Bianca Jagger: The people’s Icon
There are very few icons who have managed to capture the hearts of fashion girlies across generations the way that Bianca Jagger has. She is one of the few stars that you and your mom have probably both tried to copy. Whether you were a teenage girl in 1978 or 2016, it seems every fashion-loving woman I know has a story about when they fell for Bianca.
My personal Bianca Odyssey began in the depths of Tumblr when I was 13. Like most people, my first glimpse of her came in the form of those infamously chic wedding photos: the white suit, the giant hat, the deep-v neckline with no bra. It took me a minute to realize that Mick was even there. Not that it mattered. From that moment on, I was obsessed. I literally made a “Bianca Jagger” folder on my family’s shared desktop and saved every new outfit pic I could find of her in it. To all of our shock and disappointment, I did not turn out to be a lesbian. I just really loved Bianca Jagger.
I saw a photo of her wearing a black velvet choker and immediately asked my mom if she could drive me to the craft store. This was before chokers had their trendy moment in 2014, which meant I would have to make one myself using ribbons. When I told my mom what I was doing she smiled and said, “I did the exact same thing when I was your age,” and then recommended I use velcro to hold the choker together in the back. We talked about Bianca the whole drive there, gushing over her outfits and cursing Mick Jagger for cheating on her with Jerry Hall. It was a moment that perfectly captured the spell Bianca has cast on generations of women, shining through the decades as a beacon of personal style in a sea of boring and fleeting trends.
I loved the way she mixed disco staples with 1920s accessories. I loved the fact that she studied political science at Science Po in Paris. I loved the fact that she wasn’t just another supermodel It Girl, but a trailblazing human rights activist who used her position in the spotlight to bring attention to human rights abuses in Central America and the Middle East. She was everything I wanted to be when I grew up, and emulating her style was simply the most accessible path to getting there.
Now I’m all grown up, but Bianca remains my most enduring style crush. And with over a decade of experience stealing her style, I am here to break down the key components to a classic Bianca fit so that the rest of you can steal a bit of her magic as well.
#1: HATS
One thing about this woman, she knows the power of a good hat. In many ways I feel she made me the hat-wearer that I am today. And if there’s anything I have learned from studying Bianca all these years, it’s that you should have a signature hat in your closet that can be mixed and matched with any outfit to instantly elevate it. Bianca is specifically known for floppy hats like the one she wore to her wedding, as well as 1920s-style turban caps.
#2: Never wear something you can’t dance in
Coked-up nights at Studio 54 required a lot of endurance from one’s outfit. When sweating it out on the dancefloor, you’d obviously want to feel free and loose, and that’s why Bianca was rarely seen in anything skin-tight or sparkly at the famous nightclub. Too often we think we have to sacrifice comfort for style, but Bianca shows us that we will always look our most glamorous when we are wearing something that we can actually sit down and eat and move in. Flowy, loose, grecian-like dresses with little belts are your greatest friends, echoing the Halston designs Bianca wore in the 70s.
#3: White is everyone’s color
If there’s anything Bianca has taught me, it’s that you should wear as much white as you possibly can. And contrary to popular wisdom, that means you can wear white all-year-round. In the spring and summer, this obviously means white, breezy dresses that allow you to run through fields of wheat. In the fall and winter this means white (faux) furs, jackets, and blouses that make you look like a dandy.
#4: suits make you powerful
No matter the season or occasion, Bianca Jagger knows how to slay the house down in a suit. White suits, black suits, skirt suits, pantsuits, summer suits, winter suits. If you take anything away from this article, it should be that you need to invest in at least one perfectly tailored suit.
#5: Little flower pins
The subtlest accessories in Bianca’s closet are flowers. On hats and on lapels, she uses flowers to add a bit of Victorian garden-party romanticism to summery outfits. They pair especially well with the aforementioned white flowy dresses and white suits that she is known for. I, myself, bought a vintage, silk flower pin to emulate this look and it makes me feel gloriously dainty whenever I pin it to my jacket or stick it in my hair.
#6: boots!
Bianca Jagger does an insanely good job of using knee-high boots to play with the proportions of her outfits, breaking apart the silhouettes of dresses, skirts, and pants. My favorite boots of hers are the knee-high, Victorian-style heeled ones she rocked throughout the 1970s. If you, like me, do not have skinny Victorian calves, I would suggest substituting a style like this with a different kind of knee-high boot that better accommodates large legs. To me this means cowboy boots!
She’s 77 now, but I still squeal when I see the outfits Bianca Jagger is wearing while attending protests and galas to raise awareness for political causes that matter to her. She has traded her heeled boots for orthopedic sandals (all the better for marching in), but somehow the foundational elements of her style remain: the flapper accessories, the flowy dresses, the hats, the scarves, the white suits. Even the cane she now uses has been Bianca-fied with rhinestones. It’s all proof that the look she’s become known for was never meant to be a flash-in-the-pan trend from the 70s. It was a form of personal expression from someone with really good fucking taste and a really firm understanding of what matters to her.
Bianca Jagger’s style has stuck with us for one simple reason: it is entirely her own. Unlike the Nepo Baby It Girls of today who are born into wealthy families with the financial and social resources to help them look fashionable, Bianca Jagger’s style was created completely organically. I love to imagine what that process might have looked like: growing up in Nicaragua, in a poor, single-mother household, quietly observing the outfits of women she saw in the streets or on TV, forming her own idea of what it meant to be glamorous and fashionable. Maybe she learned to love white, ruffle-y dresses because she saw Mayan women wearing them in the streets. Maybe her grandma wore big floppy hats to protect her from the harsh, Central-American sun. Maybe she saw a silent film from the 1920s with her mom one day and immediately asked her to go to the fabric store so they could make a turban hat like the ones worn by the ladies on-screen. It’s these little moments of intense fascination with beauty that make up one’s journey towards a personal style. And that is something that never goes away, even if the trend cycle moves on.
