems to be able to pull off, otherness is the key to Björk’s style. She is never on-trend. She doesn’t even create trends, because her style is so outside of what anyone else would dare attempt. She simply exists in her own unique universe.
25. Josephine Baker
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Ernest Hemingway called her “the most sensational woman anybody ever saw–or ever will.” Josephine Baker was so sensational that fashionable women, from Rihanna to FKA twigs to Beyoncé, still pay tribute to her today. That she came up in the time of flappers and art deco contributes to the timeless quality of her style.
24. Karen O
(Trixie Textor/Getty Images)
From her earliest days, Karen O has worked in partnership with designer Christian Joy on her remarkable stage costumes. The duo evolved from ripped tops, shorts and torn fishnets to proper thematic costumes designed to reflect each of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs albums. Where O considers herself conservative off-stage, she attributes her ability to get wild on stage to a side of herself that Joy’s designs unlock.
23. Kathleen Hanna
(Sophie Howarth)
As the singer for Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hanna was a spokeswoman for riot grrrl in the ’90s. Her outfits included writing the words slut, kill me and incest on her body (or her t-shirt) and pairing it with a pair of panties. In the ’00s she and the members of Le Tigre handmade their costumes, sewing sequins on everything. Hanna has done DIY for decades, crafting looks that any girl could create but keeping them feminist. Hanna uses fashion to play with gender roles, to address the male gaze with a firm f— off and to make feminist statements. She’s a one-woman revolution made of t-shirt material.
22. Eartha Kitt
(Central Press/Getty Images)
Fierce may have been invented to describe Eartha Kitt. This glamorous lady was known for wearing the most glittering of gowns, the highest of high fashion and could rock an animal print better than anyone.
21. Laura Jane Grace
(Ryan Russell)
Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! is obviously a groundbreaker as the first transgender rock star to transition in public. While she’s stuck with a rocker aesthetic of lots of black and leather for her basic clothing building blocks, it’s been cool to see her express herself with new clothes, makeup and even nail polish. The freedom to grow your hair long, wear smoky eyes and a dress is everything for someone who denied themselves those choices for so long.
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20. Jessi Colter
(Courtesy Capitol Records)
Jessi Colter was the female outlaw. As the wife of Waylon Jennings she was the feminine face of an otherwise all-male movement. Colter and Jennings loved Arizona and New Mexico and it shows in her ’70s style: heavy on turquoise, silver and white cotton. She absolutely nails soft with a hard edge.
19. Diana Ross
(ShowBizIreland/Getty Images)
A huge part of red carpet spectacle as we know it today owes a debt to Diana Ross and her costumes. She’s about big hair, big makeup, sparkles and jewels. She defined style in the ’60s and ’70s and has never been afraid to go big.
18. Beth Ditto
(Dominique Charriau/Getty Images)
It’s no coincidence that a national conversation about body consciousness started shortly after the Gossip’s profile went atomic in the music scene. Singer Beth Ditto modernized punk for a new generation, with the punkest aspects of her look channeling radical feminism and total body acceptance. It rubbed off on the fashion industry, who rushed to embrace her. Jean Paul Gaultier sent her down his runway in 2010, M.A.C. collaborated with her on a makeup line in 2012 and Jeremy Scott made her wedding gown. It’s hard to get more credible in fashion than that.
17. Gwen Stefani
(Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect)
Gwen Stefani has merged SoCal style with reggae influences, Harajuku girls with classic blonde bombshell style and mall clothes with high end designers. She’s the master of mashing up two distinct looks to create a unique style for herself.
16. Carmen Miranda
(George Konig/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
For a long time Carmen Miranda was not held in high esteem. The Brazilian (by way of Portugal) who wore fruit on her head was seen as ripping off a culture she wasn’t from and stereotyping South American people. Interpreted by a new generation, her costumes are coming out of their negative light and into a camp perspective. Even if you’re still getting over Carmen Miranda and all she represents, it’s easy to see her imprint in female artists struggling to bring an outside culture to the mainstream.
