Earthbound by Susan Compo;

Author:Susan Compo;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 1)
Published: 2017-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THIN ALABASTER CLOTHESHORSE

For a movie Roeg described as just ahead of the contemporary curve, the same could be said of its fashion. This is especially unique considering its science fiction elements, a touchstone that sent many designers and costumers into a space junk stratosphere. But not this time. The Man Who Fell To Earth is surely one of the most surprisingly fashionable films of any genre since cinema’s golden age.

Writer Andy Webster referred to Bowie in the film as a ‘thin alabaster clotheshorse,’ while the star himself facetiously and self-deprecatingly commented that his acting preparation was ‘akin to putting a hat on.’1 The fedora he sported certainly provided a nod to Hollywood’s heyday. The film’s sense of style has much to do with Bowie’s originality—his director had called him ‘an absolute deflector of whatever’s fashionable’ but also May Routh and Ola Hudson.2

Bowie’s wife Angela also inarguably influenced his fashion sense. She added a dose of Old Hollywood glamour she’d appropriated for herself, and he ran with it, moving away from the glitz and the outré but elegant garb toward tailored, understated suits. Of course, there’s fashion and there’s fashion: Angie maintained her husband’s fervor for clothes extended beyond bespoke. ‘David was drawn to costume designers as sex partners,’ she said with her usual candor. ‘Natasha Korniloff with the Lindsay Kemp theater company; Ola Hudson, the Los Angeles–based designer … made many outfits for him after Freddie [Burretti, a previous and very significant designer for the star] had told David in no uncertain terms that he was not interested in having an affair with him,’ she alleged.3

Ola Hudson was a talented, up-and-coming designer who’d lived in Europe prior to returning to her home town of Los Angeles, where she shared a shop called Skitzo with another designer. The store was located just off Santa Monica Boulevard and around the corner from the famed Troubadour club. She described her portion of the shop as ‘all pop art black-and-white squares,’ while the other woman’s section was the polar opposite, ‘romantic flowers and whatever. At that point I was just creating dresses I could sell. I had been very influenced by my time in Europe. It was all about English fashion.’4

An article in the Los Angeles Times entitled ‘All Together: An Artistic Environment For A Talented Family’ described Hudson at the time as ‘an innovative young fashion designer’ and noted that she was married to musician Tony Hudson.5 One of her sons, Saul, would become something of a musician as well, changing his name to Slash before eventually joining a band called Guns n’ Roses.

Ola began working for—and sometimes dating—David Bowie, and for the film Bowie asked her to copy the ‘narrow single-breasted suit … in slub silk’ she’d previously designed for him.6 There would be three suits in total, two black and one blue. ‘He had one suit of his own that he liked very much and he suggested her to copy that,’ Routh said. ‘She did that in LA, with fittings here.

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