Flamboyant getups are the calling card of this in-demand rock stylist.
Nothing irks London stylist and designer Fee Doran more than the sight of pop stars wearing the same predictable labels.
“I hate that look of a girl group all wearing ripped denim skirts,” says Doran, who’s sitting in the whitewashed and ivy-covered fairy-tale shed on her roof, where she retreats for inspiration. “There’s no individualism—I’m inspired by Eighties artists like Grace Jones and Blondie. When I was growing up, I’d see them on TV and I would just be like, ‘Wow.'”
So it’s no surprise Doran, who goes by the name of Mrs. Jones, creates customized, Technicolor looks for her clients. She made the white catsuit that heralded Kylie Minogue’s comeback, and outfits for Duran Duran, the Scissor Sisters, the Zutons and, most recently, U.S. artist Amp Fiddler. Her signature is a combination of hard-edged Eighties influences softened with homemade details. These include fishnet tanks trimmed with ribbons, silk catsuits in jewel tones and leather jackets with puffed sleeves.
“I want to bring out [the artists’] personalities—I’ll ask what their favorite films are, what inspires them,” says Doran. “If you have the opportunity to be on stage, it’s a fabulous chance to dress up. You need that visual element, too.” In addition to creating Minogue’s futuristic outfits, Doran put Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters in patched-up dungarees (worn bare-chested), the Zutons in a souped-up school uniforms and Alison Goldfrapp in a blond horsetail attached to a pair of HotPants.
Doran, a statuesque 6-footer, honed her flamboyant, costume-inspired style on the underground club circuit.
“I’d make myself denim catsuits that I couldn’t even sit down in to wear to DJ in pubs in the East End, before it became trendy,” says the 38-year-old designer, who even cut her own record. When she realized that she was getting noticed more for her sartorial skills than her spinning, Doran briefly launched her own ready-to-wear line with London designer Giles Deacon in 1997. Called Doran Deacon, it was “disco dolly meets mad professor,” she says. Doran also collaborated with Matthew Williamson on his spring 2001 collection and went on to launch her own short-lived label, Mrs. Jones, in September 2002. Though Doran eventually decided she preferred creating one-off pieces to the treadmill of designing a runway collection, she has gone on to do one-time collaborations with companies such as Fred Perry. “I’d already cut up their shirts to make a mad, fairy-like costume, so I approached them to do a collection,” she says.
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The pieces included electric pink polo dresses with fringe, silk dresses printed with tennis balls and a catsuit made from deconstructed polo shirts. “I would like to do a collection again, but only if I can do it properly,” she says.
Doran takes a similar approach to styling, choosing clients based on the quality of their work, rather than its genre. “I’ll only do stuff if I like it. I’ve turned down people like Posh Spice [Victoria Beckham]. The music has to give me goose-bumps, otherwise there’s no point in doing it.”
Her most recent gig was styling rock musicians for the Ibiza Rocks festival in Spain, but Doran says her ideal subject would be Missy Elliott, whom she thinks has untapped sex appeal. “I’d put her in black leather, with a heel—make her look even more sexy.”