All Babes are Wolves: My Style Icons 2 : Gwen Stefani

Saturday, February 9, 2013

My Style Icons 2 : Gwen Stefani

I have been rather slack with my Blog posts lately, coz I went and had a baby! Which got me thinking about stylish Mums, which got me thinking about one of my all time favorite fashionistas, Gwen Stefani. From her early ska-girl 'Tragic Kingdom' days in the early noughties to her evolution into a fashion designer and icon, Gwen rarely puts a foot wrong in my eyes. Her inspirations & looks have included tomboy (circa Just a Girl 1995), Eastern prints, Bindis & Bjork style hair-knots (circa 1997), dance-hall Jamaican Rasta style (circa Rock Steady 2001), Alice in Wonderland, Harajuku Girls of Japan & Vivienne Westwood (circa her solo career launch 2004), Jean Harlow (circa The Aviator), Chola Girl hip-hop Queen (circa Hollaback Girl 20505), British houndstooth-clad lady of the manor and Michelle Pfeiffer's Elvira Hancock in Scarface (circa The Great Escape 2007) and suited & booted Ann Demeulemeester style (20012-2013 for her No Doubt reunion tour).

"Gwen on the birth of her signature style: "I've always been a girl who loves to dress up," says Gwen. "I already put my makeup on twice today: I put it on to take my kid to school, and then I went home, washed my face, and put it on again to have lunch with you." She even wears it at home because "I like to make my husband like me more," she says, laughing, "and he likes it when I'm wearing makeup."

"Gwen recalls how she felt when, at the age of 25, she spent eight hours in a hair salon in Long Beach getting her coveted white-blonde locks. "It was like I'd unlocked the key. I remember feeling like, 'I have arrived. This is me. Finally.'" The red lip came when her grandmother gave her a crimson lipstick when she was in high school. "I remember sitting in my ghetto, beat-up Honda Prelude and putting on that lipstick in the rearview mirror and being like, 'Uh-huh, I like that. That's the shit right there.' I never stopped after that."

"Other questions she's tired of fielding are those about hair maintenance. "Do you think Marilyn Monroe had to talk about this?" she asks, smiling. "Well, I heard she did hers with a Q-tip every 10 days, so I try to follow Marilyn's rule." I mention that she's never been photographed with dark roots, and she points to the houndstooth fedora she is wearing. "And you'll never see me with roots either." Following are some of my fave Gwen looks and editorials.

Leopard Print