An end to signature pop-star style.

By Booth Moore

We all wore themAuthe black loafers, white ankle socks, rhinestone brooches, cropped military jackets and fedoras. Michael JacksonAAEs sartorial signatures filled our closets in the 1980s. And his passing marks the end of an era when a pop singerAAEs individual style could leave an imprint on the critical mass of a generation. Just try to think of any singer since the days of Jackson, Madonna, and David Bowie with a look so distinctive that it could take over the street. AoMichael Jackson took something simple that everyone could emulate and turned it into a signature style,Ao says Keanan Duffty, the New York-based musician-turned-menswear designer and co-author of AoRebel, Rebel: Anti-Style,Ao due to be released in September. AoIt was a genius signature styling detail, because any kid from India to the UK to Bali could put on a white glove and emulate Michael Jackson.Ao Jim Moore, creative director of GQ magazine, agrees. AoHe had a uniform. When I think of him, I think of that leather jacket with the sleeves pushed up that weAAEve been seeing on the runway for a few seasons, the white socks and loafers that were a bit of an homage to James Dean, and the short pants long before Thom Browne was doing them. Designers are always making reference to him.Ao In the early 1970s through the 1980s, if you were a pop star, you cultivated an onstage, tour-driven look, says Harold Koda, co-curator of the Costume Institute at New YorkAAEs Metropolitan Museum of Art, who organized the AoRock StyleAo exhibit in 1999. AoAn entertainerAAEs personality was driven by creating a caricature that relied on costume.Ao So you had Stevie NicksAAE bohemian velvet gypsy-style dresses and high boots, MadonnaAAEs bras and vintage-looking crinolines and Adam AntAAEs New Romantic pirate shirts and white stripe of face paint. For fans, getting the look was about improvising. Style couldnAAEt be bought right off the rack, even if the pieces could be, so there was an element of fantasy that made it all the more appealing. What changed in the 1990s was the co-opting of pop music by the fashion industry and the rise of celebrity clothing lines and celebrity stylists. With celebrities in the media cross hairs like never before, there was a defensive shift from AoStand out!Ao to AoLook unassailable, bland and marketableAoAuand stars turned to the taste policing of stylists. AoStylists have taken the power away from the pop star, creating a look based more on fashion than signature style,Ao Duffty says. It is now a status symbol for pop stars to be associated with a certain designer or house (not to mention a way to get a ton of freebies). Fashion connoisseurship (a la Kanye West) trumps individual style, Koda says. It also can be quite lucrative. Luxury fashion houses and cosmetics companies pay pop stars top dollar to appear in adsAuRihanna for Gucci for example, and Beyonce for LAAEOreal. Other stars have their own clothing lines, which sell a name but not necessarily a distinct style. ItAAEs all about jeans and T-shirts. Interestingly, attaching his name to a line was something that Jackson was just getting into, collaborating on an upcoming collection with Christian Audigier. For her current tour, Beyonce collaborated with French fashion designer Thierry Mugler on futuristic, sculpted leotards. But when you see her on the red carpet, sheAAEs more likely to be wearing a diaphanous gown. AoThere isnAAEt this blurring of onstage and offstage identity the way there used to be,Ao Koda says. The other reason pop-star style is not as potent is that the sheer number of celebrities and images of celebritiesAufrom TV, film, the InternetAuhas exploded. And that has created a smorgasbord of influences to choose from. With the advent of reality TV and paparazzi shots, the fantasy has shifted. Now many fans would rather emulate the AorealAo grocery-store-going and Coffee Bean-swilling star, the one whoAAEs Aojust like you and meAoAunot the staged and styled one. AoItAAEs not that there isnAAEt a following for rock-star style; itAAEs that itAAEs just one of a vast menu of styles,Ao Koda says. AoSome women may be emulating Katy PerryAAEs Daisy Mae AaeDogpatch glamour puss with ginghamAAE look, but itAAEs lost because there are so many other options. ... The multiplicity of personalities and images diffuses things.Ao Some pop looks do still resonate, just not as loudly. AoYou can do a Justin Timberlake by putting on a porkpie hat and a vest. ItAAEs not quite as iconic, but nostalgia does come into play a lot, and we look at the past through rose-tinted glasses,Ao Duffty says. AoIAAEm sure people were doing that when Elvis came along, saying that gold suit wonAAEt be remembered like Frank SinatraAAEs trilby.Ao How Jackson would have played to the next generation of fans weAAEll never know. His style had become even more quirky as the years went on. AoThatAAEs what Michael Jackson was facing with this new tour,Ao says Arianne Phillips, a stylist and costume designer who has helped Madonna create her ever-evolving looks. AoThere is such a rapid turnover and constant reinvention of pop stars today that itAAEs rare when an artist embraces a look that it works for them over and over.Ao LATWP News Servic

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