I’m not your typical jazz aficionado. I do enjoy listening, though, to the various eras of classic to contemporary jazz. I keep my Sirius XM locked into channel 67 Real Jazz. This is where I can listen to some of my favorite jazz artists like Quincy Jones, Nina Simone, Jimmy Smith, and Miles Davis. This is where I heard the piece “Jean-Pierre.”
In this edition of Style & Substance, I’m featuring Miles Dewey Davis III. We would’ve celebrated his 95th birthday this year. Miles was born in Alton, Illinois in 1926. Born to a well-to-do family and raised in East St. Louis during the 1930s, Miles took to music at an early age and at the age of eighteen was accomplished enough to earn a scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City.
Miles was the epitome of cool. He was recently showcased on a PBS documentary Birth of the Cool. I was listening to one of his live albums, “We Want Miles” and it was the “Jean-Pierre” track on the album, long version, that captured my attention. This ignited my desire to do a little research on Miles’ style during the ‘50s and ‘60s. I particularly wanted to focus on his contribution to menswear.
Miles was once quoted as saying, “I created a kind of hip, quasi-black English look: Brooks Brothers suits, butcher boy shoes, high top pants, shirts with high-tab collars that were so stiff with starch I could hardly move my neck.”
A very well-dressed Miles in West Germany 1959, in a 2-button and open-patch pocket, double-breasted suit, he pushed the boundaries of becoming a fashion icon. This represents one of his custom pieces from his personal tailor Joe Emsley who wardrobed Miles throughout the ‘60s. He took cues from movie stars like Fred Astaire and Cary Grant.
A regular on the Newport Jazz circuit with his Ivy-league style, here’s Miles wearing a seersucker suit and yellow oxford banded collar. This picture is of Miles’ album cover for the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, which featured John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley.
Davis’ iconic style featured here is from a recording session for his album “‘Round About Midnight” in 1956. Two years prior, Miles walked into a preppy men’s haberdashery in Cambridge, Mass. called the Andover Shop looking for a new look. The late Charlie Davidson who owned the shop and was a fan of Miles outfitted him in classic 3-button suits, button-down oxford shirts, and diagonally striped repp ties. This was a preppy look popular with Harvard students.
The essence of “casually cool,” Miles was never afraid to go beyond the boundaries in both his music and style. Miles was known for always making it a point to maintain a sharp and creative appearance.
Miles’s legacy lives on both through his music and iconic style. Check out Miles Davis: Birth of Cool streaming on Netflix. His cool demeanor in “Ivy-League” style is seeing a rebirth today in menswear. ●
“It’s not about standing still and becoming safe.
If anybody wants to keep creating,
they have to be about change.”
– Miles Davis
