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" From Simon Le Bon auditioning in fierce pink leopard-print pants to John Taylor&amp;#039;s locks teased to within an inch of their life, Duran Duran&amp;#039;s sharp style defined an era. Since the pretty boys of pop burst onto the musicscape in the &amp;#039;80s, they have sold an impressive 80 million albums and embarked on a sartorial voyage. Today there are no pastel-hued suits with swaggering shoulder pads, but the band members still have the It factor, including an allure that makes girls quake in their Nicholas Kirkwood platforms.  At a Wednesday-evening bash thrown by Paper magazine and Absolut Wild Tea vodka (and hosted by cover-boy Aziz Ansari) to celebrate the publication&amp;#039;s annual Beautiful People issue, Duran Duran are the glittering guests of honor. New York City&amp;#039;s style-setters are out in force to see the band hit the stage at Good Units for an epic performance. Fashionable faces in the crowd include the likes of Erin Fetherston, Cobra Starship, Diane Birch, Maryna Linchuk, and Jen Brill. With the release of Duran Duran&amp;#039;s new album, All You Need Is Now, the legendary electro-pop quintet from Birmingham, England, is back in the spotlight. The album ushers in a return to basics, with its producer, Mark Ronson (a huge fan when growing up), hailing it as the &amp;quot;imaginary follow-up to Rio that never was.&amp;quot; Kate Moss also frolics around Paris to the title track in the new Dior Addict lipstick video, as part of the line&amp;#039;s Be Iconic campaign.  While the band wears sleek black ensembles at the Paper party, they created a kaleidoscope of outlandish fashion moments in the &amp;#039;80s. &amp;quot;I actually had an orange jumpsuit that I was very fond of for a long time,&amp;quot; says charismatic lead singer Simon in an exclusive interview with ELLE.com before the show. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not sure whether that was my worst or my best,&amp;quot; adds Simon, who lives with his supermodel wife, Yasmin Le Bon, in London. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s probably both!&amp;quot; The original MTV darlings rocked headbands and hairspray in pioneering (often racy) videos for Hungry Like the Wolf, Rio, and Girls on Film. Looking back, razor-cheekboned bassist John is modest about his biggest fashion faux pas. &amp;quot;I think anything that I designed myself, I can generally put down to being worst,&amp;quot; he declares, then breaks into a grin. &amp;quot;So things that looked kind of like Napoleonic toy soldiers, you know, that kind of look.&amp;quot; Handsome 6&amp;#039;2&amp;quot; John, who formed Duran Duran with school friend Nick Rhodes in 1978, continues, &amp;quot;I should have somehow worked through that before I got into a band. Sadly, I had to work through it in my twenties.&amp;quot;  Since then, the new-wave stars have gone through a style evolution, from dancing on-board yachts in Antony Price suits to their understated rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; roll look of today. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve been through a lot,&amp;quot; laughs John, who lives in Los Angeles with wife Gela Nash-Taylor, co-founder of Juicy Couture. &amp;quot;When we view our clothing, when we look back at the photographs, there&amp;#039;s been a lot of looks in 30 years, you know.&amp;quot; Tonight he&amp;#039;s looking dapper in a white shirt, leather jacket, and black tie, with mussed-up spiky hair. He admits that these days &amp;quot;you kind of tend to come back to the more classic look.&amp;quot; Interestingly, Simon believes that their look just moved with the times: &amp;quot;I would describe it as being parallel to mainstream fashion,&amp;quot; says Simon, the father of three daughters, Amber, 21, Saffron, 19, and Tallulah, 16.  What do they think of music stars&amp;#039; getups today, such as Lady Gaga, compared with when Duran Duran first started out? &amp;quot;Lady Gaga is a fantastic style icon,&amp;quot; says Simon, who joined Duran Duran in 1980. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s absolutely amazing. She pushes the whole concept of what you wear to an extreme that I don&amp;#039;t think anybody really has.&amp;quot; Reflecting on musicians over the last few decades, he muses, &amp;quot;Maybe Elton John is the only person who has ever pushed it that far,&amp;quot; then adds, &amp;quot;Throughout, you always get somebody who is really brave, though.&amp;quot; John, who has a 19-year-old daughter, Atlanta (a budding model), with British photographer Amanda de Cadenet, appears deep in thought. &amp;quot;Well, I was thinking, I agree with Simon about Lady Gaga, but I would say I would look at a band like Kraftwerk and what they were doing around 1980 and I tell you what\u2014who&amp;#039;s doing that now?