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"  No man should\u00A0live his life in just\u00A0one outfit. For all the staunch supporters of uniform dressing, there has always been its antithesis: dressing emotionally. It stems from the idea that what you put on doesn&amp;#039;t just reflect who you are, but who you are today. David Bowie was an absolute master of this approach, an auteur and visionary who made unforgettable music and wore outfits that were eclectic songs of himself. His power was in his perpetual reinvention, from his teenage years in The Konrads (dying his hair with food coloring and wearing tapered trousers that were avant-garde at the time), all the way up to the New Romantic look that still influences designers like C\u00E9line&amp;#039;s Phoebe Philo and the slim Diamond Dogs-era suits that left a lasting impression on Hedi Slimane. &amp;quot;I was born with a David Bowie album in my hand,&amp;quot; the designer said\u00A0in an interview earlier this year.  As Ziggy Stardust or the Thin White Duke or just as David Bowie, the man born as David Robert Jones was a lasting testament to the power of building your own universe instead of riding the same waves as everyone else. Why sit at some other guy&amp;#039;s table when it&amp;#039;s so much more fun to host your own party? &amp;quot;Style is about the choices you make to create the aspects of civilization that you wish to uphold,&amp;quot; said Bowie in a 2003 Complex interview. Interestingly enough, considering his flamboyant stage persona(s), he also admitted that fashion isn&amp;#039;t much of a priority in his personal life. For Bowie, it&amp;#039;s all about style\u2014that seamless cohesion between what you wear, who you are, and what those things say together. Or more succinctly: &amp;quot;Everything we look at and choose is some way of expressing how we want to be perceived.&amp;quot;  In a world where discussions about gender identity and transgender rights are more mainstream than ever, and where the notion that sexual orientation and clothing are somehow related is far outdated, the image of Bowie in a velvet Michael Fish dress on the cover of 1970&amp;#039;s The Man Who Sold The World is forever relevant. In that light, modern menswear iconoclasts like Jaden Smith and Young Thug\u2014who&amp;#039;ve also caught flack for wearing dresses\u2014are more pastiches than groundbreakers. Even Kanye West is indebted to Bowie, and\u00A0expressed\u00A0condolences upon hearing of his death, tweeting: &amp;quot;David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations, so fearless, so creative, he gave us magic for a lifetime.&amp;quot;        Bowie&amp;#039;s fearlessness and unwavering, confident weirdness made him the ultimate inspiration for outsiders everywhere. Whether he was decked out in Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto&amp;#039;s colorful clothes during the Aladdin Sane era or the equally classic Freddie Burretti mustard yellow suit he wore as the Thin White Duke, Bowie&amp;#039;s most famous looks have achieved a life of their own. And from the ice blue number he\u00A0wore in the &amp;quot;Life On Mars&amp;quot; video to the baggy pleated khaki pants from the clip for\u00A01980&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Fashion&amp;quot;\u00A0(shot at the long-gone HURRAH nightclub), those looks lived on long after he changed his aesthetic, and will live on long after his passing.  Every single musician who breaks fashion barriers today\u2014Pharrell introducting skate culture to hip-hop, Lady Gaga modernizing glam rock into digital-goth robosexuality, A$AP Rocky declaring that it&amp;#039;s OK for dudes who listen to Future to wear Rick Owens\u2014owes his or her sartorial existence to music&amp;#039;s original rebel, rebel.  Bowie approached clothes like leaves of grass, the flags of whatever disposition he felt like flying at that particular moment. Every look is a new opportunity to remake ourselves in a new image, and when we dress ourselves we often contradict ourselves. And why shouldn&amp;#039;t we? We are large; we contain multitudes.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a41119/david-bowie-style-legacy/>