Joni Mitchell is one of the most beloved musicians of the 20th century - and will remain so well into the future, if her vocal fanbase including the likes of Harry Styles, Lorde, and Haim is anything to go by. But her wide-ranging impact on music today is rivaled only by her influence on the world of fashion. The laid-back, folksy style Mitchell defined in the 1960s and '70s hasn't just served as an inspiration to generation after generation of festival-goers and boho It girls, but remains on the mood board of many a fashion designer too. (Who can forget Hedi Slimane casting and photographing Mitchell for a Saint Laurent campaign in 2015?)
While Mitchell stepped away from the spotlight following an aneurysm that same year, she's tentatively begun stepping out in public again more recently. She received a Kennedy Center Honor in December, which saw her make the journey to the White House to accept a medal from President Joe Biden and attend a tribute show nearby, while last weekend she was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year at a gala in Las Vegas. And at the 2022 Grammy Awards tonight, Mitchell showed up for a rare televised appearance to accept her award for best historical album, celebrating Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years, a box set of home and live recordings from her early days as a musician that pays testament to her innate musicianship.
As a fully paid-up fashion icon, though, she couldn't hit the Grammys stage wearing just anything. So for the music industry's biggest night out, Mitchell leaned into the looser silhouettes she's favored in recent years, specifically a breezy white blouse, a pair of floral print trousers, and an ankle-skimming white pleated coat, which appears to have been made by one of Mitchell's favorite designers, Issey Miyake.
The real standout, however, was Mitchell's crimson beret. As any follower of Mitchell's distinctive style knows, the French cap has been a staple of her wardrobe all the way back to her earliest years in the music scene. Memorably, she wore one on the cover of her 1976 masterpiece Hejira in an Ingmar Bergman-inspired photograph, taken by Norman Seeff. (Mitchell's other favorite headwear styles include fedoras and wide-brimmed sun hats; she even immortalized her love for a good chapeau in her 1979 song written in collaboration with Charles Mingus, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.")
On a night where the most over-the-top outfits are those that make the headlines, Mitchell proved she's still a fashion force to be reckoned with simply by staying true to the style signatures she's defined over the past six decades. With that in mind? Her beret was just the cherry on top.
Printed from the official Joni Mitchell website. Permanent link: https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=5136
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