The Clothing of Miles Davis

[Sefton]

​

Miles Davis is one of my favorite Jazz artists. He was almost as famous (or infamous) for his love of fine clothes. While searching for images I found a website who's author was given boxes of Miles Davis's clothing at a rummage sale in the 1980s. For FREE. Yes, outfits worn by one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century for the taking. God, the things that happened in the pre-internet, pre-Ebay days...

At first I was skeptical, but after reading through the site it seems that the story is true. How the person who gave away Miles Davis's clothes got hold of said clothes in the first place isn't told.
Miles Davis was the kind of artist who didn't look back. His music was always moving forward. I think that his attitude towards clothing was much the same. After sitting in his famously enormous closet for a few decades he decides to toss out these sartorial relics. Or maybe they were stolen. Somehow they end up in boxes in a parking lot.

Incredibly the person who received the pieces didn't initially know who Miles Davis was. Perhaps they were living in a monastery for 25 years and didn't hear music or watch TV. To me that part of the story is almost as strange.

If I had been offered these clothes for free I think I'd probably faint on the spot which would be followed by disappointment that Miles wore a size 34 and I wear a 38. I'd keep them to have my tailor make copies of the 50s and early 60s pieces. The 70s pieces I'd pass along to someone whose sartorial tastes were a little farther out than my own.

Here is the link:

http://www.princeofwalesonline.com/miles_davis.html

Another interesting site(by the same author) with images and information about Miles Davis's fashion is linked at the bottom of that page. It's called Miles Davis Threads:
http://milesdavisthreads.blogspot.com/

Also worth checking out is this article found on the Ralph Lauren website about Miles Davis adopting the Ivy League look in the late 1950s:

http://entertainment.ralphlauren.com/magazine/editorial/fa08/Ivy_Jazz.asp
Cheers!
Sefton

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Radiant.

Miles' style in the late 50s and early 60s is breathtaking. He absorbed everything about the clothing he saw in France and Italy in the middle 50s, and incorporated it into his own unique style. The skinny trousers, short sculpted jackets, the contrast outfits, the cravattes, the attitude. The man was an African American minette.

He was, in the words of one of his wives "absolutely beautiful". He had become "important", musically. And he knew both things, and dressed the part. It's rare that you see someone who's personality is so perfectly reflected in their wardrobe.

Pity he was such an unmitigated arsehole. Can't have it all, i suppose.

This is undoubtedly my favourite photograph, and says it all, i think:

bk

 

[kools]

Here's Dexter Gordon. "Dexter hipped me to the importance of looking sharp. I thought he was the cleanest cat around."

Dexter's influence on Miles
Dexter used to be super hip and dapper, with those big shouldered suits everybody was wearing in those days (1948). I was wearing my three-piece Brooks Brothers suits that I thought were super hip, too. ..
But Dexter didn't think my dress style was all that hip. So he used to tell me, "Jim" ("Jim" was an expression a lot of musicians used back then), "you can't hang out with us looking and dressing like that. Why don't you wear some other s***, Jim? You gotta get some vines. You gotta go to F & M's," which was a clothing store on Broadway in Midtown.

"Why, Dexter, these some bad suits I'm wearing. I paid a lot of money for this s***."

"Miles, that ain't it, 'cause the s*** ain't hip. See, it ain't got nothing to do with money; it's got something to do with hipness, Jim, and that s*** you got on ain't nowhere near hip. You gotta get some of them big-shouldred suits and Mr. B shirts if you want to be hip, Miles."

So I'd say, all hurt and s***, But Dex, man, these are nice clothes."

"I know you think they hip, Miles, but they ain't. I can't be seen with nobody wearing no square s*** like you be wearing. And you playing in Bird's band? The hippest band in the world? Man, you oughta know better..."

So I saved up forty-seven dollars and went down to F & M's and bought me a gray, big-shouldered suit that looked like it was too big for me. That's the suit I had on in all them pictures while I was in Bird's band in 1948 and even in my own publicity shot when I had that process in my hair. After I got that suit from F & M's, Dexter came up to me grinning that big grin of his and towering over me, patting me on my back, saying, "Yeah, Jim, now you looking like something, now you hip. You can hang with us."

 

[Flitcraft]

Sefton!

Swingin' Post, Jim!

That website is a great resource!

 

[Sefton]

Barons absolutely right about Miles Davis. He took it all in and made it seem natural like he breathed it..it was him.

I love the music of Dexter Gordon and he did look good, but Miles Davis looked better when he ditched those big shouldered suits and went his own way. As for Bird: he either dressed sharp or looked a terrible mess which was likely an indicator as to whether he was clean or on dope at the time (or so it seems to me from the photos and accounts that I've read).

A couple of things I really like about some of Miles Davis's jackets from the 50s / 60s are the single button cuffs and the angled pockets. Sharp stuff.

 

[HadleyH]

Thanks for posting this Sefton. He was a dapper dresser indeed!

He once said: "For me music and life are all about style!" :eusa_clap


way cool!

 

[Sefton]

I'm glad that you've enjoyed it. That Miles Davis quote is good, but my favorite one from the man is when he was asked to comment on his look back in 50s / 60s: "I was a clean mother******".

 

[HadleyH]

I'm glad that you've enjoyed it. That Miles Davis quote is good, but my favorite one from the man is when he was asked to comment on his look back in 50s / 60s: "I was a clean mother******".

^
^




Another Milestone ok?

- I was minding my own business when something says to me, " You ought to blow trumpet". I have just been trying ever since.-


omg he was only trying?????? lol

 

[rmrdaddy]

"... You gotta get some of them big-shouldred suits and Mr. B shirts if you want to be hip, Miles."

The Mr. B referenced in the above quote was Billy Eckstine. Famous in the NY Jazz scene, 52nd Street, for his sartorial sense as well as his smooooooth vocal stylings.
A link to photos of many Jazz legends, Mr B. included...
http://www.africanafrican.com/negroartist/JAZZ IMAGES1/

 

[Tomasso]

Biopic in the works?

Didn't Don Cheadle announce some time ago that he planned to produce, direct and star in a Miles Davis flick? I like Cheadle.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Additionally his hair was a fashion statement

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=1832

This man did nothing by mistake.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Big shouldered suit and "Mr B." shirt in Paris for the first time. With the singer - his lover - Juliette Greco.

bk

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I just realised that i haven't seen many pictures of Miles wearing a hat. (At least not from the 40s-60s period.)

bk

 

[Feraud]

Great thread!

 

[H.Johnson]

Irrespective of dress style, musical talent or any other factor, anyone who has Juliette Greco as a lover gets my vote!

 

[Fletch]

Billy Eckstine

Stylish guy - vocally and sartorially.
Above is an early, conservative version of the "B" collar. It later took off!

 

[Sefton]

I haven't seen any photos of Miles Davis wearing a hat before the 70s either. Another very intentional move to seperate his style from the rest would be my guess.

Did anyone notice on the linked site that blue w/ white pinstripe jacket with the side adjusters? There was a suit from the 40s sold on Ebay recently (and discussed on the FL) that had an adjuster at center back, but I've never seen side ones-except on leather jackets. It's an interesting look for a suit jacket.

 

[HadleyH]

I just realised that i haven't seen many pictures of Miles wearing a hat. (At least not from the 40s-60s period.)
bk

Here is a rare photo of Miles Davis circa 1947, with hat, blazer and dark shirt.

 

[Lefty]

not nearly as old

 

[univibe88]

Miles was COOL