&amp;quot; John and keyboardist Nick Rhodes listened to albums such as Kraftwerk&amp;#039;s The Man-Machine and David Bowie&amp;#039;s Low for inspiration when starting out. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s very hard for a band to somehow put a look together that is reactionary and, you know, unusual,&amp;quot; says John thoughtfully. Simon throws in: &amp;quot;And doesn&amp;#039;t look contrived,&amp;quot; to which John nods and says, &amp;quot;Yeah.&amp;quot; Duran Duran&amp;#039;s stylized look was their creation, each member choosing his own clothes (as well as applying his own lashings of eyeliner). Nowadays it&amp;#039;s tough for bands, Simon believes. &amp;quot;You see now you&amp;#039;ve got the whole kind of archetypal boy-band thing where, you know, you&amp;#039;ve got one in a long coat, one guy in a short jacket, and two others who you can&amp;#039;t remember the names of, and there is that kind of thing,&amp;quot; he reflects, then says, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s hard for a band.&amp;quot; One band whose fashion flair he rates highly is fellow Brit group Coldplay, who collaborated with British stylist Beth Fenton on the band&amp;#039;s Viva la Vida outfits: &amp;quot;I think the strongest look I&amp;#039;ve seen from a band recently would be Coldplay with all that French Revolution thing they had.&amp;quot; With Duran Duran noted for being the late Princess Diana&amp;#039;s favorite musical group, what do the boys think of Kate Middleton&amp;#039;s style? &amp;quot;I love Kate,&amp;quot; enthuses John. &amp;quot;I think she&amp;#039;s great. She&amp;#039;s just got great natural poise, she&amp;#039;s got grace, and she looks good in clothes.&amp;quot; Then he adds, &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s a gift to the fashion industry.&amp;quot; Simon chimes in with a slight Brummie twang, &amp;quot;Yeah, she&amp;#039;s a fit lass, isn&amp;#039;t she?&amp;quot; and then qualifies it with, &amp;quot;She runs. I mean she&amp;#039;s fit in all senses of the word, yeah.&amp;quot; Kate&amp;#039;s choice of wedding-dress designer for her big day is shrouded in secrecy, but perhaps Simon and John have the inside scoop? &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s she going to wear on the day? We know! A wedding dress!&amp;quot; jests Simon, not giving anything away. &amp;quot;Is it not [Alexander] McQueen? They were saying that it&amp;#039;s McQueen.&amp;quot; An invite to the royal wedding is a hot property, and the guys are disappointed to be missing the historic nuptials this month: &amp;quot;We were invited,&amp;quot; says Simon, who then adds regretfully, &amp;quot;But unfortunately, we&amp;#039;re on tour, so we&amp;#039;re not going to be able to go.&amp;quot; Performing tracks from All You Need Is Now, Duran Duran are on a tour that takes in this year&amp;#039;s Coachella festival in Indio, California, on April 17. The 13th studio album captures the carefree spirit of the band&amp;#039;s early days, with edge injected by Ronson. It hit the number-one spot on the iTunes album chart in 15 countries when released digitally. &amp;quot;The album&amp;#039;s going great,&amp;quot; says Simon appreciatively, as if he doesn&amp;#039;t take anything for granted. &amp;quot;I mean, we always try not to have expectations because that&amp;#039;s how you get disappointed, but it&amp;#039;s doing really well.&amp;quot; The group, which also includes drummer Roger Taylor, just collaborated with maverick director David Lynch on a live-stream Web broadcast of their performance in Los Angeles last week.  Before they slink off to prepare for their Beautiful People performance, just one last question. Simon&amp;#039;s wife, Yasmin, was ELLE magazine&amp;#039;s first-ever cover girl, and now the couple&amp;#039;s daughter Amber is following in her footsteps as a model. What&amp;#039;s it like being married to fashion? &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s good!&amp;quot; says Simon, who adds playfully, &amp;quot;It means I have great scenery in the house.&amp;quot; With that, they disappear, leaving Paper magazine partygoers eagerly awaiting their set while sipping Absolut signature cocktails. &amp;quot;Duran Duran are awesome!&amp;quot; declares Erin Fetherston. Meanwhile, Cobra Starship lead singer Gabe Saporta agrees: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s pretty crazy,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s nice to be around that kind of greatness.&amp;quot; Before long Simon is onstage hollering to an excited audience, &amp;quot;I hope you&amp;#039;ve brought your dancing shoes,&amp;quot; before rocking out with new tracks like &amp;quot;Girl Panic&amp;quot; and crowd-pleasing classics like &amp;quot;Notorious.&amp;quot; Duran Duran has gone back to the future. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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