15. M.I.A.
(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
M.I.A. is one of the only Western pop stars bringing Eastern symbols into her everyday and stage style. Be it Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist, she drapes it on and then runs through a rave or a Bollywood set for that extra something. She’ll mix up a hoodie and a metallic belly shirt with faux leather leggings. She’ll pop on a pink wig under a hijab. She’ll style J. Crew with American Apparel and Marc Jacobs and not think twice. And she’s about the only woman who’d don a huge polk-a-dot dress at nine months pregnant for an appearance on national TV. What would be a hot mess on anyone else is something she pulls off.
14. Marlene Dietrich
(Eugene-Robert Richee/Getty Images)
Marlene Dietrich’s ability to cross-dress in men’s suits made her Madonna’s icon, but she could fiercely rock a fur stole and heels as well. She was doing the cone bra in gold lamé decades before Gaultier was on this earth and Azzedine Alaïa was custom making gowns for her before anyone who starred in Clueless was born. She is the original fashion diva.
13. Marianne Faithfull
(Michel Comte)
You know Marianne Faithfull was basically the most beautiful girl in England in the ’60s because she landed the hottest rock star of the decade, Mick Jagger. What makes her so continually fascinating though are the years after she grew out of being a sweet, innocent looking young lady and became a sexy, husky-voiced woman. The truly memorable decades for Faithfull are the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s, when she explored relationships with important fashion photographers and designers and gained a certain maturity in her look. Every woman should be so lucky as to have her shelf life.
12. Lady Gaga
(Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Coty Beauty UK)
The meat dress at the VMAs, the egg-born arrival at the GRAMMYs, the penchant for unfathomably tall platform heels; Lady Gaga is a walking fashion statement. Whether you love or hate her style, she has injected a new level of spectacle into every red carpet she strolls down and every stage on which she performs. Her distinctive, lavish sense of style is undeniable.
11. Loretta Lynn
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
If you think of women in country music as down home, simple dressers you likely got that impression from Loretta Lynn’s ’60s and ’70s style. In those days she was the champion of country chic. What’s fascinating about her style, though, is the way she reinvented herself in the ’00s and began performing in these giant ballgowns for which she’s become known. The concept has given many a contemporary country singer pause to think about how they’re going to eschew the idea of growing old gracefully and dress for the stage when they hit their 70s.
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10. Beyoncé
(Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Beyoncé gets a lot of credit for her red carpet style, where her game is strong. She has her own particular stage style that she tends to stick to closely, if not a bit repetitively. What Beyoncé has really made her own is street style. With her Instagram and Tumblr pages she’s taken to sharing everyday looks from her life with fans and proven that her edit on a random Sunday is as compelling as what her stylist puts together for the VMAs red carpet. As fashion blogging grows by leaps and bounds, we might look back and find that Beyoncé was one of the most influential voices in the arena.
9. Jane Birkin
(Joseph McKeown/Getty Images)
Today we know Jane Birkin as the woman after whom the most sought-after handbag in the world is named (good luck on the waiting list). That has certainly kept her top of mind for fashionistas for decades, but her trademark effortless style was the forerunner to our modern obsession with street style. She’s also known for showing women how to dress cool during maternity; she absolutely killed it when she was pregnant with daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg.
8. Nina Simone
(Courtesy of Sony Legacy)
In the late ’60s and for all of the ’70s it was far too easy to go wrong with your fashion choices. There was just a lot of ugly out there, in that time period. Nina Simone manages to always go right. Mixing head scarves and African-inspired accent pieces with the silhouettes of the time (pantsuits, flowing maxi dresses, oversized collars) gave her a timeless look in a very dated period. Her love of statement jewelry took her look from everyday to extraordinary. She was an innovator, playing with racially charged accessories in a time when it truly was a politically statement to do so.
7. Grace Jones
(Courtesy of Island Records)
Grace Jones is the most intimidating woman in the world. Her androgynous, glamorous style during the heyday of punk and new wave set New York on it’s ear. She was sexy and very sexual while rocking a crew cut and man-sized shoulder pads in her suit jacket. Her stunning, almost navy blue-black skin paired with a killer set of cheekbones gave her a unique face. And if all of these things sound confounding, you must remember: she did it all with a great sense of fun and whimsy. Seriously, her look is one only Grace Jones could pull off. There will be no imitations.
