Slim suits in the ’60s. Psychedelic caftans in the ’70s. Slouchy knits in the ’80s. The late musical icon was a true menswear maven across every decade of his life. —Yang-Yi Goh, style editor
Quincy Jones Was a Style God Who Never Stopped Evolving
Quincy Jones, who passed away yesterday at 91, will be remembered best for his constant musical reinventions over the course of his seven-decade, EGOT-winning career: he started out writing arrangements for Ray Charles, played trumpet in a young Elvis’s backing band, worked closely with Frank Sinatra for decades, helped turn Michael Jackson into the best-selling solo artist of all time, all while also composing some of the greatest film scores of all time and producing a handful of iconic television shows.
But Jones didn’t merely reserve that willingness to experiment and evolve for his work. Throughout his entire life, Q was consistently one of the best-dressed people in any room—and that's saying something, given he was often sharing rooms with the likes of Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and countless other style gods. He earned that reputation by fearlessly embracing new trends—from embroidered tunics and bell-bottoms in the ’70s to Missoni knits and stonewashed jeans in the ’90s—while also making them entirely his own, always allowing his powerful and inimitable character to shine through. You can also tell that Jones really loved his clothes; when you scroll through every available picture of him on the internet, as I just did for this story, you start to see a handful of favorite pieces pop up again and again across the years. There were no stylists involved here, just an artistic genius who loved to compose fits as much as pop smashes.
In the coming decades, Jones’s sartorial acuity will be rightfully overshadowed by his musical triumphs. But unless you happen to be a generational talent on the keys, scrolling through the photos below and taking inspiration from one of his dozens of unimpeachable looks is a far easier way for you to pay direct tribute to his outsized legacy this week. —Yang-Yi Goh
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