Culture
13 May 03

Style council: Ollie, Turn

"I used to always take clothes off people as well, like little kids after gigs who would go 'You were brilliant' and I’d go, 'Can I have your jacket?'”

How would you describe your style? At the moment it’s fairly casual, almost retro – really nice, old-looking Levis and a leather jacket. Vintage gear. After that, shirts and maybe an old man vest underneath. When you’re in a band, you have to wear the same clothes all the time. Like today I’m wearing jeans and I have a real nice thick kind of rocker belt – really ’70s. I’ve had the same style since I was a kid actually. I was always a rocker, a kid with AC/DC patches on the back of my jacket.

Where do you shop? I always buy women’s shirts in French Connection but without the little pleats under the arms. Men’s shirts are always big fitting. You also pick up on what other people are wearing. You’d be travelling around New York and Texas doing a gig and bump into other bands and you might really like someone’s jacket. I used to always take clothes off people as well, like little kids after gigs who would go “You were brilliant” and I’d go “Can I have your jacket?”

Is image important to the music? Oh yeah. That’s why when we first started we always wore suits, three-piece, nice classy kind of suits. We played pretty punk music and it was a good juxtaposition to see the band coming out looking this neat and being that loud. When we got our first record deal we went to Louis Copeland and got him to make us these tailor made ’70s suits and it cost us a fortune. But last year The Hives and nearly every band I saw was wearing suits, so we just stepped away from that.

Is your style reflected in the kind of music that you play? I think so yeah. And I think that’s important if you’re in a band. It’s the same as the cover on your record – people need to look at it and almost know what type of music you play.

Who is the most stylish musician in the world, living or dead? Definitely David Bowie. He covered all the bases, like the Thin White Duke thing where he wore the suit and the wide brimmed hat. Marilyn Manson is interesting. When he wears the women’s body suit thing – that’s mad.

Maria Tecce, Nina Hynes, Bjorn out of La Rocca, Jerry Fish and Gabriela out of Rodrigo y Gabriela interviewed on style here