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The Life and Style of Prince – The Last Dandy Megastar
From the naked androgyny of his eponymous 1979 album, to his emotional last appearance in Atlanta last week, Prince Rogers Nelson set his own path in both style and music. To understand how and why he achieved such a unique journey, it’s important to understand a little about his relationships with two key factors in his life: god and sex.
Born into a Seventh Day evangelist family, he later converted to Jehovah’s Witness, and although his sexual preferences were never clear, he regularly alluded to bisexuality. However, he also famously spoke out against same sex marriage in 2008 – although he claims he was misquoted. These themes of sexual and moral ambiguity run throughout his lyrics and musical style, and didn’t so much spill out but exploded into his wardrobe.
Since this is a tailoring blog, I will of course be focusing on Prince’s suits. However, it’s important to highlight that to do so is to focus on the conservative side of his style, since has worn some of pop’s truly radical outfits over the years…
That being said, his suit collection is a marvel to behold. As a clothing medium, The Suit has remained popular and relevant because it is so hard to adapt. Yet Prince used it as a blank canvas, time and again creating unique and exciting pieces. Pieces that, thanks to the depths of his talent (and the mythical status that will be assured by his early death) shall remain in the mens’ style cannon forever…
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