Seeing the SOTT portrait poster in another thread reminded me.
When Prince changed his looks he really seemed like a different person each time.
Compare the cover of "Prince" to the SOTT portrait where he is wearing the fur coat. The radical difference makes you wonder if you are really seeing the same person or if he had work done.

FUNKNROLL said:

Seeing the SOTT portrait poster in another thread reminded me. When Prince changed his looks he really seemed like a different person each time. Compare the cover of "Prince" to the SOTT portrait where he is wearing the fur coat. The radical difference makes you wonder if you are really seeing the same person or if he had work done.

This again? You're comparing pics from 1979 and 1987. That's eight years difference. Let's see your graduation picture, then one when you were 26 or so. Frankly, I think if he looked exactly the same, it'd lend to him having work done, but his look has matured and grown, as any human being. Dude had a good nose, pouty lips, doe eyes, and a great complexion. That's just good genes. John was a good looking guy, and Mattie had strong features.

All that boolshit aside, I agree that Prince knew how to envelop a look and a feel. While he kept the buttons up the sides of the pants, and other elements from his earlier days, his hair was the most notable change in 1985/6. Yet he grew that hair back out, had this ...I don't know what to call SOTT look (urban chic?), yet the buttons on the pants stayed. The ruffled shirts left, and he traded his purple trench coat for a camel hair one. Then he traded that for a leather one (which is rather odd for Prince, but that was before he was so strictly vegan/vegetarian; although his boots were probably still leather). In the 90s, his looked seemed extreme with the short hair, pale makeup, and a lot of high waisted pants (starting around 1990 w/ the Nude Tour and onward until 1996 or so). Lotta short jackets too, which harkened back to pre-Purple Rain. It really wasn't until 1990 that the buttons changed a bit, then disappeared mostly. I always found those interesting. It's a bit like MJ wearing white socks.

MJ said he wore white socks and slightly shorter pants to highlight his dancing, and draw attention to his feet. His brothers hated it, but he kept on with it. I often wondered if Prince had the buttons up the sides of his pants not only as a fashion element, but possibly to make him look taller, and highlight any leg movement.

One thing that always fascinated me about Prince was his ability to morph a look into videos, the album, and the tour (the latter mostly 1986 and onward). There were moments he was highly conceptual about those things. Whereas early on, the stage and clothes remained mostly the same, and the purple jacket lasted forever. But he really honed that, and working with the wardrobe team, truly created an immersive experience when a new record would come out. In later years, he seemed to just do whatever pleased him. The conceptual tours, etc were gone, and more focus was back on the music. He was always a snappy dresser, but the broader "look" for a project had diminished.

Prince was as consistent as he was a chameleon.

TrivialPursuit said:

FUNKNROLL said:

Seeing the SOTT portrait poster in another thread reminded me. When Prince changed his looks he really seemed like a different person each time. Compare the cover of "Prince" to the SOTT portrait where he is wearing the fur coat. The radical difference makes you wonder if you are really seeing the same person or if he had work done.

This again? You're comparing pics from 1979 and 1987. That's eight years difference. Let's see your graduation picture, then one when you were 26 or so. Frankly, I think if he looked exactly the same, it'd lend to him having work done, but his look has matured and grown, as any human being. Dude had a good nose, pouty lips, doe eyes, and a great complexion. That's just good genes. John was a good looking guy, and Mattie had strong features.

All that boolshit aside, I agree that Prince knew how to envelop a look and a feel. While he kept the buttons up the sides of the pants, and other elements from his earlier days, his hair was the most notable change in 1985/6. Yet he grew that hair back out, had this ...I don't know what to call SOTT look (urban chic?), yet the buttons on the pants stayed. The ruffled shirts left, and he traded his purple trench coat for a camel hair one. Then he traded that for a leather one (which is rather odd for Prince, but that was before he was so strictly vegan/vegetarian; although his boots were probably still leather). In the 90s, his looked seemed extreme with the short hair, pale makeup, and a lot of high waisted pants (starting around 1990 w/ the Nude Tour and onward until 1996 or so). Lotta short jackets too, which harkened back to pre-Purple Rain. It really wasn't until 1990 that the buttons changed a bit, then disappeared mostly. I always found those interesting. It's a bit like MJ wearing white socks.

MJ said he wore white socks and slightly shorter pants to highlight his dancing, and draw attention to his feet. His brothers hated it, but he kept on with it. I often wondered if Prince had the buttons up the sides of his pants not only as a fashion element, but possibly to make him look taller, and highlight any leg movement.

One thing that always fascinated me about Prince was his ability to morph a look into videos, the album, and the tour (the latter mostly 1986 and onward). There were moments he was highly conceptual about those things. Whereas early on, the stage and clothes remained mostly the same, and the purple jacket lasted forever. But he really honed that, and working with the wardrobe team, truly created an immersive experience when a new record would come out. In later years, he seemed to just do whatever pleased him. The conceptual tours, etc were gone, and more focus was back on the music. He was always a snappy dresser, but the broader "look" for a project had diminished.

Prince was as consistent as he was a chameleon.

Agree with the part about morphing into a new "look" with every project, continuing even up through Rave. Some of the looks overlapped a little Controversy/1999/PR, SOTT/Lovesexy/Batman but usually there was enough difference to know what era he was in. From Musicology onward, probably up until the 3EG phase, he looked pretty much the same.