BeatRoute Magazine ON Edition - December 2019

BEATROUTE
2010-2019:THE DECADE IN REVIEW
5
FA
SH
ION
ICONS
OF THE DECADE
SHUTTERSTOCK
N o 2
Janelle
Monae
Ever since the launch of her
futuristic album Metropolis in
2007, Janelle Monae has been
turning heads with her androgynous
style.
Playing off her love of uniforms
inspired by her family’s
working class background, she
splashed onto the scene with
her iconic monochrome tux,
her pompadour hairstyle, and a
bold red lip.
Since then, she’s taken
black and white suiting to a
new level, adding sharp pops
of colour, glitter, ruffles, and
minimalist prints to her look
whenever it suits her mood. It
wasn’t until the video for “PYNK”
(featuring Grimes) in 2018 when
we realized that Monae is having
more fun with fashion than the
rest of us. Wearing a pair of
fluttering vagina trousers imitating
female genitalia, the video was a
much-needed sex-positive celebration
of pussy power.
Her Met Gala dress in 2019 further
exemplified her avant-garde streak: she
wore a half-black-and-white, half-hot
pink full skirt, with a large eye covering
one of her breasts, as she donned a
toppling collection of hats on her head.
Teeming with abrupt, sensational
asymmetry, she’s been spotted at Paris
Fashion Week repping Valentino, Thom
Browne, Giambattista Valli, and more,
and has made her name as a queer
style icon that honours a future that’s
fluid.
32 BEATROUTE DECEMBER 2019
DARROLE PALMER
N o 3 Bradford Cox
Picking up where David Byrne left off in the oversized
suit category, Bradford Cox of art-garage band
Deerhunter might just be the indie fashion icon of our
times.
In the past, indie style was synonymous with
thrifting retro wares, but in the 2010s, things have
changed: Cox is shamelessly fusing indie rock with
luxury fashion to create a covetable look, and we’re
definitely okay with it.
This year, the Atlanta-born singer-songwriter
walked the Gucci Cruise 2020 runway show in Rome
wearing a forest green wool pea coat, oversized
yellow-tinted sunglasses, and an ornately fringed
golden necklace. He wasn’t the only musician at the
Capitoline Museums that night; both A$AP Rocky
and Elton John were notable audience members, and
the after party at the Palazzo Brancaccio featured a
set performed by Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks.
Often spotted in an earth-tone uniform comprising
Ralph Lauren painter’s pants and a linen shirt from
Kyoto, Japan, he’s not the only indie rocker in the
scene with a connection to fashion: St. Vincent has
modeled for Marc Jacobs, Ariel Pink has his own
fashion line, and Father John Misty has been profiled
in GQ.