To Catch the Next Wave

Music videos are the fashion magazines of American’s youth. With as little as a week between the filming and its airing on MTV, a video can beat any magazine when it comes to telegraphing just-hatched fashion ideas to the consumer--and to the legions of fashion designers who are taking notes.

But the door swings both ways.

Madonna, who attended the retro hippie Dolce & Gabbana show in October, was so quick to use the ‘70s look in her “Deeper and Deeper” video that it ran before the clothes even hit the stores.

Beyond grunge and nouvelle disco, there are lots of fresh ideas from current videos, including a darker look at the ‘70s, a new take on the Old West, found objects, Lucille Ball, and corporate clothes done in bright colors. In makeup, the glamour girl gets the edge over the waif.

Round Up the Cows: “I hate cowboy hats,” moans MTV’s house of style producer Alisa Bellettini. “But I think putting R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe in a cowboy hat is genius. Pure genius.”

Other fashion watchers agree that cowboy hats are becoming the next big thing, and if R.E.M.’s “Man on the Moon” video is the trendsetter, the hats are used, not new.

Lead singer Stipe wanted to wear a cowboy hat to enhance the character he portrayed in the video, says stylist Randy Palmer. “It was not so much Western as it was more of a James Dean ‘Giant’ kind of thing.” Stipe’s Stetson came from Western Costume, and band members’ hats came from an assortment of costume houses. For those who want to buy a used cowboy hat, Palmer recommends taking a look at Leathers and Treasures on Melrose or Western Treasures near the Authentic Cafe on Beverly.

Stipe isn’t wearing cowboy boots, by the way. He has on a pair of his own old motorcycle boots to keep from being too head-to-toe Western. His jeans are what Palmer says are “collector’s jeans that can sell for $500 to $700 on Melrose.” They’re darker blue vintage Levi’s from its old Red Line. Palmer unearthed a pair that had never been worn and Stipe wears them rolled up.

‘70s Redux: The Black Crowes’ bleak “Sometimes Salvation” video recalls the blackness of the period’s drug culture. But it also offers yet another take on ‘70s clothing, with its eclectic blend of baroque, thrift, fake fur and funk on the denizens of the street. For the most part, the clothes on the video are an accumulation of found items from attics and swap meets. One of the most striking looks is the outfit worn by shaggy lead singer Chris Robinson. His black suede jacket has a quilted collar and flamboyant feather mantle. The jacket and matching flared pants were made for him by Los Angeles designer Karen Dusenbery.

Salvaged Chic Arrested Development combines style and substance. “Mr. Wendal,” about the dignity of a homeless man, is beautiful to watch, and proceeds from the song will benefit the National Coalition for the Homeless.

The Southern hip-hop band’s stylist/designer is one of its own, singer Aerle Taree (pronounced Early Ta-REE), whose sense of style is so admired that other groups have asked for her help in their videos. “I like to express visually what you’re hearing in the music,” says Taree, who was a fashion design major in college. “I close my eyes and listen to the music. I know the personality of the individuals, so I know what to design for them. What I don’t make, I style.”

Taree uses lots of mixed textures, patterns and color. She started with this approach when everyone else was doing solids, khakis and big jeans. Many of the group’s outfits are made from vintage clothes and fabrics.

In “Mr. Wendal,” Taree decided to draw on the “opposite of homelessness, which is corporate America” in doing lead singer Speech’s main outfit. She decorated a mustard blazer from the Goodwill with old ties that she cut up and appliqued on lapels and cuffs.

For another outfit, she took a standard gray shirt and jeans that Speech no longer wore and “juiced them up” with appliqued bits of colorful old fabrics. She chose a vivid palette of red, orange and yellow because she felt that though “the homeless lack materially, visually they’re rich.”

When this Atlanta-based group is on tour, Taree is in each city’s fabric shops and flea markets looking for finds, old cloth and African fabrics. She even uses Scarlett O’Hara’s old trick of making clothes from salvaged curtains.

I Love Lucy En Vogue means in fashion and this R&B;/pop girl group takes its name to heart. Its current album, “Funky Divas,” has yielded one fashionable video after another. In “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” the quartet wore second-skin, custom-made, red bra-top dresses. They dressed in Thierry Mugler’s futuristic runway clothes for “Free Your Mind.”

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Those sexy aluminum mesh minidresses in “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” were custom made for them at Exit 1, a shop on Melrose. (In-house designer Jose Arellanes hand-links every dress to order for around $800.)

The most recent video “Give It Up, Turn It Loose,” takes the group in another new direction.

Stylist Danny Flynn used only late ‘50s designer clothes from his personal collection, costume houses and vintage shops. “They were Lily Diamond, Don Loper and Hattie Carnegie. The kinds of names you’d see in ‘Vogue’ in the late ‘50s like you see Gaultier today,” he says. “Do you remember the episode of ‘I Love Lucy’ when Lucy modeled for Don Loper? I loved that, so I always look for Don Loper.”

To get a similar look, he recommends going to places like American Rag, Jet Rag and the twice-a-year Vintage Clothing Expo at the Santa Monica Civic (the next one is Oct. 23-24). Look for style and fabric, and don’t worry about the fit, he recommends. “You always have to do alterations because body types were different, bras were different,” says Flynn. “A lot of people go to vintage shops and try on a dress and it won’t fit. But they like the dress. You have to remember that you can go to a tailor and for 20 bucks it can look great.”

Antidote to the Waif: This striking makeup look indulges in the current rage for plucked eyebrows and monochromatic palettes--but it’s about as different from the trendy waif look as Kate Moss is from Winona Ryder. For this, you need black eyelids, a ‘50s glamour brow and carefully sculpted red lips. Call it an antidote to the waif for those who have more color in their skin and hair.

The best example of the look can be seen on the belly dancer Mayte in Prince’s current video, “7.”

“I wanted to create an image for her that would make her look extremely exotic,” says makeup artist Kasha Breuning. “If you saw belly dancers in old movies, or the Arabic-influenced sci-fi movies like ‘Barbarella,’ the look was very painted, too heavy, too overdone. I wanted to keep Mayte’s look bold but very clean.”

Brows were tweezed, then drawn in with an exact, very precise line with M.A.C. black eye shadow applied while wet. Lips were blue/red Kryolan, a German makeup used in the film industry, that is a heavy pigment lipstick. It can be purchased at Columbia Stage & Screen Cosmetics in Hollywood. “A comparable lipstick would be M.A.C.’s Russian Red,” says Breuning.

On the eyes, she started with black eye shadow on the lid, then blended it up into clove, taupe and ivory at the brow “to create an airbrushed look and keep the color neutral and monochromatic.” Other than the Il Maquillage’s clove, the rest were M.A.C. colors. Christian Dior’s black cashmere mascara and an olive base from M.A.C. finished the look.