Choose Bold Colors
Bowie didn’t always get it right when it came to color. In an interview with Rolling Stone’s Kurt Loder, he talks candidly about his early fashion forays as part of The Konrads. “We wore gold corduroy jackets, I remember, and brown mohair trousers and green, brown, and white ties, I think, and white shirts. Strange coloration.” Indeed. But that all changed with Ziggy Stardust.
In Dylan Jones’s biography David Bowie: A Life, a rich and remarkable oral history told through contributions from more than 180 interviewees, the author remembers what it was like watching him perform on Top of the Pops. Appearing like some sort of messiah in living rooms up and down the United Kingdom, Bowie was wearing a quilted suit that clung rather sexily to his limbs, made by his tailor at the time, Freddie Burretti. This was 1972, and it was like the Second Coming. Ziggy Stardust was the new rock god— and he was dressed in gold, red, and blue.
“We were all bright rainbow colors, glittering sparkling and they were in denim” — Woody Woodmansey
When Bowie stepped into those shoes—or was helped into them owing to their considerable height—he became a different character.
At one point during a remastered clip of Starman, he looks down his nose into the camera and points, wiggling his finger straight at you. It’s hard to describe how life-altering it was as a viewing experience, although Jones manages to sum it up quite succinctly: “For me, he kickstarted the seventies, as the decade turned from black and white to color overnight.”
Bowie inspired a whole generation of teenagers to go red, dyeing their hair with presumably whatever they could find at the local pharmacy to make it sufficiently flame-like. He was alive with color, from his head to his feet, which were also as red as an anthurium thanks to his platform boots. When Bowie stepped into those shoes—or was helped into them owing to their considerable height—he became a different character, a prophet from another planet whose costumes would change before his audience’s eyes. The colors were part and parcel of the magic.
If you watch clips of his last appearance as Ziggy, at his infamous concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, you can see these rapid- fire changes in action. As Bowie starts “Ziggy Stardust,” he’s wearing a black diamond-shaped jumpsuit with shots of blue and red, his feet planted about a meter apart. Two pairs of hands materialize out of the darkness and deftly yank its sleeves, revealing the famously short white satin kimono, which is positively luminescent under the stage lights. He does the same thing again later with two more outfits by Kansai Yamamoto: the white cape revealing the marvelous, multicolored jumpsuit. At one point, Bowie goes offstage to change into his sculpted-shoulder two-piece, another number by Burretti, which he wears with the boots. You can tell how tight it is because he grimaces as it goes up his legs. He smooths out each of his sleeves so that they sit just so. He must have looked something like a red, blue, and silver mirage, a sensory assault on your eyes and ears that made them explode with color and sound. Exhilarating doesn’t even begin to describe it. This was nothing short of earth-shattering.
Finding Your Confidence Color
The first thing to note is that confidence colors don’t translate as bold colors to everyone. Some feel most like themselves in a spectrum of black, navy, and charcoal. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. I know plenty of people who stick to a similar rotation, occasionally introducing biscuit or cream to break it up. But for the purposes of this chapter, why not do what you do best while pushing the boundaries at the same time? A fresh take on color-blocking that encompasses three neutrals but mixes in something more statement is gray, black, white, and fire-engine red. I would wear the combination as follows (give or take a little, of course, depending on what you have in your wardrobe): a gray coat, black court heels and trousers, white shoulder bag, and red turtleneck. You only need a dash of color to create an impact. Of course, a similar effect could be achieved with a swipe of lipstick—either red or something more unusual like tangerine or violet.
Some people are completely the opposite, feeling washed out or perhaps even disempowered when they’re dressed in colors that they consider drab. They’re most at home when they’re wearing at least one highly pigmented shade, the kind that packs a punch. If this rings true for your approach to color, you’ve probably got a good idea of what you feel happiest wearing, whether it’s grapefruit orange or seafoam green.
But what if you fall somewhere in the middle, wanting to mostly blend in, but occasionally stand out? Firstly, most of us occupy this space, so you’re far from alone. What you need to do is find out which colors you’re naturally drawn toward—this is just as important as what suits you. This is the perfect opportunity to go window-shopping because you don’t need to part with any money to see what catches your eye. A Kelly-green pair of trousers, for example, or a cherry-red jacket. Once you’ve set your sights on a particular color, try to imagine what it would be like wearing it in real life, not just in a changing room. Your gut reaction to the question of whether or not you already have something in your wardrobe to wear that shade with is probably the right one.
Bowie threw caution to the wind when it came to wearing color, pairing green with black, white, and gold—and that was before you factored in his hair.
Another way to find “the one” is to look at the wardrobes of celebrities who you think wear colors well. Actor Tracee Ellis Ross never met a shade of yellow she couldn’t make look sublime, although it has to be said that she also wears a lot of neutrals. See? I told you it wasn’t all black and white.
How to Clash Your Colors
This is where it gets complicated. Because although it sounds like an obvious no, clashing colors is actually a big yes. Let me explain. Some colors are so wrong—they’re right. And these are usually the pairings that sit very close to each other on the color wheel, like red and pink or black and navy. True “complementary” colors sit opposite one another: red and green, orange and blue, yellow and purple. But although they technically suit one another, you wouldn’t necessarily wear them together (the pairing of red and green, naturally, gets a free pass during the festive season).
It’s the slightly less obvious, slightly more “off” duos that will pass muster with the fashion crowd. Bowie favored yellow and black, wearing them together on a pair of striped trousers by Versace, or yellow and white, which he wore to great effect on the Low/Heroes Tour. You can either copy these tried-and-tested color formulas, or reinvent the wheel with your own.
True aficionados will often be able to blend three or four shades together to make one seamless color story. It’s quite a sight to behold, but easier to copy than you might imagine. (Note that you’ll want to try this style maneuver using solid colors. Introducing a print is a step too far if this is your first time.) As mentioned earlier, gray, black, white, and red go particularly well together. But if we just take two—white and red—you can have all kinds of fun with shades from sky blue, to rose pink, to mint green, to butter yellow.
Bowie threw caution to the wind when it came to wearing color, pairing green with black, white, and gold—and that was before you factored in his hair. So really, the only rule is that there are no rules.
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Reprinted from Style Codes: David Bowie: A Guide to Dressing Like a Fashion Icon, published by Abrams Books. Text copyright © 2025 Natalie Hammond. Illustrations by Ollie Mann. Cover © 2025 Abrams Books.