GQ did all of us gentlemen a favor by cobbling together a list of the 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years. Because musicians are often ones to make daring use of style, they included a handful of singers and strummers. Now we've pared that down into a musicians only list and GQ's selections have been ranked based on little more than my own opinion.
You may not agree with every single selection (we didn't either), but most of these dudes are tried and true style icons - so dig in.
11. Pete Doherty
Booooooring. GQ says, "for now he's the only bona fide let's-dial-it-back-to-1972 rock star we've got." We say: What the hell are they talking about? It's cool that Pete used to boogie with Kate Moss, but the rock cliches bore us to tears and his style is pretty much handed down from Hedi Slimane anyway, right?
10. The Ramones
Keyword: black. Johnny Ramone was hard on the rest of the boys to keep their hairs trimmed, their leather jackets unzipped and their denim as tight as possible. It worked for them as it has continued to work for multiple generations of punk bands that followed. They also talk a lot about their style in the excellent documentary, End of the Century.
9. Miles Davis
If Miles Davis ever cared about his style, it was purely to aid in the process of bagging women and dragging them "off to his lair," as Joni Mitchell put it in the Miles Electric documentary. Miles was a good looking dude, especially back in the day, but sometimes drugs get even the best of us:
8. Bryan Ferry
Ok, fine, standard pick here because Bryan is so often seen wearing expensive suits and tuxedos, not the cowboy garb you see above. He's handsome, smooth, cool - whatever. My thing is that if you're going to pick someone from Roxy Music, ya gotta go with this guy, Mr. Brian Eno:
7. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
This is not something that needs to be explained. The Rolling Stones have long been recognized as a standard bearer for R&R style with their frilly shirts, hundreds of scarves and tight colored denim hanging slightly over their ankle-length boots. Now that they're aging, they're still pulling risky style moves, but with risk, often comes failure:
6. Beck
From the start Beck has been a style junkie. Last time I saw him he was sporting a cowboy hat and a silk scarf, but GQ focused on his sleek Dior suits in their write-up. His style, like his music, is always changing. And it all began with the "Loser" video, where the long-haired Mr. Hansen essentially helped to brand grunge style - clad in anything-goes-thrift-store-attire. As far as I could tell from my sixth grade eyeballs, it was a revolution:
5. Andre 3000
Simply put, hip hop needs more Andre 3000s. Problem is, there is definitely only one. How do you even begin to describe this guy?
4. Kurt Cobain
Kurt, the man that crushed one of the worst style-trends of all time - big hair - with a couple of chords and a flannel shirt. That said, Kurt did it effortlessly. He's perfect proof that when it comes to style, the people who break the rules are remembered - which he did most notably in his Saturday afternoon living-room attire at the 1992 MTV Video Awards. Hi, Axl!
3. Elvis Presley
Dude wore gold suits and slicked his hair back. That's the reality.
2. David Bowie
In "Quicksand," Bowie sings, "I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman." I'd say he's on par here because he wore some outfits that were vaguely reminiscent of superheroes, wimpy ones anyway. From 1972's Ziggy Stardust persona to the modern club-kid outfits of 1980's Scary Monsters and even 2003's Reality, Bowie's image doubles as cartoonish and incredible. At the same time, he could also pull off laid back looks, as he does on the album covers for Heroes and Young Americans. Those package-highlighting pants in Labyrinth, on the other hand, didn't work out too well:
But this one is classic:
1. Bob Dylan
Voice of a generation, blah, blah, more like the spokesperson for Ray Ban's Wayfarers. Dylan sports the shades (or a variation of them) in half the interviews during Don't Look Back, but I'm not complaining (I might own a pair). Dylan always knew how to dress and the best way to take a look back at his always-changing style? His album covers, duh:
