Fashion Icon: Janis Joplin

Though unorthodox, one of my recent favorite fashion icons is Janis Joplin--that is to say, early Janis Joplin. I love the 1960s mixture of patterns and colors, as well as the free style of her hair. She clearly hardly did anything to it, which is fantastic for me because I can hardly get my hair to do anything other than what it likes.

I love the look of peasant blouses, even though I can't particularly wear them myself. She really does a fantastic job of layering necklaces and showing off how jewel tones can just make your skin look fantastic. And the pants that she wears!! I'd never wear them in real life (I'm an utter demin kid, personally) but I think they're just phenomenal.






A rather classic photo of her, I believe it's on the cover of her Greatest Hits album. I am in love with this embroidered jacket/shirt thing, I can't really tell from the photo. If I could find that anywhere I'd snap it up in a New York minute, let me tell you.

Everyone seems to remember Janis Joplin at the end--deeply troubled, overly haggard from years of hard drugs and alcohol. She had an incredible voice and seems to just have been one of the most fun people to hang around with before fame and its drawbacks seemed to eat her from the inside out. I prefer to remember her younger, somewhat happier--just kinda living life.

Grace Slick, a rather impressive icon herself, said "Janis knew more than I did about "how it was", but she lacked enough armor for the inevitable hassles. She was open and spontaneous enough to get her heart trampled with a regularity that took me thirty years to experience or understand."