Stevie Nicks : The Pioneer of Mystical-Bohemian Fashion

"Personally, I think that sexy is keeping yourself mysterious...I'm really an old-fashioned girl, and I think I'm totally sexy."

- Stevie Nicks

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Stevie Nicks did not only make a name for herself in the music industry, but the fashion industry as well, when she started fronting the band Fleetwood Mac in 1974. Little did any of the band members know then that months later they'd be be getting notoriety from across the world that would eventually make them one of the most legendary rock bands of all time. 

Stevie always encompassed her signature witchy/mystical meets boho style throughout her public career. The fandom over her fashion sense debuted along with her and the band's blooming music careers.  I have been fascinated with her music and style since I was able to relate to her as a person and artist. Her fashion ensembles throughout the last thirty plus years during her career have in some ways been so influential to fans that her style is a star in its own right. 

Outside of the studio, Stevie is an intelligent businesswoman who has always been aware of the astonishing gender inequalities in the music industry. She knew from the get-go that making it as a "pretty female" recording artist wasn't going to satisfy what she wanted to accomplish, even if it were the easy way to fame.


She sought respect from the industry and fought to have her voice and ideas heard as she's stated, “I was not going to be a stupid girl singer. I was going to be way more than that.” 

 Her confidence that radiates in her lyrics, voice, music, fashion, is timeless as it is still as fierce today as it was in 1974.  It has fueled her entire career while letting herself also be guided by her determination and passion to make her artistry and ideas conveyed to the best of their abilities.

 In the mid-Seventies, Stevie began to quickly recognize the influence her public persona was having on the band's growing popularity and audiences when the band's image and songs started to become iconic. Her stylish, trend setting outfits began to catch major attention from the fashion world then and began to be endlessly recreated by fashionistas all over the world. 

To this very day, Stevie Nicks is still one of the most prominent fashion icons whose image and signature style consistently sparks inspiration and imagination in fashion designers, stylist,TV shows and movies, as well as other types of art forms.

 Stevie was not blind to the influence of her newly appointed role as rock's new fashion icon  had on her own popularity as an individual artist.  Stevie seemed to use  fashion  to provide herself with a unique nonverbal way of communicating to her fans certain aspects of her personality, interests, and current states of mind. To the forces of nature that inspired Stevie Knicks to truly embrace what fashion is meant to be and master the art of it, I and millions of others thank you and will never stop being grateful. 

When I say Stevie Knicks 'truly embraces what fashion is meant to be' and she has mastered the art of it, I am simply saying that she utilizes her love for fashion design and her personal style in a way that a lot more consumers should consider. She has the necessary basics that any woman needs in her wardrobe: T-shirts, Theory suit sets and blouses, Lululemon leggings, booties, oversized knit sweaters, Nike Fly Knit sneakers and, yes, even a few luxury handbags. But deep and beyond those normal wardrobe essentials in her closet is where the fashion that defined the rock star and performer that is Stevie Nicks resides. Imagine hundreds among hundreds of different fabrics and colors of her signature accessory throughout her career: the fringed kimono inspired boho shawl. Velvets, laces, chiffons, maxi length everything...the iconic styles go on and on. 

Fashion : an armor that physically protects your exterior body from weather conditions   and other  while simultaneously projecting your identity and personality to the outside world we each endure every day.

Stevie Nicks' iconic fashion style is an example of  how an influential voice can be heard just as well by implementing a nonverbal way of personal expression. Not many art forms are spoken aloud, as that takes courage only a select few have. Through the use of fashion for personal expression, so much emotion and personality can be expressed without saying a single word. We are able to utilize fashion to express our current moods, feelings and self confidence, wether if it is a positive day or not. 

The fact is, fashion is a figurative and literal armor for human beings in several ways. Stevie Nicks' fashion ensembles from the Seventies until today have embraced exactly just that because what she's trying to express inevitably isn't meant to be expressed in song form.   She is the Original "Black Magic Woman", and her fashion sense has always mirrored the  gypsy

soul of hers that fuels her creativity that is heard 

in her music and seen in her presence.

Her unique fashion sense documented throughout her career the last couple of decades has made Stevie almost as legendary of a style icon in the fashion industry as she is considered as one of the greatest rock artists of all history.  

Some of her signature styles and ensembles that are still referenced and reinvented today include the fringed kimono, billowing sleeves, Victorian lace, and dark, draping stage costumes. 

Stevie Nicks today

Her unforgettable and timeless aesthetic was created 
with the help of stylist Margi Kent who
 also created most of Stevie's famous
 wardrobe ensembles, on and off stage. 

*Stevie's iconic stage costumes are works of art in and of themselves and have been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and DC's National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others. Click the links to check out more.