Style Flashback: Grace Jones

Grace Jones is the undisputed queen of androgyny but that doesn’t mean she ain’t sexy! Over the last twenty years she’s graced our magazine pages and blared over our radios, but more than anything who could forget her strong presence on the big screen? Born Grace Mendoza in Spanish Town, Jamaica, she moved to New York in 1965 with her family where she became a successful model and studied theatre at Syracuse University. Despite her education, Grace didn’t begin her career in acting until the 80s. First she secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance club hits and garnered a large gay following. Towards the end of the 70s Grace embraced a dramatic visual makeover, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude, with whom she had a son though never married. They created her staple androgynous look with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes. A star was born and Hollywood soon came calling. Grace co-starred with NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Destroyer in 1984, played the infamous 007 nemesis in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985) and who could forget Strangè of Boomerang (1992)?! These days you can find Ms. Jones hanging out in London with cool kids Kate Moss and Stella McCartney or sitting front row at an Alexander McQueen show. Icons don’t rest you see.