6. Debbie Harry
(Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Debbie Harry is the stunningly beautiful singer of Blondie and the femme face of new wave to mainstream America. She’s perhaps best known for her two-toned hair and the iconic looks she created with designer/stylist Stephen Sprouse. She inspired massive numbers of women to wear tube tops, graphic t-shirts and experiment with mixing prints. She’s perhaps the biggest fashion icon who considers herself anti-style.
5. Siouxsie Sioux
(Courtesy of Decca Records)
Siouxsie Sioux is the woman who launched a hundred thousand goths. She is the paragon of female goth, mixing jet black and spiked hair, innovative eyeliner, bright lips and head-to-toe black into a look that became the ideal for this niche culture. Her signature look, not much changed for over 30 years, is the basis for every goth Halloween costume, every goth character in Hollywood and held up as the pinnacle of beauty for every girl sincerely gone goth. It’s a lot for one woman to take on, especially in a subculture whose stars are almost entirely male. Through Siouxsie and her gender-bending style, female goths learned to hold their own–and deftly apply kohl eyeliner in almost any situation.
4. Stevie Nicks
(Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records)
Stevie Nicks is the witchy woman of rock & roll that every other rock chick wants to be, but her style is so unrepeatable that to do so only marks you a poser. One should only replicate the Stevie look in small, knowingly appropriated bites rather than by the plate full. She has maintained her own distinctive look, consisting of shawls, black dresses and long blonde hair, since the ’70s but it’s not exactly clothes that make this woman. What makes us want to be Stevie is her unwavering sense that she was born for this. It shines through in her artistic choices, her attitude and the kooky wardrobe choices that only a maverick with total self-confidence could pull off.
3. Cher
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
There are two distinct phases in the history of Cher: before Bob Mackie and After Bob Mackie. When you look back at Cher’s hippie days in the ’60s and early ’70s, she dressed kind of like everyone else: fringe, cotton dresses, ho-hum. But after she began collaborating with the designer in 1971, her red carpet game kicked up a notch. Think of her dress, designed by Mackie, for the 1974 Met Gala–yes, the one that was Kim Kardashian’s inspiration in 2015. Every one of the iconic and nutso outfits she wore to the Oscars, including the year she one a little gold statue of her own for Moonstruck, were designed by Mackie. He’s also done most of her tour costumes over that time, including for her upcoming world tour. It’s rare for a collaborative relationship with any stylist and artist to last so long, but Cher and Mackie have been going strong and making the fashion world gasp for 43 years.
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2. Rihanna
(Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)
It wasn’t clear that Rihanna was going to be a fashion icon until relatively recently–circa her 2011 album Loud, to be exact, when she started working with stylist Mel Ottenberg. It’s like a light went on after Rihanna put on couture and can never go back. She became the first black woman to serve as the face of Dior in the house’s history. She’s been on the cover of Vogue so many times that we’ve all lost count, not to mention every other women’s fashion magazine. She won the CFDA’s Style Icon award and made a political statement about Instagram’s censorship of nudity by wearing a see-through gown on the carpet that became one of the most Instagrammed moments of the year. She is, at present, the most coveted woman in music for any fashion house to dress because she is a sartorial adventurist. She swings from classic to eclectic in the space of hours and doesn’t hesitate to buck the dress code of the event she’s attending or the expectations of the audience. Her mutability and seemingly sincere interest in fashion as an art form make her a dream for high end fashion designers and fascinatingly unpredictable for the world to watch.
1. Madonna
(Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect)
Above all, Madonna is a chameleon. Her early ’80s days as a “boy toy” who turned women on to the idea of underwear as outerwear and inspired a slew of young women to emulate her looks down to the last detail. She played with androgyny, she played with John Paul Gaultier’s cone bras, she accessorized with religious imagery (Catholic and Jewish), she became Eva Peron, she got a cane, she got a grill and she never stopped showing us her amazing thighs while tastefully encased in fishnets–and that doesn’t even cover the last 10 years. If someone asked you to dress like Madonna for Halloween, you would have so many options and eras to choose from. Her ability to reinvent herself so many times and generate so many iconic looks that are identifiable as Madonna is an endless source of fascination and the reason she is the top style icon for female musicians, throughout all of history.