As her recent topless hula-hooping Afropunk performance of Slave to the Rhythm attests, the wild-at-heart entertainer, now well into her seventh decade, still has those supermodel limbs and angular beauty. But even more intense is the unhinged streak bubbling below the surface. Grace Jones is a genuine force of nature.
Jones wore a
zebra-like tribal bodysuit with a white headdress for a show at New
York’s Hammerstein Ballroom in 2009 (Credit: Rex Features)
A recent topless
hula-hooping performance showed that Jones hasn’t lost her supermodel
physique – despite approaching 70 (Credit: Rex Features)
Jones’ raw, prowling grace captivated former partner Jean-Paul Goude, the man behind the most powerful images of the singer. The pair met on New York’s Studio 54-led disco scene in the late ’70s, when Jones was a budding pop star. “I always loved the mixture of threat and beauty, I just thought it was time for Grace to just stretch out,” says a young Goude, in footage featured in the BBC documentary On Queens of Disco. He soon took over as Jones’ image-maker, amplifying her otherworldliness through his computer-generated album covers (more recently he has turned his hand to Kim Kardashian’s assets for her ‘break the internet’ shoot for Paper Magazine).
Former partner
Jean-Paul Goude was behind the striking Island Life cover, echoed later
in Kim Kardashian’s ‘break the internet’ shoot (Credit: Island)
I’m not like a normal woman, that’s for sure – Grace JonesOn the cover of 1981’s Nightclubbing – which captures an androgynous Jones clad in just a men’s Armani tuxedo jacket with an extreme flat-top haircut, unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth – her shoulders have been vastly widened to accentuate the sharp, masculine lines. On these blurred gender boundaries, Jones said simply, “I go feminine, I go masculine – I am both, actually. I think the male side is a bit stronger in me and I have to tone it down sometimes. I’m not like a normal woman, that’s for sure...”
Goude, whose relationship with Jones ended when she became pregnant with their son, Paulo, has confessed that he “was more interested in the virtual character than the real woman – I still am”, while Jones, in an interview with the Daily Mail, confirmed it was ultimately the reason she left him: “I was an object, always.” At that time she was arguably a willing muse, having come to the United States from Jamaica to pursue a modelling career, and let off some steam.
For the cover of
Nightclubbing (1981) Jones blurred gender boundaries, of which she’s
said, “I go feminine, I go masculine – I am both, actually” (Credit:
Island)
The third of seven children, Beverly Grace Jones was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica. With her parents working in the US for much of her childhood, she was raised by her grandparents and has been vocal about the pressure-cooker effect of her strict religious upbringing. In a ‘90s interview, she told Ruby Wax: “I wasn’t allowed to do anything. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV, I wasn’t allowed to wear fingernail polish, I wasn’t allowed to play any games or even listen to the radio, so when I got out and got the States I was like... motorcycle gangs, Hell’s Angels, taking all kinds of stuff and getting totally hallucinating, out there. I was lucky I survived it.”
After a strict
religious upbringing in Jamaica, Jones let her theatrical nature run
riot when she arrived in New York (Stephane Cardinale/Corbis)
I’m not there to validate anyone – validate yourself – Grace Jones“She came into the club on a motorcycle, she had a black hood on, she walked over to the bar and she knocked all the glasses off the bar and then she proceeded to lay back on the bar, putting her high-heel shoe on top of the cash register, and sang La Vie en Rose. One hell, hell of a show.” Another clubber, Roger McFarlane, said Jones’ “powerful, strong attitude defined glamour and androgynous style and in-your-face sexuality, an unapologetic expression of who you are regardless of where you came from.”
Jones’ love of hats
is well documented, which she says comes from her church days; her
favourite milliner is Phillip Treacy (Stephane Cardinale/Corbis)
Yet where she came from has strongly influenced Jones’ style and attitude. During an interview conducted at Britain’s posh Royal Ascot horse race in 2010 – where she was seated between her mother, seamstress Majorie, and her favourite milliner Philip Treacy, while wearing a swooping monochrome hat with a pair of dice earrings – she revealed her penchant for headgear harks back to Sunday best. “My mum will tell you, we come from a church and everyone dresses up in hats. We weren’t even allowed to go into church without a hat, it was absolutely mandatory to wear a hat to church, so we feel naked without a hat. Thank God for that!”
I’m not fashion, I’m style – Grace JonesBut Ms Jones is not so keen on sharing her star quality. Of repeated requests from Lady Gaga, she told the Evening Standard in 2010, “I don’t collaborate. You’re born alone, you die alone, you get on stage alone. I’m better as a loner... I collaborated with Pavarotti [at a charity concert in 2002] because I love him and I could stretch myself and do opera. It’s going to add another thing to me. Lady Gaga isn’t going to do anything for me; it’ll do everything for her. I’m not there to validate anyone – validate yourself.”
Through carefully manipulating and maintaining her image (not to mention her age-defying skin), Jones has done just that. It helps that, rather than chasing trends, she’s always presented herself as more of an interpreter, most famously of Issey Miyake’s sculptural designs. “I’m not fashion, I’m style,” she told Vogue Italia’s Cesare Cunaccia. “Creativity makes me want to keep going.” So whether she’s penning a provocatively entitled autobiography (I’ll Never Write My Memoirs, which has just been published), working on a new album or presenting awards in only her underwear (“I didn’t think you wore any!” quipped recipient Tom Jones at the 2012 GQ Awards), the 67-year-old remains a potent creative force. Whatever she is, or isn’t wearing.
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