With the festival taking a year out, we take a moment to appreciate some of the most memorable outfits seen on its stages over the years – from Solange in monochrome PVC to Thom Yorke in an Astro Boy T-shirt
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Sinead O’Connor, 1990
One of the first women to headline the festival, one reviewer questioned “whether her impassioned Gaelic melodies were suited to Glastonbury”. With reviews like that to look forward to, it’s no wonder she dressed for battle (sort of). O’Connor’s look was a bit Terminator, a bit Brighton Pier.
Photograph: Mick Hutson/Redferns
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Jarvis Cocker, 1994
This was a stage outfit perfectly in tune with the Britpop 90s. Cocker’s style has been compared to that of a “ geography teacher on acid” and here, in a double-breasted tweed jacket, a shirt the colour of dried hemp and glasses to keep the most mellow-harshing of the sun’s rays at bay, he looks ready for his field trip.
Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images
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Thom Yorke, 1994
The white jeans might say “grunge” but the lack of mud says “artists’ camping”. Radiohead may have set themselves a little apart from the Britpop posse musically but this outfit is a masterclass in 90s style – tongue-in-cheek Astro Boy track-style T-shirt, shoes that scream insurance broker and a bleach-blonde bowl cut.
Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images
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Liam Gallagher, 1995
Much of today’s vogue for parkas can be dated back to the Gallagher brothers. It speaks volumes about the garment’s broad appeal that, having been chosen by Gallagher as his outfit to headline the Pyramid stage, it’s still being worn by dog walkers and street style influencers alike more than 20 years on.
Photograph: Lindsay Magos/Rex/Shutterstock
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Courtney Love, 1999
With fairy wings, sequinned pink hot pants and hair gems, Love’s stage outfit could be fresh out of Claire’s Accessories. But the punk scribblings on her skin, dramatic roots and attitude keep the ensemble on the right side of grunge.
Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
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David Bowie, 2000
For a performance that included an encore of Heroes – which Michael Eavis described as “maybe my best Glastonbury moment of all time” – the star wore a suitably dramatic longline Alexander McQueen blazer. It was Bowie at his baroque best.
Photograph: Dave Hogan/Getty Images
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Shirley Bassey, 2007
Where others might have steered towards sartorial simplicity, Dame Shirley took to the Worthy Farm stage in a ballgown. But it was what came offstage that really set her look apart – wellies embellished with her initials in crystals.
Photograph: James McCauley/REX/Shutterstock
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Beyoncé, 2011
Never one to shy away from a bit of sparkle, Beyoncé shone out from the stage in a gold blazer, hotpants and fishnet tights; brightness amid the mud. But cut to the 2017 Grammys, where Queen Bey came as a shining golden goddess wearing a dress embellished with her own face and her Glastonbury outfit starts to look positively lowkey.
Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian
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The Rolling Stones, 2013
They were described by Guardian music critic Dorian Lynskey as: “Glittery dandy (Mick), 1980s pirate (Keith), dapper gent (Charlie).” But there was more to Jagger’s outfits (he wore more than one that night) than meets the eye. Designed by his late long-term partner L’Wren Scott, this green sequin one was adorned with oak leaf designs, which Scott described as “glamouflage”. Jagger told WWD: “Most people just think it’s a bright green jacket, but if you look you can see. Glastonbury is an essentially English event.”
Photograph: Brian Rasic/Brian Rasic/REX_Shutterstock
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Dolly Parton, 2014
Playing a rhinestone embellished guitar and sporting her signature vertiginous hair, Parton wore a bejewelled bright white pantsuit to play Worthy Farm. Because, whileshe did perform a song she had written onsite about mud – which included the lyrics: “Mud, mud, mud, mud/Up to our bums in all this crud” – she clearly wasn’t going to let the fear of getting dirty affect her outfit choice.
Photograph: Gary Wolstenholme/Redferns via Getty Images
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MIA, 2014
The Guardian review described the singer’s dress code: “Sartorial overstatement is the order of the day. Think Sun Ra raiding an extremely well-stocked Oxfam.” But her head-to-toe gold wasn’t the fashion headline of the day, the T-shirts supporting Tamil immigrants worn by her backing dancers stole the show.
Photograph: Tabatha Fireman/Redferns via Getty Images
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Adele, 2016
The work of Clare Waight-Keller’s Chloé, the singer’s dress had taken 200 hours to make, with the shells and buttons hand-embroidered on at the atelier. Its fluted sleeves and embellishments harked back to the heyday of festivals, the 1970s.
Photograph: Richard Isaac/REX/Shutterstock
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Dua Lipa, 2017
The singer wore a fishnet Agent Provocateur bikini underneath track bottoms to perform on the John Peel stage. Her look was 90s throwback, making her every inch the millennial pop star.
Photograph: Harry Durrant/Getty Images
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Solange, 2017
It was her 31st birthday and she was going to wear a red top and matching red PVC trousers if she wanted to. Our reviewer describedhow the monochrome “red 70s outfits” of the singer and her band, along with their slick choreography, made for a show “more like a moving painting than a gig”.
Photograph: Samir Hussein/Redferns
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[“Source-theguardian”]
