How rapper Frank Ocean became a style icon, from flaunting millennial pink hair with Kendall Jenner to wearing Vans at the White House and launching new jewellery brand Homer
- Was his T-shirt at the 2017 Panorama Music Festival in New York a clap back at former US president Donald Trump’s transphobic tweets?
- At the Met Gala’s red carpet in 2019, he wore a Prada anorak over a suit … then became the face of their spring/summer 2020 menswear campaign
The long-rumoured jewellery brand designed by hip-hop star Frank Ocean, titled Homer, is finally out. And it was worth the wait. Among the first collection’s 25 pieces are cool, cartoonish enamel pendants and gold rings sculpted into the word “OK” – but what more is there to come? Surely plenty, if Ocean’s style from over the years is any indication.
So just how did the rapper become a style icon, and what are his most memorable fashion moments?
His chameleon hair
As Ocean’s music changed from “Channel Orange” to “Blonde”, so has his buzz cut.
It was blue in a selfie on Tumblr from 2014, because for that moment this “oceanman” said “long live seapunk”, according to his caption.
Then he went blond on the sides and green on top for the cover of his second album “Blonde”, which is about his nostalgia for his childhood. As he references swimming pools several times on songs Self Control and Siegfried, his hair possibly represents an attempt to return to his young “blonded life” (on Self Control) only to find it has changed to green (from the chlorine of the pool).
Later, in 2017, he appeared with millennial pink hair while hanging out with Kendall Jenner and Luka Sabbat in New York City, reported GQ.
His Japan-inspired looks
Before he dyed his hair, Ocean was spotted many times wearing a red and white headband. The colours recall the Japanese flag, as he seems to be really into the country’s culture.
Ocean wears a shirt with Japanese writing in Novacane’s music video. In another for Swim Good, Japanese text features throughout the video, and Ocean holds a sword like a samurai would. He also raps about a ninja and dresses in Japanese-styled attire in She.
T-shirts with slogans
For such an acclaimed artist, Ocean keeps an unusually low profile on social media, posting sometimes on Tumblr but lacking accounts on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Still, his T-shirts might provide some insight into his personality.
At his performance at the Panorama Music Festival in New York City, in 2017, Ocean wore a shirt reading, “Why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic when you could just be quiet?” This could have been his indirect response to former US president Donald Trump’s series of tweets in the same week about banning transgender people from serving in the military, according to Glamour.
Other tees – that fans have subsequently hunted for – come with text such as “Instant Karma” or “Maintain The Mystery”. There’s also his Trainspotting tee, which features a quote from the book: “Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a big television. Choose a starter home. Choose dental insurance, leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose your future. But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?”
Pairing suits with casual wear
When Ocean showed up to the White House state dinner in October 2016, he looked snazzy in a fitted blue suit. But wait – did he really accessorise his outfit with black and white chequered Vans? When he was asked about his choice, he just said, “You can’t think, you just gotta do things”, according to The Fader.
And that wasn’t the first time the Nikes singer choose Vans to go with a suit. In 2014, he attended the Time 100 Gala in a black suit and a pair of Vans Sk8 Hi’s, per Global Grind.
Then there’s the time Ocean replaced a classic suit jacket with a hoodie. At the Met Gala’s red carpet in 2019, the singer donned a Prada anorak over a classic white dress shirt with a black tie, according to Vogue. He later became the face of the Italian fashion brand’s spring/summer 2020 menswear campaign.
Ocean wore a striped headband and yellow suit to perform Forrest Gump at the Grammy Awards 2013, looking like Richie Tenenbaum straight out of Wes Anderson’s film, The Royal Tenenbaums.
He revealed to Complex that he is a fan of the director, saying, “If you watch a great film, you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited – that has music and rhythm and time. Obviously the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I’m watching a Wes Anderson movie, the colour palettes alone, and the way they’re painted, could be art.”