Stevie Nicks is known for her mystical image, created by her graceful movements, possessed performances and her billowing chiffon skirts, shawls, top hats, layers of lace and long blonde hair. Margi Kent, a designer from California, has worked with Nicks since the 1970s to perfect her style. Perhaps the most famous part of Nicks’ wardrobe is her platform boots. Nicks has worn suede platform boots in various colors, usually black, cream, tan or maroon in almost all of her performances since 1975. Standing at 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m), Nicks is not particularly tall and has stated she felt a little ridiculous standing next to the much taller Mick Fleetwood (High Times, 1982). For this reason she developed a penchant for 6-inch (15 cm) platform boots. “Even when platforms went completely out of style, I kept wearing them because I didn’t want to go back to being 5-foot-3 inches [1.60 m] in heels”, she told Allure magazine in 1995. Over the years, Nicks has developed a style which she calls her “uniform” (Spotlight on Stevie Nicks, 96.1 WSRS, August 5, 2001), which is best exemplified by the outfit worn on the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, perhaps the base inspiration for many of her costumes. Another trademark of Nicks’ is a Dickens-style gentleman’s formal top hat, which she began wearing in the late 1970s. During the early 1980s she wore velvet Renaissance poets’ berets with plume feathers (as shown in the vintage photo used on the cover of her March 2007 CD release Crystal Visions - The Very Best of Stevie Nicks). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she wore fashionable ladies hats on stage and to this day, often still sports a black top hat adorned with giant plumes.
Many of Nicks’ shawls and capes also have an association with her songs in her live performances, many becoming as signature in live performances as the songs themselves. These include a red/crimson shawl for “Sara”, white for “Edge of Seventeen”, gold for “Gold Dust Woman” and black with round gold circles for “Stand Back”. One of her trademarks is twirling across the stage with shawls flying during the interlude of her classic songs, notably “Stand Back” and “Gypsy”.
Nicks has said that her vocal style and performance antics evolved from female singers like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. She admitted inspiration when she saw Joplin perform live (and opened for with her first band “Fritz”) shortly before Joplin’s death. Nicks owns a strand of Joplin’s stage beads. She also commented that she once saw a woman in her audience dressed in dripping chiffon with a Gibson Girl hairstyle and big boots and Nicks knew she wanted something similar. She took the look and made it her own. Another important part of Nicks’ image is her jewelry. Nicks typically introduces one signature piece of jewelry during each tour. Such items have included silver bracelets, crescent moon pendant, pyramid shaped pendant, winged-heart pendant, gold crosses and, most recently, a Tiffany pendant with diamonds meaning “longevity.” The crescent moon pendant is arguably the most iconic of all Nicks’ jewelry – the original was bought while she was in England on tour with Fleetwood Mac during the Tusk era. Nicks then had her personal jeweler, Henri David of Philadelphia, make replicas of the moon pendant which become treasured gifts to her friends. In recent years, celebrity pals such as Bette Midler and ice-skating star Tai Babilonia have been photographed wearing their “Stevie moons”.
Nicks has even commented in interviews recently that she never would have dreamed that her trademark “Bella Donna/Witchy Woman” image would have been taken so seriously by her fans, often joking that she doesn’t live her private life in her stage clothes and “Stevie garb” as many people seem to think. However, she greatly credits her career/stage image for its role in giving her a trademark that has made her unique and “timeless”.
Microphone and tambourine
Stevie Nicks is known for her use of the Sennheiser MD-441-U5 microphone. Its interesting appearance has made it synonymous with Nicks’ early tours. Also synonymous with Nicks’ microphone are the items she chooses to decorate her microphone stand with. Over the years, such items have included roses, ribbons, chiffon, crystal beads, scarves and small stuffed animals.
Upon being asked in a question forum on her official website about playing the tambourine, Nicks stated that she began playing the tambourine upon joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975, feeling the need to do something onstage during songs that featured Lindsey or Christine. Like her microphone, her tambourine usually features scarves and/or streamers. Nicks’ trademark tambourine since the early 1980s is in the shape of a black half-moon.
Rumors of witchcraft
One of the more persistent rumors which has trailed Nicks through the years is that she is a witch and is heavily involved in Wicca. While she admits to having a high regard for the mythic and gothic, she denies any solitary dedication to any one religion, including Wicca. She speaks about this erroneous image in a 2006 interview. Though her work is copyrighted under the name Welsh Witch Music, some allege that the name is a retrospective reference to the name Rhiannon and does not provide any proof or suggestion that Nicks, herself, is a witch, while others would disagree with this characterization and mention simply that the name speaks for itself. It is quite plainly known to dedicated Fleetwood Mac fans that between 1975 and 1977, Stevie would always start Rhiannon by stating “This is a song about a Welsh witch.” In a Yahoo! interview on April 28, 1998, Nicks said of the infamous rumor: “I have no idea what precipitated those rumors…I am not a witch. Get a life!” Nicks also stated in a 1983 Entertainment Tonight interview: “I spent thousands of dollars on beautiful black clothes and had to stop wearing them for a long time because a lot of people scared me. And that’s really unfair to me, I think, for people – other people – to conjure up their ideas of what I am or what I believe in.” In a 1998 Redbook magazine article, Nicks spoke of her faith, stating that she believes in angels and knows that she is alive today because “there was a God looking out” for her during her years of addiction.
