Glad Rags: Jennifer Vanilla on The Importance of Personalising Your Style
Get your glad rags on gang! Glad Rags is a column where we chat to some of our favourite musician's about their best garms. This week we're joined by performance artist, vocalist, and voice over artist, Jennifer Vanilla.
How important is clothing to you for a stage presence?
I’m a very transdisciplinary as an artist so style and visual presentation is as important to me as the music. What I wear onstage creates conceptual context for my music and performance—the songs hit different when I’m wearing a red rubber devil chest, baggy UFOs, and a Mickey Mouse hat than they do when I’m wrapped in a turquoise trench coat and a monochrome silver bodysuit. To me, aesthetics are a continuation of the sonic world; it’s like coloring in a picture. Costume is a fantasy maker for the performer and the audience alike. It’s a tool to convey story, meaning, attitude, power, and persona.
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Do you have a different style on stage compared to off stage?
It depends on the day. But generally, yes, my everyday style is going to be far more casual and involve way less layers! I often incorporate several costume changes into my performances, which I excecute by shedding layer after layer of clothing, hats, and sunglasses.
Do you think image is important for musicians wanting to be successful?
Only if said hypothetical musicians feel excited by that prospect! Success is a multidimensional and elusive state, but at its core it’s about personal satisfaction, so I wouldn’t recommend doing anything that feels forced or inauthentic. There’s a lot of pressure on musicians to lead with their image, and that can be a nightmare for people who literally just want to make music. But in this life we take in experiences through all five of our senses, and I do think that the human brain responds to a strong aesthetic concept. It helps people understand what they’re hearing, where and who it comes from, what world it’s living in, and what it might mean. Even if a musician’s image is the very absence of an image— the steadfast anonymity of Daft Punk comes to mind—the decision to cloak one’s identity has its own pull. Ultimately an “image” is just an expanded representation, even a symbol, of the music and its creator/s.
Who are some of your style inspirations as an artist?
1990s Thierry Mugler, contemporary NYC fashion label Vaquera for their clownish humor, 1980’s sax player Timmy Cappello for his glistening muscles and iconic codpiece, the Japanese magazine Fruits (which has been cataloging Harajuku style since the mid-90s), and last but not least, Mickey Mouse.
What is your favourite piece of clothing to wear on stage and why?
I haven’t worn it yet, and it doesn’t technically exist as I answer this question, but I know my next favorite show ensemble is going to be the neon orange foam body armor connected by chains that Portland, Oregon-based artist, musician, and drag performer Baby Spit, aka Lyric Robin, is currently making for my record release show this summer (my album Castle in the Sky comes out Aug 5, 2022). Lyric makes incredible costumes for themself when they perform, and we’re collaborating on this commission from across the continent. I have a big traffic cone fixation right now, so I’ve been drawn to durable, industrial materials, hi-vis colors, reflective tape, and embellished utilitarian garments. When I’m putting together a show outfit, I always think about shape first: the silhouette. I want big, dramatic, hard angles; something that enhances and enlarges my body and takes up more physical space. That’s power.
