How Madonna still fashion rules
A style chameleon, iconoclast and innovator, the queen of pop wants you to look at her, but she controls the gaze
Women in the music industry have always influenced how other women dress. None, however, has done so with the imagination, intensity or iconography of Madonna Louise Ciccone. The star, whose style has inspired more fashion trends than any other female artist, is the queen of pop not only for her hits but also for the immense influence she has exerted on popular culture and perceptions of women’s sexuality.
Her announcement in January that she is to embark on a greatest hits tour signals that the style chameleon, with more incarnations than any artist except perhaps David Bowie, will dominate the media in 2023.
Already her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair Italia’s Icon edition as the Virgin Mary with a dagger pierced heart and a tearstained face – she is representing Mary as the Mother of Sorrows – has led to accusations that she is ‘demonic’ and ‘blasphemous’ but will no doubt only generate a revived interest in the singer and her back catalogue. Controversy has followed Madonna throughout her five-decade career, and she has knowingly subverted Freud’s Madonna/ whore paradigm since her Like A Virgin video in 1984. Her notoriety as a ‘scarlet woman’ probably peaked with her Sex book, published in 1992, and the accompanying Erotica album, both of which explored Madonna’s sexuality and BDSM, but sold like hotcakes despite the scandal at the time.
What sets Madonna apart from other female artists is her accelerated and vivid image transformations and her ability to use them to communicate visually her inspiration, influences and ideas. Madonna is utterly her own creation. She fashions her own image, styles her own wardrobe, controls her video and stage personas and art directs her appearance on album covers and in publicity material.
A potent mix of creativity, personal awareness and eclectic tastes drive how she forges her everevolving and often outrageous looks.
She is a stylistic and cultural magpie, borrowing and adopting elements from street culture, high fashion, ethnic costumes, BDSM fetish-wear, religious iconography and female stereotypes to forge identity transformations that at times have exceeded the speed of light. She is utterly original, sometimes perplexing, but always provocative.
Not only is Madonna the largest selling female artist ever, with over 300 million records sold worldwide, she is also the most successful solo artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, the highest grossing female touring artist worldwide and Forbes’ annual top-earning female musician 11 times over four decades. The Celebration tour will no doubt put her on that list for a 12th time.
Now 64, she refuses to retire, remain silent or tone down her image. If anything, she has become