What do the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls, and Britney Spears all have in common? Aside from being megawatt ’90s pop stars, they have all been dressed by the same stylist: David Thomas. In a new coffee-table book released today, entitled Vanity Project: A Tale of Fashion and Celebrity Styled by Dave Thomas, we get a closer look at all of Thomas’s glamorous styling work (which has appeared on many stages and in many iconic music videos).
Thomas – originally from Gloucester, but now based in LA – got his start in fashion in the late ’80s. He was working as a plumber when he received a grant from the Prince’s Trust in 1988, which gave him enough money to start assisting (10 per cent of his new book sales will benefit the trust). One of the first fashion personalities he worked for was Judy Blame, Boy George’s late stylist and close collaborator. “I hounded Judy until he gave me a job,” says Thomas. “He was just such a free spirit, and he didn’t follow trends – he did his own thing.” From there, Thomas went on to work with Iain R Webb and the fashion icon Isabella Blow, whom he met through Blame. “I assisted her at British Vogue, and we went to Paris for a shoot with Karl Lagerfeld,” Thomas says.
In 1991, Thomas landed his first job at British Esquire at the age of 25. It was at the magazine where he really fell into the realm of celebrity styling. “When I got the job at Esquire, they had a policy that there were no models to be used in the fashion pages,” says Thomas. “I started using musicians, actors, and artists. I just started writing to people that I loved and admired.” For one of his first jobs, he enlisted Charlotte Rampling to model suits. “No one else was really doing that at the time,” says Thomas. “At that point, the cover of magazines was still models, not celebrities.”
Working with celebrities proved to be his calling, as they offered a different freedom compared to magazine editorials. “Magazines and fashion started to get really grungy in the ’90s, and that wasn’t my thing,” says Thomas. “I like sexy and glamorous [clothes]. I remember thinking, maybe I’m better suited to the music world – they get me more.”
Throughout his impressive 30-year career, Thomas has worked with all types of stars – including one of his all-time favourite style icons, Boy George. (Those all-white looks in “After the Love”? All Thomas.) It’s hard for the stylist to pick favourite jobs throughout the decades, but he does have a few, including Britney Spears’s “I Wanna Go” and “If You Seek Amy” videos. “She was so fun to work with,” he says. “In the ‘If You Seek Amy’ video, we got to experiment with different looks. The first was decadent and sexy. She wore these bright orange Christian Louboutin heels. If someone’s going to dance, you want to draw attention to their feet. The second was more innocent and sweet.”
He also dressed the Backstreet Boys for their very first album cover shoot. “Nick Carter was only 14 then – his mum was there,” Thomas recalls. “Looking back, it’s so ’90s: Everything was colourful and baggy, with sneakers and sportswear.” For their reunion at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show back in 2007, the Spice Girls worked with Thomas on their looks. “That was the first time they performed with Geri [Halliwell] in 10 years,” Thomas says. He ended up dressing them in military-inspired looks, as well as some vintage Roberto Cavalli numbers. “I went into Cavalli’s archives and pulled a dress for Geri that Britney Spears had worn before. For Mel C, I also pulled a frock coat that Madonna had worn,” Thomas says. “Cavalli was designing their tour wardrobe at the time, so I wanted to do an homage to him.”
Thomas attributes his enduring success to always adapting and tailoring the clothes to the specific artist he’s working with. “I’ve never tried to mould them into my image or my personal style,” says Thomas. He’s always strived for a simple, clear mission: for stars to feel like themselves in their clothes – but better. “I always have to listen to their new music and really try to get into their head. I really want them to look like them but an elevated and more moved-on version of them. And always authentic!”
