With everyone from Sean “Diddy” Combs and Pete Wentz to Gwen Stefani and Hilary Duff designing clothes, a fashion line seems par for the course for enterprising musicians these days. But this was not the case in December 1971 when notorious rocker Alice Cooper divulged his sartorial aspirations to WWD. “The 15-year-old kids who come to our concerts don’t identify with Thirties movie star drag queen dressing. They prefer our Space Age bisexual clothes,” Cooper told the Eye, which also dispatched a photographer to shoot him in his hotel room (playing with a snake) and at a celebratory concert.
Then 24, Cooper (whose real name, Vincent Damon Furnier, was unknown to reporters at the time) was seeking to capitalize on his success and outrageous stage style by putting his name on men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, all with a Space Age or high-tech twist. For instance, “Alice Cooper boots,” manufactured by London’s Chelsea Cobbler, would feature plastic heels and toes that “light up in the neon color of your choice,” Cooper’s manager, Shep Gordon, explained. Sportswear offerings would include a unisex jumpsuit made out of “the kind of fabrics used in the astronaut suits,” Gordon said. Cooper also had a jewelry collection in the works that would feature a light-up necklace made out of hair. (“We love anything electronic,” Cooper and Gordon explained.) If all of this sounds like a publicity stunt for the shock-rock performer, it just might have been one. Cooper’s management confirmed that none of his out-there ideas ever made it to production.