Thank U 2 every1 who replied, from what I have gathered it was 2 do with Prince changing his name 2 the and the whole "1958 - 1993" which was seen on the cover of Come and was also around this era and then something about Heroin Chic and then for some reason Graffiti Bridge got dragged into it...

^^ U got it !

IMO it was all about playing with image. The makeup style and clothing was just what he chose to wear at the time--no deeper symbolism than that. He was about separating an image apart from the others. He did a spectacular job of it!

>

I don't know how Graffiti Bridge got dragged in, either--I bit on it, too. But once a discussion of a specific characterization of Prince is introuduced to the forum, people will be tempted to throw their own preferred subject of that particular theme into the thread!

But there ARE styles that come and go. No celebrity lives outside that. The hungry pale look WAS in. Some make-up DOES bounce light off unevenly in photographs, common knowledge even today.

Some here don't like Prince's athletic clothing either. Too young to realize it was a hot thing at the time, a la Let's Get Physical. Before that, nobody wore athletic clothing for street or performance wear. It was new, informal, showed a lot more skin. It looks silly now but not then. You'll see, when you age and start looking back at trends you thought were cool.

fen said:

PeteSilas said:

little richard used what was co called pancake makeup in the 50's to lighten his complexion, Prince and Michael were followers of Little Richard so that could be one reason. Prince was always tinkering with his image so I just think it was another look for him, Michael, on the other hand had some kind of deep seated racial neurosis obviously.

Not a great one though. The mid to late 90s were the only time that I thought that Prince looked anything less than great. Fast-forward a few years and he’s looking sharp again (and 10 years younger in my view):

Yes. Even when he wasn't wearing makeup in the 90s he didn't look great, his skin too pale. Contrast that with say the superbowl performance, and there's an obvious difference. It's as though earlier he'd been avoiding the sun. Or maybe it was dietary.

Germanegro said:

IMO it was all about playing with image. The makeup style and clothing was just what he chose to wear at the time--no deeper symbolism than that. He was about separating an image apart from the others. He did a spectacular job of it!

>

I don't know how Graffiti Bridge got dragged in, either--I bit on it, too. But once a discussion of a specific characterization of Prince is introuduced to the forum, people will be tempted to throw their own preferred subject of that particular theme into the thread!

i "dragged" graffiti bridge into it because if you were going to rank on a look that would be my first with the "buckwheat"(In Kim's words) braids coming close behind. Prince looked silly sometimes but most times he was cool as fuck.

Other than being an artist alive in the 80s, I don't know why Olivia Newton John would be used as an example of Prince the man, his style.

>

Other guys at that time might have worn altletic-fitting clothing but Prince would always have something kinda different on his attire. Even from what the glam rockers of that time were wearing with their spandex, makeup, and large hair. You can Google the photos and compare. I don't believe many o' those dudes were wearing heels like Prince was--maybe motorcycle boots or cowboy boots, but not his style--so he did take the time with some of his characteristic wear to move outside of the box. Even when he went more traditional in his outfits wearing suits in the 2000s, he styled those, too in asymetrical cuts, edgy cuts, and embroidering and detais that no man would wear. There was always something different to his style. The ladies will definitely tell you that, since they care the most and are looking the closest!

>

poppys said:

But there ARE styles that come and go. No celebrity lives outside that. The hungry pale look WAS in. Some make-up DOES bounce light off unevenly in photographs, common knowledge even today.

Some here don't like Prince's athletic clothing either. Too young to realize it was a hot thing at the time, a la Let's Get Physical. Before that, nobody wore athletic clothing for street or performance wear. It was new, informal, showed a lot more skin. It looks silly now but not then. You'll see, when you age and start looking back at trends you thought were cool.

Germanegro said:

Other than being an artist alive in the 80s, I don't know why Olivia Newton John would be used as an example of Prince the man, his style.

>

Other guys at that time might have worn altletic-fitting clothing but Prince would always have something kinda different on his attire. Even from what the glam rockers of that time were wearing with their spandex, makeup, and large hair. You can Google the photos and compare. I don't believe many o' those dudes were wearing heels like Prince was--maybe motorcycle boots or cowboy boots, but not his style--so he did take the time with some of his characteristic wear to move outside of the box. Even when he went more traditional in his outfits wearing suits in the 2000s, he styled those, too in asymetrical cuts, edgy cuts, and embroidering and detais that no man would wear. There was always something different to his style. The ladies will definitely tell you that, since they care the most and are looking the closest!

