Fashion of Madonna
American singer-songwriter Madonna has been considered a fashion and style icon by fashion journalism and other sectors. Fashion critics, designers and scholars have examined her influence in fashion from different stages, defining views on her public image and cultural significance. Her connection with the community was once labeled a symbiotic relationship, while her industry ventures include owning fashion brands and appearing at events such as the Met Gala.
Madonna has collaborated with an array of people from the community, including designers, photographers and stylists. She became a muse for many of them, and during the MTV Generation, her in-depth involved collaborative friendships were credited with making routine collaborations between artists and designers, and for helping reinforce the connection with the fashion and music industries further than before for different reasons. Madonna was also credited with boosting the careers of various designers, including then-emerging to as well-established ones. Some people from the industry have cited Madonna as a career influence. She became the first musician on the covers of The Big Four, and under Anna Wintour's control, Madonna became her first musical artist to grace a Vogue cover in 1989 after a notable time with a focus on fashion models.
Over decades, Madonna set various trends, and aspects of her styles, looks, and clothing influenced public, designers and other entertainers of different generations. Madonna's photoshoots and personal belongings have been displayed in museums and other exhibitions around the world. Unconventional compared to enduring glamorous icons, others have noted a significant absence of high fashion discussions. Madonna appeared on industry lists of the best and worst dresses. She also earned a reputation as a fashion provocateur, receiving criticisms from the religious sector, and from other organizations. Her provocative fashion statements, mixed with shock value received further criticism as she aged. Madonna has been also included in a number of all-time lists focused on musicians or individuals' fashion impact, including Time's All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons, Style and Design (2012). In her prime both Vogue and Karl Lagerfeld named her the "single greatest fashion influence in the world", while Jean-Paul Gaultier called her "the biggest fashion icon" in early 2010s. Madonna received various awards for her fashion, including the first Versace Award from VH1 Fashion Awards in 1998.
Overview[edit]
Background[edit]
Many authors have traced Madonna's relationship with fashion back to her childhood. Without realizing it, her father influenced her fashion awareness with the dress code imposed in her strict Catholic upbringing, seeing "how potent a certain way of dress could be".[3] Some have pointed out that Madonna saw clothes as a tool of rebellion from early on.[4] Mary Cross described that after losing her mother, she "deliberately wore mismatched socks and clothes" as she refused to wear the identical outfits in which housekeeper-turned-stepmother Joan Gustafson liked to dress them.[4] She continued to express herself through fashion as a student, without shaving her underarms and not wearing make-up.[4] Mark Bego felt she "pioneered" new ways to get noticed on the school playground with her style and attitude.[5]
Another depiction at the Hard Rock Cafe (USA)
Influence and impact[edit]
Industrial and conceptual[edit]
Madonna's fashion sense and its cultural impact have received both immediate and retrospective discussions. The staff of Billboard commented in 2015, that "her sense of style became as influential as her chart-topping tunes".[34] In Oh Fashion (1994), it was described: "Madonna's fashion moves generally caught shifts in cultural style and taste".[203] In 2018, Liana Satenstein from Vogue referred to her "huge impact on the runway and the red carpet over the course of her decades-long career".[222]
Madonna's fashion impact was discussed as an era-defining advent with long-lasting effects. For instance, in Muckraker (2014), researcher Carlos Primo, music critic Javier Blánquez, journalist Daniel Arjona and philosopher Leticia García agree that Madonna paved the road for a new way of understanding the relationship between fashion and show business.[223] Professor Martin S. Remland of West Chester University said when both MTV and Madonna appeared, the marriage of music and fashion became more prominent than ever before.[224] American designer Todd Oldham, was quoted as saying that she was to fashion what the Big Bang theory is to the creation of the world.[225] Cynthia Robins of San Francisco Chronicle further adds that "when Madonna came along, all fashion hell broke loose. She established a heady pace".[226] Commentators ranging from Arianne Phillips to Diane Asitimbay overall commented in similar terms how fashion significantly changed.[4][227] Paloma Herce from fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar, in its Spanish-language edition, held she created a "before and after" period.[70] In 2005, Asitimbay stated that Madonna and Michael Jordan "did more for the fashion industry in the United States than many of our fashion models put together".[227]
On public[edit]
Madonna's fashion influence came from diverse sources; authors of The 1980s (2007), commented that "she influenced styles in so many ways via her music videos".[50] She also did with tours; with her Blond Ambition World Tour alone, Drew Mackie from People magazine stated it "helped cement the link between pop costumes and couture".[228] Her influence on public was noted across multiple decades.[229] By 2008, Robert Verdi was quoted as saying Madonna was like an adjective in fashion, describing: "Friends will go shopping with each other and say, 'It's so Madonna.' That's what you want in fashion".[230] In similar connotations, Anna Wintour and British author Michael Pye concurred that she "makes fashion happen", with Pye further adding that "she's fashion".[231] Similarly, Mary Sollosi commented for Entertainment Weekly in 2022, she had an impact on what's in vogue every step of the way.[37] The same year, Amalissa Hall from Tatler summarized "she's inspired major fashion movements over the years" and at the height of her career, from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, "whatever she wore, the public followed".[232] Back in 2006, clothing company H&M described her "global influence" on how people dress and look as without equal.[233]