We Should All Dress Like Freddie Mercury, and Here’s Why & How
Fearlessly flamboyant, exuberant, and fashion forward, Freddie Mercury was the ultimate rock star chameleon, whose style was as iconic as his music. “I’ll always walk around like a Persian popinjay. And no one’s gonna stop me, honey!” once said the legendary Queen frontman, and today we are here to look back at his high-glam and theatrical style, which, on the eve of the longtime-coming biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, is having a moment.
But before we take a deep dive into Freddie’s glam and fashion, here’s a little back story which may help you get a better sense of how he developed his fashion sense.
Freddie’s hero was Jimi Hendrix. He once watched Hendrix play on nine consecutive nights. Prior to Queen glory, he shopped at Biba (an Indian clothing brand), bought hippy gear at Kensington Market, and was on hand for the counter-culture revolution. He went to Ealing College of Art in 1966 — a hip joint whose alumni included Pete Townshend of The Who, and Ron Wood, guitarist with the Faces and later the Rolling Stones — and graduated with a diploma in graphic art and design in 1969. He lived in a rented flat in Kensington, and started a Kensington Market stall with his new friend, Roger Taylor. In the 1960s and 1970s, Kensington Market catered to hippie and bohemian culture.
All these experiences and surroundings undoubtedly shaped his sense of style, but it wasn’t until he met Zandra Rhodes, a then fledgeling fashion designer, that his fashion really began to take shape. Freddie famously visited her studio while she was fitting a wedding dress, fell in love with the dress and wanted it then and there. Rhodes cut it in half and gave it to him. That pleated creation became one of the most iconic images of his early years as a rock star. “He was a hidden revolutionary in the fact that he dressed exotically and wore make-up. I think he was probably one of the founders of the androgynous movement in fashion,” Rhodes told Another Man magazine.
As Queen became the most famous rock band on earth, Freddie became the most exuberant rock’n’roll frontman. From sequined catsuits with plunging necklines, feathers and boas, to dressing up as a housewife for the “I Want to Break Free” video in a leather skirt, pink top and disc earrings, his stage fashion morphed and transitioned, and became more daring and theatrical.
As the Eighties rolled in, Freddie changed his look again. He became influenced by the leather and S&M subculture in New York gay bars. He grew his trademark moustache and started wearing leather jackets. Those were his glam-rock years, when he went for an edgier and more masculine cut. “He was the only person on the planet who can wear skin-tight jumpsuit emblazoned with thunderbolts at Wembley Stadium and make even the most toxically masculine of men wish they were you,” wrote Joobin Bekhrad in GQ.
Toward the end of his life, and particularly for his incredible duet, Barcelona, with the now-late opera singer, Montserrat Caballé, he tossed his red leather trousers and spandex and replaced them with chic and minimal double-breasted suits and blazers.
But how to adopt the distinct Freddie Mercury style today?
For starters, we can see Freddie’s theatrical act influencing many of today’s contemporary designers. Nowhere were all these influences more present than during the most recent rounds of collections, from Fall 2018 (in shops now) through to Spring 2019 (just seen). If you are into an all encompassing menswear and womenswear – check out the white vest and trouser combination in Casey Cadwallader’s new Mugler collection, or the velvet military jackets at Saint Laurent.
The glorious Balmain Spring 2019 collection went big on Mercury’s trophy jackets, all sharp shoulders and serious surface design, Y Project showed feathers and boas, and Junya Watanabe used Queen soundtracks to accompany her womenswear shows.
What do you guys think? Can the Freddie Mercury style now be real life, not just fantasy? Are you planning on watching Bohemian Rhapsody, which opens October 24?
