Friday, November 09, 2012

Clothes Make the (Vertically Challenged) Man

So last week, during our day trip to London -- a town that actually DOES swing like a pendulum do, as it turns out -- we were at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is not at all as stuffy as it sounds, taking in (among other delights) a recent exhibition on the early days of British Rock titled Halfway to Paradise, which was quite fab. If it reaches these shores, I highly recommend it.

But as we were wandering around, we came across some other rock exhibits, including a little display case housing the following items.

Mick Jagger's jumpsuit from the 1972 Rolling Stones tour.


And this custom designed little outfit worn by Jimmy Page on the Led Zeppelin tour the next year.


Apart from the fact that, with the benefit of hindsight, they're both pretty heinous in that hideous early 70s way-- and to be brutally honest, I absolutely HATED that outfit of Mick's at the time -- the thing that struck me most about the two costumes is -- jeebus christ, but those dudes are shrimps.

Seriously, I'm barely 5'8" and I'm Andre the Giant by comparison with Jagger and Page.

Randy Newman was right; apparently, you gotta pick those two up just to say hello.

6 comments:

buzzbabyjesus said...

I'm thinking maybe they got ideas from Gram Parson's and the Burrito Bros Nudie suits.

Steve in the ATL said...

They were war babies, so they had limited food when they were little and it impacted their development.

Haik Mendelovich said...

I dunno...I think MJ's outfits from the 72 tour still look pretty cool.

Compare, if you will, MJ's jumpsuit with any of Elvis' jumpsuits from the same period. See what I mean?

Now for real cool, see the Who of '72: Townshend's all-white jumpsuit with Doc Martens, and Daltrey's fringed rock-god getups.

John Entwistle and Keith Moon were off on their own planets while onstage, of course, quite beyond anyone's notion of fashion. :)

steves said...

I hear they're keeping Paul Simon's entire 1970 wardrobe inside a Sardi's matchbook at the Museum of Natural History.

P.S. What the hell is going on with these captchas?

Brooklyn Girl said...

I hated Mick's entire look during the '72 tour, but this jumpsuit was the worst. TMI, if you know what I mean.

Kristen Elizabeth Krauter said...

Would be nice to have some clue as to who designed and created these pieces. It's interesting to me that that can get lost in the shuffle. Yes the piece is famous because an amazing musician wore it, but the true artist in this case is the designer.