Wear Your Love Like Heaven: Style Muse: Cher

Okay, so while I'm working on writing things up relating to music and movies and all that other good stuff, I figured I'd start with posting something where pictures do my talking for me. So, my first kind of "post series" thing I'm starting will be called Style Muse, and I'll generally give background and pictures of a specific person from the 60s/70s who changed the way I think about fashion or inspires my daily personal style.

My first fashion icon I've chosen to do in this series is American singer and actress, Cherilyn Sarkisian, better known as Cher.

With Sonny Bono, Twiggy, and Justin de Villeneuve in 1967 (via the60sfashion.com)

Cher was born in 1946, and originally got her start in 1965 as half of the husband-wife folk rock duo, Sonny & Cher, and since then, has become one of the most well-known figures in pop culture.

(via desaparecidos.tumblr.com)

Sonny & Cher scored their biggest hit, "I Got You Babe" in 1965, and they became largely known for bringing new, hip, 60s style that was becoming popular with the younger generation into the mainstream.

I mean, look at that fur vest.

I'm gonna low-key steal a little bit from Wikipedia here to emphasize her effect on the fashion industry better than I could in my own words:

Cher emerged as a fashion trendsetter in the 1960s, popularizing "hippie fashion with bell-bottoms, bandanas, and Cherokee-inspired tunics". She began working as a model in 1967 for photographer Richard Avedon after then-Vogue editor Diana Vreeland discovered her at a party for Jacqueline Kennedy that year.

(via oystermag)

(via Tumblr)

(At the 1974 Met Gala, via V Magazine)

In 1972, after she was featured on the annual "Best Dressed Women" lists, Mackie stated: "There hasn't been a girl like Cher since [Marlene] Dietrich and [Greta] Garbo. She's a high-fashion star who appeals to people of all ages."

(via Tumblr)

(via cherismygoddess.tumblr.com)

(via Pinterest)

In May 1999, after the Council of Fashion Designers of America recognized Cher with an award for her influence in fashion, Robin Givhan of Los Angeles Times called her a "fashion visionary" for "striking just the right note of contemporary wretched excess". Givhan referenced Tom Ford, Anna Sui and Dolce & Gabbana as "[i]nfluential designers [who] have evoked her name as a source of inspiration and guidance." She concluded that "Cher's Native American showgirl sexpot persona now seems to epitomize the fashion industry's rush to celebrate ethnicity, adornment and sex appeal."

Thanks, Wikipedia.