One of my favorite Prince album covers is Art Official Age, and I have 2 questions about it.

Firstly, does anyone know if there's a full picture of the particular outfit he's wearing? It's a pretty cool-looking getup, and I just wondered if a full, possibly unedited shot exists.

My second question is, What are the records in the background? They all seem to be the same, and if you play with the exposure and change the picture to negative mode, you can almost see the writing on the vinyls, particularly the one in the bottom right. I can't help thinking that they're actual records, not just a nondescript image for the album cover.

Hope I don't sound like too much of a conspiracy theorist.

They're the diamond or platinum or whatever awards for Purple Rain aren't they? The photo was taken by the "Lovesex is my" jam lady if I recall correctly, ehhhh.... some minor youtube celeb whose name has slipped my mind, she's talked about it before.

Well you could have used google (like me) to find the following thread, that answers all your questions:

https://prince.org/msg/7/450109

[Edited 2/3/20 7:45am]

LOL, prince.org, home of google scolds.

[Fixed the link - luv4u]

At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but now I quite like the AOA cover too.

What bothers me about this cover is how crooked his glasses are. The left side (Prince's right) of the glasses are far higher than the right side (Prince's left).

The conspiracy should be "Who sat on Prince's glasses?"

[Edited 2/3/20 10:57am]

Somewhere, recently, I saw an article about the clothing designers. You can buy some of their designs on the estate website.

Here's the blurb from there:

I'm not sure if this link will take you directly to the clothing.

https://store.prince.com/...229_106534

Scroll half way down and you will see the outfit you're referring to. There's a close-up of a portion of it but, unfortunately, not the whole piece.

I'll look for the article. Someone here posted a link to it, I think... Bart??? Not sure if this is the same:

https://www.refinery29.co...collection

[Edited 2/3/20 14:11pm]

RODSERLING said:

Doozer said:

What bothers me about this cover is how crooked his glasses are. The left side (Prince's right) of the glasses are far higher than the right side (Prince's left).

The conspiracy should be "Who sat on Prince's glasses?"

[Edited 2/3/20 10:57am]

It was MUCH worse when he wore them in live appearances, they were so crooked in the exact same way!

Phase3 said:

Doozer said:

What bothers me about this cover is how crooked his glasses are. The left side (Prince's right) of the glasses are far higher than the right side (Prince's left).

The conspiracy should be "Who sat on Prince's glasses?"

[Edited 2/3/20 10:57am]

Ears aren't normally at equal heights so glasses won't sit squarely if they aren't adjusted properly.

I'd never noticed it before, so if you hadn't made this post I would still be in ignorance of Prince's dodgy glasses.

ufoclub said:

Doozer said:

What bothers me about this cover is how crooked his glasses are. The left side (Prince's right) of the glasses are far higher than the right side (Prince's left).

The conspiracy should be "Who sat on Prince's glasses?"

[Edited 2/3/20 10:57am]

It was MUCH worse when he wore them in live appearances, they were so crooked in the exact same way!

People aren't symmetrical, you know?

I've seen people with much more asymmetry than him, so I'd say it's perfectly normal. Nobody's perfect amiright?

barnswallow said:

Somewhere, recently, I saw an article about the clothing designers. You can buy some of their designs on the estate website.

Here's the blurb from there:

Coinciding with the release of the highly-anticipated Super Deluxe reissue of Prince’s iconic double album, 1999, the Estate has commissioned the Toronto design duo of Cathy Robinson and Lori Marcuz—known by their studio name Call & Response—to create an evocative, hand-crafted collection of custom jackets, vests and hand-dyed tunics exclusively for Prince’s fans.

I'm not sure if this link will take you directly to the clothing.

https://store.prince.com/...229_106534

Scroll half way down and you will see the outfit you're referring to. There's a close-up of a portion of it but, unfortunately, not the whole piece.

I'll look for the article. Someone here posted a link to it, I think... Bart??? Not sure if this is the same:

https://www.refinery29.co...collection

[Edited 2/3/20 14:11pm]

Somebody please buy me everything on that page.

Try https://store.prince.com/...229_105206 .

Miitch said:

ufoclub said:

It was MUCH worse when he wore them in live appearances, they were so crooked in the exact same way!

People aren't symmetrical, you know?

I've seen people with much more asymmetry than him, so I'd say it's perfectly normal. Nobody's perfect amiright?

Yes, I realize that people are asymmetrical. I wear glasses and have one ear noticeably lower than the other. However, you can adjust glasses so that they still sit straight on your face, especially if you might be, I dunno, posing for an album cover.

Maya took the photo.

After looking at these two pics with his crooked glasses on...are his eyes closed in the group picture? And on the album cover it almost looks like you can see the white of his eyes but he's doing a side glance? Looks funny seeing it that way anyway, to me. Ha

a third eye with more vision that two crooked human eyes?

...just tryin' to roll with the silliness

I'm a graphic designer and illustrator and to me what stands out the most is how it's a composition of circles (the hair, the records, the glasses, the font). I like the album a lot and also the cover.