High Fashion on MTV

The video: Tina Turner’s “Steamy Windows” from the “Foreign Affair” album on Capitol Records.

The look: Unlike her usual slashed and slit, heavy-leather outfits, Turner shows up in a classic strand of pearls, a white slip dress and a pair of spike-heel pumps. She leaves the Mad Max motor bikes behind too; instead, she struts her ample stuff across a horizon-less plane of white light. Tossing a mane of bronzed hair, she bares her remarkable legs almost completely, and manages to twist and shout across the stage with her mini-modestly remaining intact. It’s a high-fashion music video, one of the rare sort associated with big-name print photographers and high-rent fashion magazines. The simplicity of the visuals is a test of Turner’s ability to hold the screen without the trappings and costume flappings that lesser chanteuses seem to relish. She definitely makes the grade.

The stylist: Kim Bowmen, fashion editor of Blitz, a forward British fashion publication, takes only partial credit for Turner’s Ms. Clean look. She passes most of the accolades along to the video’s director, Andy Morahan. “He is very well informed about fashion; his wife is a stylist. So he was quite succinct about the fashion content,” Bowmen said.

The labels: Turner gives a single-note fashion show in a very short, white dress with an overlay of pearl-beaded gold net, designed by Paris-based Azzedine Alaia. Background fashions on supporting vocalists and dancers are also by Alaia. The men’s suits are by Katharine Hamnett with an occasional Jean Paul Gaultier garment thrown in.

The stores: All the Alaias came from one resource: Tina Turner’s closet. “She lent her own clothes to the models and dancers who worked on the shoot,” said Bowmen. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked with a star who did that.” As for the keynote dress, that was chosen by Alaia and Turner, a team Bowmen called “the holy duo. They have a language barrier: She doesn’t speak French and he doesn’t speak English, so they just gaze admiringly at each other.” There is an Alaia boutique in Beverly Hills. The Hamnett suits and the Gaultier fill-ins were provided by the Katharine Hamnett boutique in London. In Los Angeles, Maxfield carries both labels.

The adaptation: Bowmen, who has worked on music videos for Brian Ferry and INXS, says a common mistake in many videos is to subject the star to the fashion fantasy. Models and dancers can pull off the look, she says, but very few others can make the leap into fashion wonderland. Turner recognizes the difference between screen style and street style. The clothes that cling and creep up her thighs are reserved for show time.

The payoff: When Turner was 40 years old, she looked better than most performers half her age. Now that she has turned 50, it still holds true. She should be an inspiration to anyone who laments the passing of youth. Hers is the way to age gracefully.