MilesStyle: The Fashion of Miles Davis

by Michael Stradford

Miles Davis is one of the most revered artists of the last 100 years, regardless of the art form. Credited with ushering in a new age of jazz more than once, Davis’s unique perception of the world is best known through his memorable music and is arguably more popular now than ever. In later years, he earned additional acclaim as an abstract painter, with many of his originals selling for thousands of dollars and continuing to escalate in value.But his sense of personal expression didn’t stop with music and painting. Miles Davis’s restless, rebellious personality found an additional creative outlet through his interest in fashion. From the big shouldered, pleated suits of the forties, to the Ivy League look of the fifties, the sleek Italian suits of the sixties and the more avant-garde looks of the last twenty years of his life, Miles Davis blazed a fashion trail whose impact is still being felt today.MILESSTYLE is the first book to examine Miles Davis, the artist, using himself as a creative canvas. MILESSTYLE features observations from notable fashionistas like Lenny Kravitz, Bryan Ferry and Lloyd Boston, as well as friends and bandmates like Quincy Jones, Ron Carter, Clark Terry and more regarding his sartorial evolution as well as what his style said about the music and the man. THIS IS NOT A COFFEE TABLE PHOTO BOOK.

Genres: Fashion

212 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2020

Reviews

[Brent Morales · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent book. I am a person who is extremely into fashion, as I will be going to fashion school soon for menswear, so I thought this would be amazing research tool. Unfortunately, it is a collection of interviews which at first are really intriguing but quickly become quite repetitive. This book also boasts an interview with the famous designer Issey Miyake which turns out to be just a super short statement about Miles.

Hopefully, a later edition will be produced that can showcase pictures like the author originally intended it to be a coffee table book full of "Miles style."

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this lively, unique book and it’s fresh perspective on Miles Davis. It is, in part, about Miles’ creative choices of clothing. But the fashion angle is also a springboard that leads to other insights about Miles’ mind, music, and self-image. Author Michael Stradford has in-depth knowledge of music and musicians. He was a radio DJ, music director and program director for major stations in Toledo, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Houston, and Los Angeles, then became Quincy Jones’ Vice President of A&R at Qwest Records. The fact that Stradford is both well-qualified and well-connected is evident in his overview of Miles’ music and it’s important place in America’s music heritage, and in the impressive list of people he interviewed for the book. Stradford is an exceptionally good interviewer and the range of people he interviewed is amazing. They include great jazz musicians who played with Miles, famous rock musicians who were inspired by him, his ex-wives and lovers, fashion experts who had a hand in or studied Miles’ ever evolving clothing, and academics and social observers who provide insightful commentary on Miles’ towering persona as a black celebrity whose life spanned decades worth of changes in racial attitudes in America. I really like the way Stradford interspersed his Q&A style interviews with well-written chapters about Miles personal life and the evolution of his clothing and music. It makes it far more lively and interesting reading than if he had incorporated it all together as running text, like a standard biography. I saw one review of this book showing that the reviewer had the mistaken impression it’s a photography coffee table book. It does have some classic photos of Miles from various stages of his life that highlight his sense of fashion style. But it’s not a standard photo coffee table book and isn’t portrayed as such in the book description. It’s much more ambitious than that. It’s a coffee table book for the mind that will give you a whole new understanding of and appreciation for Miles Davis, a man for whom the word “style” applied to all aspects of his life.

[Pajamamomma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful stories about Miles from a different point of view

[Cris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very accessible overview of Miles Davis and his relationship to clothing. The interviews also discussed his personal life quite a bit