Musiccosmos

Welcome to the third, and (maybe) final installment of our look at the work of heavy metal fashion designer Ray Brown . This week I’m going to bring you back to the fucking Sunset Strip in LA and the bands which defined the debauchery and big hair of the scene in the 80s and 90s. Let me put it to you this way–Brown pretty much dressed them all. Mötley Crüe , Ratt , Lita Ford , Guns N’ Roses , Poison , Stryper , Cinderella , and others were all dressed by Brown, and his designs would create a template of what a heavy metal musician (or their fans) looked like. Of all the glammy hair bands Brown decked out, his work with Motley Crüe was the most extensive, starting in 1985 with the band’s Theater of Pain Tour, and again for the hugely successful Girls, Girls, Girls Tour which kicked off in 1987. One of the more memorable outfits Brown made for the band was a black and white striped jumpsuit worn by bassist Nikki Sixx–perhaps inspired by another fashion icon of rock, Aerosmith vocali...