The impact of Amy Winehouse's style on fashion

To evoke the style of Amy Winehouse, all you need to do is smear eyeliner on your eyelids and tousle your hair above the nape. Like all stars, her look is memorable because it's characterized by a few clear elements that have solidified her image in the collective mind over time: a pair of tiny denim shorts revealing her slender legs, a thick black vinyl belt to accentuate her hips, a form-fitting and plunging little black dress reminiscent of Minnie's polka dot dresses. Now that the cinema has decided to tell her story in a biopic, Back to Black, out in Italian cinemas today, there's a renewed concern that the final product may focus on the tragedy rather than the success of the artist, possibly forgetting all the aspects that made her music timeless. When Winehouse was still with us, the world and tabloids were obsessed with her "style falls," and it's possible that they might talk about them again for fame and to boost box office earnings. However, what remains of Amy Winehouse's career is much more than her addiction; it extends beyond her mistakes, influencing the music we listen to today, art, and even fashion, which has often drawn inspiration from her fiercely feminine look for collections and campaigns.

The love of Winehouse's fans is unstoppable. Her former home in Camden Town, where a statue dedicated to her stands, is a pilgrimage destination covered in lipstick kisses. The neighborhood where the artist lived for years still embodies her style, closely tied to the world of English music and street style, disheveled and punk. Despite transforming into one of London's most popular tourist locations, it remains the realm of tattoo shops, nightlife, and unconventional fashion, an infinite source of creativity that hides a bit of her in every corner. Her ballet flats worn on stage and around the city as a distinctive sign and her pumps have passed through here countless times, marking the history of indie sleaze and the revival of the British music scene. Since her debut album, Frank (2003), the singer suggested a strong sensitivity to costume, reflected in her stylistic choices as well as in her lyrics. In Fuck Me Pumps, Winehouse evokes the image of a gold digger through clothing: towering heels, an empty Gucci bag, a pair of jeans too tight to sit comfortably in.

The 1950s pin-up look that Winehouse emulated has gone down in history not so much for her attention to detail - Winehouse would often decorate her beehive hairstyle with flowers, oriental clips, and bandanas—but for how she was able to decontextualise it. No one dismantled a cocktail dress with as much elegance as she did, turning it into a true costume. In both music and clothing, Winehouse took the stylistic codes of vintage stars like Billie Holiday, Alma Cogan, and Brenda Lee and immersed them in the new millennium. Fashion has been captivated by her presence, so fragile, distant from glitz and glamour, so disarming in her emotionality. In 2011, Robin Givan, now Senior Critic for the Washington Post, wrote for Daily Beast that «there was something weirdly defiant, admiring, and perhaps even envious in the way the fashion industry went agog over Winehouse. It may have been that her emphatic, tortured, out-of-control life was a familiar and irresistible creative motif.» After all, the rise of the R&B singer coincided with the success of the era when 'heroin chic' was celebrated in magazines and advertising campaigns by all brands, touted as a manifesto of a generation.

Winehouse's favorite brands were limited to a few names. From Betsey Johnson to Karen Millen, from the hyper-Brit Patricia Field to the irony of plastic accessories bought at vintage markets, the silhouettes favored by the singer and her stylist Naomi Parry echoed the same ultra-sexy style that governed the '50s, tainted by the singer's old-school tattoos and the self-tanner that, as told by stylist Parr in the BBC documentary Reclaiming Amy (2021), stained "so many of her clothes." Only a few times did Winehouse try to delve deeper into the world of fashion, with names like Galliano, Dolce&Gabbana, Vivienne Westwood, and Moschino, and even though she didn't want to make her attention to image care obvious, so precise in its imperfection, it leaked in every appearance—going even to the launch party of The Row with the Olsen twins in 2007. Invited to sing at a Fendi event during Paris Fashion Week in 2008, Winehouse had modified and redesigned the dress she was wearing according to her tastes, then stating before performing, «forgive my ignorance, I don't know anything about fashion.» A statement later contradicted in 2010 with the exclusive launch of her first collaboration with Fred Perry, a capsule of cardigans and low-cut polo shirts, pencil skirts, and Capri pants that fully embodied the style of a suburban English girl.

All the expectations and criticisms directed at Winehouse in those years shrugged off the fact that the artist was barely in her twenties, that her impudence was nothing more than a symptom of an evident emotional and artistic delicacy. If Winehouse hadn't been so bold, after all, the world might never have had Back to Black, a triumph of emotional honesty that the music still feels the weight of. Her rise and fall could retrospectively be compared to those of Alexander McQueen, another enfant terrible of English culture, loved by all but famous for his unconventional and biting approach to the glamour world. Despite being part of it, both constantly demonstrated their disgust for the system, and after being openly judged by tabloids and the internet, they found eternal glory in the pop world only after their sad departure.

Karl Lagerfeld was the first in fashion to express his passion for Winehouse. For the Chanel Pre Fall 2008, the designer presented the same look as the artist, from the '50s hairstyle to the intense eyeliner on the eyelids. A black&white show that revisited Winehouse in the Paris London 2008 campaign with top model Coco Rocha, Lagerfeld's collection paid tribute to the eclectic and subtly kitschy style of the artist, perfectly in line with Chanel. «She's a style icon,» the designer declared after the show. «She's a beautiful and talented artist. And I really like her hairstyle. I took it as inspiration. Because, in fact, it was also Brigitte Bardot's hairstyle at the end of the '50s and '60s. And now Amy has made it her own style. So, when I saw her, I understood that it was the right moment. Amy... is the new Brigitte.» A year later, Love Magazine repeated the same trick on the set for the February front cover, this time embodied by Victoria's Secret star—another lingerie brand loved by Winehouse, who enjoyed wearing bras visibly under tank tops—Adriana Lima. Follow Jean Paul Gaultier, for SS12, Lana Del Rey, who, although not admitting it, at the time of Born to Die, drew style codes from the R&B singer's wardrobe, and Dua Lipa, who at the 2021 Brit Awards wore Vivienne Westwood and Winehouse's signature dark beehive.

Before the production of Back to Black was announced, the biopic about the life of Amy Winehouse starring Marisa Abela set to be released in May 2024, several museums and auction houses dedicated their spaces to Winehouse's dresses. In 2020 and 2022, the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and the Design Museum in London attempted to change the conversation about the artist—in the media so often focused on her personal struggles—by shifting the focus to her style and how it influenced our culture. We'll have to wait until next spring to see if the film finally manages to tell the greatness of Winehouse. For now, the essence of the artist can be found in her wardrobe, metaphorically encapsulated in the image of her satin pink shoes rigorously stained with mud.