notjustaboutsex

courtesy of The Independent

I was working in the art department of RCA Records the year they held the David Bowie look=alike contest. He was a huge star on their label. They had their classical Red Seal  but Bowie was the rocket ship  that made RCA sexy.

These were the  early days before everyone was in drag, costume or dressed up like Santa. So seeing people don the Bowie look was very exciting.

• A woman in my department got my vote. She was thin, with gorgeous sunken cheekbones and wore her naturally red hair in that Ziggy Bowie cut. Like a lot of people who identify with someone who shakes up the culture, she really lived everyday in his fashion. I’ve seen it with John Lennon a lot, but Bowie, being such a chameleon, offered a wonderful landscape of visual opportunities.
• I had one disappointment with him…when he got American teeth and lost his wonderful canines. They gave his face that extra lupine appeal that made him even more dangerous.

A major cultural force…. R.I.P.