>

poppys said:

But there ARE styles that come and go. No celebrity lives outside that. The hungry pale look WAS in. Some make-up DOES bounce light off unevenly in photographs, common knowledge even today.

Some here don't like Prince's athletic clothing either. Too young to realize it was a hot thing at the time, a la Let's Get Physical. Before that, nobody wore athletic clothing for street or performance wear. It was new, informal, showed a lot more skin. It looks silly now but not then. You'll see, when you age and start looking back at trends you thought were cool.

Get a grip. I was using an ONJ song as an example of the athletic style when it was popular.

^^^I'm chill & hoping U R 2! I'm not trying to agrue about the fact that he wore the stuff--only that it'd probably be better to find a male example of what Prince was doing sartorially at that time. Like, say, Richard Simmons (even though he actually was a fitness guru)?

Edited to add Richard Simmons reference.

[Edited 5/27/18 11:18am]

Germanegro said:

^^^I'm chill & hoping U R 2! I'm not trying to agrue about the fact that he wore the stuff--only that it'd probably be better to find a male example of what Prince was doing sartorially at that time. Like, say, Richard Simmons (even though he actually was a fitness guru)?

Edited to add Richard Simmons reference.

How old R U? That record broke mega huge at the time, again I was there. You don't have to like her. Richard Simmons was later in the '80s baby. And not even close to the cool factor ONJ had .

NorthC said:

We're talking about Prince in the 1990s here. That athletic look was an 80s thing. In the mid 90s, grunge and hip hop was all the rage and Prince's androgynous look was hopelessly dated and out of style, which was one reason why the general audience lost interest in him.

What? okey doke.

poppys said:

NorthC said:

We're talking about Prince in the 1990s here. That athletic look was an 80s thing. In the mid 90s, grunge and hip hop was all the rage and Prince's androgynous look was hopelessly dated and out of style, which was one reason why the general audience lost interest in him.

What? okey doke.

lot of truth to that, the androgyny thing was well past by that point, although Prince attempted to blend in with some of the masculine/gangsta stuff it wasn't convincing at all. Diamonds and Pearls did ok and it had some rap on it but the symbol album only sold about a million and a half or so, not the 5 mill he needed to milk that "lucrative" contract and that's where the issues really started with WB. It wasn't just Prince, pretty much everyone has had to acknowledge hip hop, springsteen and MJ didn't ignore it either. Bruce had a beat to Philidelphia that was suppossed to be hip hop and he ditched his old producer for younger, more hip hop influenced guys, not that he had to, but he did. MJ did too.

Times move on, music moves on, you're right Pete. It's hard to stay in style musically or visually for 40 years. I just don't see Prince as trying to fit in with any look that he didn't fancy - ever. That's one of the coolest things about him to me.

poppys said:

Times move on, music moves on, you're right Pete. It's hard to stay in style musically or visually for 40 years. I just don't see Prince as trying to fit in with any look that he didn't fancy - ever. That's one of the coolest things about him to me.

he never abandoned the androgyny, never, that i'm aware of but the gun/mic, even some of his onstage dancers, the game boyz was like a bobby brown type of thing, so he did try to stay current. It worked on some level, the diamonds and pearls cd sold well, but his old fans, they really hated anything with hip hop on it, not because they dislike hip hop, in fact i know a guy who is as big a fan of prince as he is of hip hop and he hates the prince hip hop because it just doesn't seem like it comes from a real space. As for myself? I never really minded it much, never really even noticed it or thought about it until i heard all the bitching about it and prince did correctly state once that he had included some rap on his albums going all the way back to 1999, so i never thought it was a big deal but lots of people vehemently hated it.

Age? Pfht! It's just a number, and I invest in appreciating music of all eras of musicianship. What I was saying has nothing to do with ONJ's 70s hits--which I actually do appreciate (surprise!)--or whatever she chose to wear on the stage.

>

I wished to emphasize the fact that Prince took wardrobe ideas that were not widely embraced by MALE ARTISTS and made them unique to himself. I don't think that idea is too hard to understand. So what other male artists besides Prince wore the athletic shorts with suspenders, or bikini briefs, and maybe legwarmers or fishnet stockings? His look was particularly separate from that of the typical of popular male musician. it brought him a lot of noteriety that people either got into visually, or were turned off by.

>

As far as his whiteface makeup application is concerned, why not look to other comparable MALE ARTISTS who would do the same. I can think of one--Boy George. How many other guys of that era joined in displaying that kind of "heroin chic" image?

>

poppys said:

Germanegro said:

^^^I'm chill & hoping U R 2! I'm not trying to agrue about the fact that he wore the stuff--only that it'd probably be better to find a male example of what Prince was doing sartorially at that time. Like, say, Richard Simmons (even though he actually was a fitness guru)?

