Collection: The Hunky Dory Plaid

Bowie wrote “Life on Mars?” as revenge against “My Way.” Paul Anka had beaten him to adapting a French chanson into English leaving Bowie with nothing but frustration and the urge to outdo Sinatra. The result was a surrealist anthem that turned black-and-white into Technicolor. Pure rock-and-roll strategy. The Hunky Dory cover captures that same transformation. Brian Ward’s photograph airbrushed by Terry Pastor with transparent inks and Letraset type it feels like a lost frame of early Technicolor cinema. The pose itself was based on Marlene Dietrich while the dusty blues, ochres, rusty blondes and off-whites gave me the palette to translate the sleeve into plaid. Hunky Dory is where Bowie discovers he can be both utterly sincere and utterly performative, often in the same breath, a pivot point that launched one of the most brilliant eras in rock history.This plaid is a portrait of our hero.