There’s only one definitive style icon, and clearly it's Madonna. Thankfully she’s topping the Loves chart this week in a picture taken by Richard Corman in 1982, and chosen by fashion writer Dal Chodha...
Define a style icon? Someone who has defined a look and made it their own. So, what do you call an individual who has inhabited multiple personas, breeding innumerable trends and becoming synonymous with multiple art forms, all the while Voguing in the face of propriety? OK, there’s only one: Madonna. And she’s topping the Loves chart this week in a picture taken by Richard Corman in 1982, and chosen by fashion writer Dal Chodha.
Taken as she was just on the cusp of fame, this picture shows a young, confident Madonna in the first of her iconic style incarnations that would soon be copied all over the world. The bleached crop, white T-shirt with acid denim, studded, punked-up accessories, knowing stare – these were the basic elements that stylist and designer Maripol would work up to form the lace gloved, fishnet stockinged, crucifix bedecked pop star who would achieve global superstar status with Like A Virgin in 1984. The decades since have seen Madonna reforge her identity as the author of the Sex Book, playing the role of Evita on screen, a dreadlocked proponent of eastern mysticism and Kabbalah, Guy Ritchie’s tweedclad wife, the thief of Britney Spears’ innocence, and a frighteningly flexible disco queen. Just this week, she confounded expectations by cavorting down the Met Ball catwalk in a dominatrix punk mashup. She’s the eternal rebel who never grows up, and here, in her steady stare, we can see the embryonic beginnings of a cultural figure who would go on to repeatedly defy the ordinary and the dull.
"She’s the eternal rebel who never grows up, and here, in her steady stare, we can see the embryonic beginnings of a cultural figure who would go on to repeatedly defy the ordinary and the dull."
Here we talk to Dal about his favourite Madonna moment, his personal style icons, and a fortuitous recent purchase.
Why did you choose to love this picture?
Madonna is an artist we’ve seen hundreds of photos of and to be honest, she’s never been someone I have followed devotedly. This photo – taken from a series by Richard Corman – was shot in 1982 and has a real breeziness about it. The photo appealed to me because it is so egalitarian in a way; if Madonna were just any old 24-year-old today, this could be her profile photo on Facebook.
Where would you put it if you owned it?
I would hang this on the wall in my living room next to a black and white photograph by Nico Jesse, which I photocopied from the book Femmes de Paris. It shows a young woman of about 20-years-old, wearing a neat white cardigan and pigtails, sitting at a dinner table, clutching a fork with her mouth wide open. I think she’s shouting something across the room. Both photographs reveal a certain phase of growing up. In Corman’s photograph, Madonna looks youthful and inexperienced, but at the same time very determined.
Desperately Seeking Susan Madonna; Sex Book Madonna; Evita Madonna; Swept Away Madonna; Met Ball 2013 Madonna?
Not Met Ball 2013 Madonna, no. All of these stages of Madonna’s career have resonance but for me, in the “unshockable” world we live in today, her Sex Book still makes me gulp.
What would you wear if you were going as Madonna to a fancy dress party?
I would have to go with her look from ‘Frozen’ as I know where to go for good henna and hand jewelry, and as I have no hair, people wouldn’t recognise me wearing a wig.
Who is your style icon?
Anyone who looks as good putting the bins out as they do when they’re going out for dinner.
What looks set to be the song that soundtracks your summer?
Something from Cécile McLorin Salvant’s new album.
What was the last thing you bought?
A black wool overcoat by Ian Batten, which I thought I wouldn’t get to wear much because of the weather. Turns out with the summer we are having so far, it was quite a sound purchase!
What are you looking forward to about May?
Travelling to Moscow for the first time, and going to hear poets and performers read Sylvia Plath’s Ariel at Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Literature Festival.
Text by Tish Wrigley
