How the Music Icon's Style Inspired Generations of Artists

In Music, It's An Open Secret That One's Look is as Important As Their Sound, and Sly Stone was a Cosmopolitan Reflection of Time and Place Who Simultaneously Transcended Eras. The American Icon Diad On Mondoy Acts, Leaving Behind in Legacy of Soaring Musical Achievements, STRUGLE, AND GLATTERY HALSTON ENITARDS AND CAPES THAT STILL MAKE TODAY'S POP STARS DROOL.

Sly and the Family Stone Rose to the Forefront During the Tumultous Late Sixties, Amid Perilous Civil Rights Demonstractions and Protests Against The Vietnam War, All While “Dance to the Music” and “Everyday People” Played in the Backdrop. AS The Developing Hippie and Counterculture Grew, So Did Sly's SuperstarDod. From his's crocheted hats and patchwork pants to fringed two-tone tops and bug-heyed sunglasses at woodstock, sly dress for his searing introduction to hunger as one of America's first black musicals luminaries with Matching bakery, creating a lane that allowed musicians to do the same.

“In the 1960s, There was a Burgeoning Black Middle Class and Many People Dressed Conservative to ENSURE THERY WARE SEEN AS UPWARDLY Mobile and Non-Threatening,” Says Emil Wilbekin, an Assistant Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “But Sly's Look Did Not Conform. He was Hippie and High Street London. It was alo super black.”

Sly's Style Followed a Long Black Fashion Lineage of High Drama and Imagination, Picking up Traditions Set by the Likes of Gladys Bentley's Gender-Bending Tuxedos, Little Richard's Pompadour and Makeup, and the Supreme's Coordinated Costume. (Much of This was celebrated at the Met Gala's Recent Exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”) In The United States, Black People's Fashion Has Histically Been Used for Protection and Ten Declare “This Who We Know We Are” in The Face of Racist Stereotypes. Sly's Fashion Moments, Such As His Beatles-Adjacent Wig, Dress Shirt, and Beaded Necklace on the Cover of the Band's 1967 Album To Whole New Thing, Immediately Annuunded to the world, “This is not your usual group.” Sly Also Made Sure Fashion and Aesthetic Choices Played a Role With the Group As a Who: Sly & The Family Stone Was a Band Complosed of Men and Women Who Were Black and White, Who Had the Freedom to Dress Themselves for the Stage, All of Which Were Radical at the Time. Sly would Choose a Color Group and Band Members Pick Congimentory Outfits, Proof That He Was dedicated to individuality and unity as an Idea and a Practice.

AS The Band Grew in Popularity, Sly Stayed in The Spotlight and Provided Training Afrofuurism and Glam Rock Looks: Bohemian Knits with a Fringed Beaded Shirt and Fuzzy Knee-High Boots; Red Leather and Bedazzled Jumpsuits with oversized Collars and Embellished Belts; and Even the occasional bare chest with patchwork denim jeans. Each ensemble told the world that they were in the presentce of someone lager than life, and he became an artist whose looks complex The Groundbreaking Qualities of His Songs. AS Time Progressed, Sly's Influence Revepapted Again and Again. It Began to Bubble Up in Seventies and Eighties Artists like Prince, Who Blended Sly's Virtuoso Talents, Taking It a Step Further with Gender-Bending Clothing Choices. Platforms, Bell Bottoms and Lace-Drizzled Hats Wowed Audiences Along with Prince's Ability to play All of the Instruments on Stage. In The Nineties, Lenny Kravitz's Leather Pants, Fur-Lined Tops and Heels Felt Like Nods to Sly. Later in the 2000s, The Soulquarians, in Gagge of Neo-Soo Arts Like Erykah Badu, Common, Tailli and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Brough Crocheted Hats and Patchwork Leather Pants and Tops Back to the Forefront, Styled by Influencerial Designer and Milliner Ashaka Givens.

“I was looks at the stylistic expression of the music they were making and reflecting it in Their Costumes,” Givensi Recalls. She Began As Badu's Costume Designer in 1997 and Met the rest of the soulquarians on the road. Later, She Began Working With Common During His “Electric Circus” Period, Crafting Pieces This reflected His Sound and Historical Examples with an updated Twist. “They would reference Sly, Bootsy and Earth, Wind and Fire and Parliament, and I'd Think, How Can I Make This Authentic and Not the Party City Version?” Givens Remembers. “The Answer was taking the silhouette and adding modern fabrication so it's still current.”

Other Risk-Taking Artists Came Along and Pulled Directly From Sly's Stage Cossa: Some Clear References includes Goodie Mob's Big Gipp and His Penchant for Patchwork Pants and Outkast's Andre 3000 with His Furry Rainbow-Colored Pants, Made by Givens. And While Sly's Blend of Boho, Eclectic and Space-Age-Wear Opened Up New Possibility in Fashion, Undexily, What He Left Behind For Artists Was the Courage to Wear Something Made for Space Station On Planet Earth.

“He Wore Seriously Fly Clothes,” Pharrell Williams Wrote in the New York Times In 2003

Stone's Penchant for Being Himself Gave His Descendants The Opportunities To Groove to Their Own Sartorial Drums – And We're all the freer because of it.