The History of David Beckham's Hair: Part 1

MFB thought it was about time to look at the UK's most influential men's fashion icon in recent times ... David Beckham, and in particular David Beckham's hairstyles!

David Beckham changes his hairstyle more often than he changes his underwear! Indeed, since meeting the fashion conscious Victoria Adams (now his wife, Victoria Beckham), who has clearly molded his persona, David Beckham's hairstyle has been one of the most talked about things in the history of celebrity fashion.

We start off in the early days of David’s career, fresh out of the youth academy at Manchester United with this mainly un-styled, plain and simple look.
This was in keeping with the non-flash lifestyle Sir Alex Ferguson embedded into his upcoming youth team players, but little did he know this was the start of an extremely media-fuelled career.

As David’s career takes off due to often brilliant displays on the wing for Manchester United, his hairstyle begins to develop into a more slicker look as he discovers the joys of hair gel, prompting a deal with Brylcreem which increased their sales by 50%.

Flash back to the 1995/1996 English Premier League season, and to David Beckham’s famous goal scored from the half way line over a helpless Neil Sullivan in goal for Wimbledon.

This is the point where David Beckham’s career really took off as he was sprung into the media spotlight for showcasing his footballing talent, and as a result of this, his hair undertook a dramatic change with the inclusion of blonde highlights: the mark of an upcoming Superstar.

David Beckham shocked the nation with his next style taking him from media sweetheart to that of one with attitude, and promoted Barbers to up their prices for one of the simplest hairstyles in existence: the shaved head.

Hiding the ‘new do’ under a woolly hat during a Manchester United training session, David caused a media panic after a team-mate jokingly removed it revealing it to the World, causing newspapers to displace headlines just to cover it.


Next up in the collection is the possibly the one Golden Ball’s will look back on and think ‘Maybe that wasn’t a good idea.’ Yep, you’ve guess it, the mini-Mohawk.

This monstrosity of a haircut was devised shortly after David’s shaved look grew back, and prompted armies of men to copy it, creating possibly the largest fashion disaster in the history of the World.

After the success and shock factor of the mini-Mohawk, David toned it down a little and went for something less shocking with this short, darker spiked haircut.

Next up for Mr. Beckham in the Summer of 2002 was my personal favourite, the blonde, longer Mohawk. Heck, I enjoyed it so much, even I sported it for a while!

Looking much like a blonde shark, Beck’s led England to the Quarter-Finals of the World Cup Final’s, narrowly losing to the eventual winners Brazil.



After the disappointment of the World Cup, David decided to go for the European look, and grew his hair much longer, often sporting it with a continental hair band, making an item normally seen in Fame (I want to Live Forever) fashionable once again.


Blatantly annoyed with his hair always being in his eyes, Beck’s decided to cause mass media frenzy once again with a style most often seen in the Caribbean. Enter the famous cornrow hairstyle, so famous in fact that Nelson Mandela requested to meet Beck’s and the England squad during this period.
Was this influenced by this famous hairstyle? Who knows!

Check back here soon for the second part of David Beckham's Hair History, only here at MFB!

CL

Ocean's 13

One of the most fashion stylish movie franchises is back for more this summer!

Yes, George Clooney reprises his role as Danny Ocean, the coolest conman around, and returns in Ocean’s 13 on the 8th June 2007 in cinemas across the USA and UK.

In this outing the group (including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and the ever cool Don Cheadle) are minus Julia Robert and Catherine Zeta Jones but joined by Ellen Barkin and the one and only Al Pacino!

The movie Ocean’s Eleven (the 2001 remake of the 1960s Rat Pack movie) was the epitome of cool. A massive box office success with very good reviews, it had a fashion wardrobe any cool man could only envy. The makers confess they didn’t try to copy the original 1960’s movie wardrobe, which looked stunning itself, but they did try to live up to the Frank Sinatra flick. In 2001, a “heightened Las Vegas” was created. Not Vegas as it is, but Vegas as we would like to see it…with dazzling suits and cool, cool threads.

The Ocean's 13 wardrobe was created by Louise Frogley, costume designer on movies such as Kurt Russell’s “Exectutive Decision”, Brad Pitt’s “Spy Game” and Denzel Washington’s “Man on Fire”, so she was by no means new to making celebrities look great! Creating a distinctive look for a massive cast, and the fact that most of the actors are playing established characters mean’t Louise had challenge a challenge to keep things fresh. “These are really difficult projects for the costume designer. They have so many characters, each of which has to have a totally distinctive quality” says Frogley.

The two leads Pitt and Clooney steal the fashion show!

Danny Ocean on the other hand is the glue that holds the gang together. He is a solid character and dresses accordingly. Lots of blacks, greys and a bit of white. George Clooney is so stylish, so cool. He walks around Vegas looking fantastic.

In creating the costumes for the Ocean’s crew, Frogley wanted to pay tribute to the work of costume designer Jeffrey Kurland (the designer on the original movie” while spicing things up to modern men’s fashion. For both George Clooney and Brad Pitt, clean lines and simple styles ruled the day. “With George Clooney, the simpler the better,” she states. “He developed his look in the first film, and we thought it was brilliant and decided to follow that route. George is an actor who doesn’t like too much fuss; apart from his tuxedo and one disguise, he’s primarily in dark gray suits and white shirts.”

The Brad Pitt character, Rusty Ryan, wears simple suits with over the top colours, lots of reflective, shiny materials, but gets away with it. Rusty Ryan is quick; everything about him is fast, including his clothes.

Frogley relates, “Brad also wanted to keep it simple with just a bit of ‘bling.’ He felt his character had grown up, so it made sense that Rusty’s clothing would be simpler, but it had to be colorful, in contrast to Danny.”

As for the other celebrity fashion stars of Ocean's 13! Well...

Matt Damon’s fashion wardrobe noticeably conveys the most character development. Indeed Frogley offers, “Jerry wanted Linus to be much more grown up. He’s not a kid any more; he’s about to pull his own con jobs and has become more important in the Ocean’s organization, so we felt he should be dressing in more suits. Matt also wanted a completely different look for his Lenny Pepperidge persona, so we copied a Chairman Mao suit, and pushed it a bit.”

Basher Tarr is hip! “Don Cheadle wanted to be very American-looking this time out, but his mining outfit is this beautiful Yohji Yamamoto jacket that we bashed up a lot. Basher’s wardrobe is very basic—except, of course, when he ‘borrows’ the costume of motorcycle daredevil Fender Roads,” the designer smiles.

Carl Reiner’s Saul Bloom also had a distinct wardrobe for his alias, the phoney "Five Diamond" hotel reviewer Kensington Chubb. “We made Kensington ersatz English—more like an American view of what an Englishman would wear. We used lots of Harris, Irish and Scottish tweeds. It was all very tweedy with moleskin trousers and tattersall shirts,” Frogley describes.

But the most interesting fashion character is that of Andy Garcia’s; Terry Benedict. The “bad guy” of the trilogy looks just as good as his rivals. Benedict’s wardrobe has an eastern feel. His suits are western in fit but Asian in style, a fashion twist that works well.

Frogley says she followed Terry Benedict’s previously established style for his wardrobe. She affirms, “Andy Garcia had worn a cravat almost all the time in ‘Ocean’s 12.’ I thought it suited his character, but this time, I decided to push it a bit and go for a ‘Death in Venice’ look.”

The MFB team are looking forward to the next Danny Ocean outing this summer!

MFB