Edited to add Richard Simmons reference.

How old R U? That record broke mega huge at the time, again I was there. You don't have to like her. Richard Simmons was later in the '80s baby. And not even close to the cool factor ONJ had .

Germanegro said:

Age? Pfht! It's just a number, and I invest in appreciating music of all eras of musicianship. What I was saying has nothing to do with ONJ's 70s hits--which I actually do appreciate (surprise!)--or whatever she chose to wear on the stage.

>

I wished to emphasize the fact that Prince took wardrobe ideas that were not widely embraced by MALE ARTISTS and made them unique to himself. I don't think that idea is too hard to understand. So what other male artists besides Prince wore the athletic shorts with suspenders, or bikini briefs, and maybe legwarmers or fishnet stockings? His look was particularly separate from that of the typical of popular male musician. it brought him a lot of noteriety that people either got into visually, or were turned off by.

>

As far as his whiteface makeup application is concerned, why not look to other comparable MALE ARTISTS who would do the same. I can think of one--Boy George. How many other guys of that era joined in displaying that kind of "heroin chic" image?

So your complaint is I compared his athletic style using a female (not male) example?

What difference does that make? I was talking about the overarching trend of everyone embracing athletic wear in public. If you need to find a MALE ARTIST that did similar to Prince to feel comfortable, have at it.

Clothing is unisex anyway, Prince was hardly threatened by gender rigid dress codes.

^^^Popys, UR fixated on the point that Prince did a spectacular job of embracing a unisex style of clothing, and wore athetic fitting clothing which is cool--you dig it, yes? It was the 80s, and a new style of stage attire came of age that set that decade of style apart--I get that. I think some of that stuff was pretty cool, too. Wasn't Mick Jagger herky-jerking around the stage in spandex at the time?

>

Prince's clothing choices as a male performer would galvanize one's attention. The visual aspect was one key element of the man's image and stage presence. He was very smooth with it all and generally was sexy in a universal kind of way. If not that, it would shock those bearing more rigid sartorial sensibilities.

>

Clothing is unisex--these are mere objects that one may arbitrarily choose any form to don--not a primary characteristic of self.

>

However, exactly how widespread has it been for a male to don attire fabricated in a form typically designed to flatter, and emphasize the physique of a female person? How popular was that choice for a man of his era?

>

My sole point. Knock yoursef out posting pics to illustrate all of this!

poppys said:

poppys said:

Germanegro said:

Age? Pfht! It's just a number, and I invest in appreciating music of all eras of musicianship. What I was saying has nothing to do with ONJ's 70s hits--which I actually do appreciate (surprise!)--or whatever she chose to wear on the stage.

>

I wished to emphasize the fact that Prince took wardrobe ideas that were not widely embraced by MALE ARTISTS and made them unique to himself. I don't think that idea is too hard to understand. So what other male artists besides Prince wore the athletic shorts with suspenders, or bikini briefs, and maybe legwarmers or fishnet stockings? His look was particularly separate from that of the typical of popular male musician. it brought him a lot of noteriety that people either got into visually, or were turned off by.

>

As far as his whiteface makeup application is concerned, why not look to other comparable MALE ARTISTS who would do the same. I can think of one--Boy George. How many other guys of that era joined in displaying that kind of "heroin chic" image?

So your complaint is I compared his athletic style using a female (not male) example?

What difference does that make? I was talking about the overarching trend of everyone embracing athletic wear in public. If you need to find a MALE ARTIST that did similar to Prince to feel comfortable, have at it.

Clothing is unisex anyway, Prince was hardly threatened by gender rigid dress codes.

if clothing is unisex, then why are there boys & girls departments? and then men and ladies departments?...why are there distinctions between male & female clothing models?...P, at times was clearly dressing in female attire (and makeup) and even wore Mayte's clothes, if he liked them...

OK y'all. This is getting out of hand. I AM comfortable with the images I presented. A kilt is a skirt and a robe is a dress - to me. I don't give a rat's ass how anybody else wants to name clothing, call it whatever you want.

There is no reason I HAD to choose a male to illustrate my very small lost and forgotten point, which was - that styles that were totally hip at the time look silly now, like 1980 athletic wear, that was it.

Physical was a fine example of that look blowing up - (Prince was ahead in 1979 as usual, Olivia's broke in 1981). If you have a problem with my photos, post some of your own. And while you're at it find a point besides critiquing mine.

And no where did I say that I loved every look, damn.