When it comes to funky, futuristic fashion, George Clinton ā the music legend who brought āOne Nation Under Grooveā ā says that you have to think out of your comfort zone to be out of this world.
āWe always was trying to make sure we was down with whatever was happening,ā Clinton, 82, told The Post about his seven decades of culture-shifting garbing and grooving. āAnd the only way to do that is to pick up on the stuff that sounds the most ridiculous to you, that looks the most ridiculous to you.
āThat usually is the stuff thatās getting ready to knock you out of the box. So when I see kids getting on my nerves [with their style statements], I know thatās the new sāt.ā
The āAtomic Dogā master is keeping in slamming style with his third collaboration with John Fluevog Shoes, which includes not only some space-surfing sneakers but a beach-ready bucket hat.
āWe started doing it, and I did not realize that George was an artist,ā said Fluevog, 76. āSo I go, āWell, send me some of your art, some images and stuff.ā And then we took those images that he had, and we imprinted it on the leather of the shoes that we did for him. And that was, to me, the clicker that made it work.ā
And now, you can feel Clintonās beat in his sneaks.āItās funk, itās jazz, itās just letting yourself loose,ā said Fluevog. āYour funk is your funk.ā
As Clinton makes another fresh style statement, he looks back on some of the iconic fashion moments in his career ā from Parliament-Funkadelic to Prince.
Grooving with John Fluevog
Looking like the grooviest octogenarian youāll ever see, George Clinton rocks his Soul Speed Bonneville mesh lace-up sneakers from his latest collaboration with John Fluevog Shoes, as well as a bucket hat by the designer. The forever-fly funkateer has a unique way of working with Fluevog.
āI do a set of [designs] for him, and he finds a way to make them work with his printing style,ā said Clinton, who has to rely on Fluevogās vibrant vision for color combos like this bold mix of purple and orange. āIām colorblind, so I wouldnāt know which color I was looking at.ā But thankfully, he added, the two are āon the same frequencyā coming from āthat psychedelic era that probably affected both of us.ā
Out of this world!
Always ahead of his time ā and beyond this realm ā Clinton embraced his place as the godfather of Afrofuturism when he rode atop a spaceship on theĀ cover of Parliamentās 1975 album āMothership Connection.ā
āWhen we did that look, we was definitely going into outer space,ā said Clinton, who paved the futuristic flight for everyone from Erykah Badu to Janelle MonĆ”e. āI was a āStar Trekā freak.ā
The rainbow-braids connection
Clinton was feeling the rainbow when he wore multicolored braids on the cover of his 1993 album āHey, Man, Smell My Finger.ā It was the revolutionary artistās second album on Princeās label, Paisley Park, three years after Clinton appeared in his fellow funksterās movie āGraffiti Bridgeā ā and four years before the Purple One inducted Parliament-Funkadelic into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
āThere was a place in Minneapolis right down the street from Paisley Park [studio complex] called Hair Police, and they did my colored hair. I was going in there during the āGraffiti Bridgeā time,ā said Clinton, who still misses Prince eight years after his 2016 death: āWe was planning on taking over the world.ā
Silver styling with wifey
Clintonās manager wife, Carlon Thompson-Clinton, has also served as his in-house stylist since they got married in 1990. And she was by his silver-masked side when he received his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. (Somehow he has never won a competitive Grammy.) āShe puts different combinations together for different shows ā¦ depending on what the affair is,ā he said.Ā
This particular look, though, wasnāt exactly comfortable. āThe mask was easy,ā he said. But not so much the coat, custom-made by frequent Clinton couturier Nathalia Gaviria, based in Beverly Hills. āThat was hard to wear. It was heavy as hell ā¦ Itās painful sometimes to look good.ā
Purple ā and yellow ā reign
An honorary Q Dog ā as members of the black fraternity Omega Psi Phi are called ā Clinton proudly repped their purple and yellow colors when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January.Ā
āYou saw a lot of Q Dogs at that particular event, so I had some purple and yellow on,ā he said. āThat all was custom [by Gaviria]. She makes a lot of stuff for me. She knows the styles that I like, and she hooks me up.ā