Hail Mr Hockney

David Hockney is one of Britain’s most influential artists. But his style was not confined to the canvas. Burberry designer Christopher Bailey has called him 'my icon' once basing a whole menswear collection around him. With his latest exhibition at the Royal Academy and more designers looking to him this season Hockney is well and truly in fashion. 

Since the sixties his bleached dishevelled do, trademark large round specs and quirky dandyism has been unmistakable. Fashion and art have always conversed. And when it comes to Hockney it’s as natural as his sartorial flair. Jasper Conran and Dame Vivienne Westwood, the latter whom has named a check coat after Hockney were amongst the fasherati that attended opening at the RA.

The Art of Style: the Hockney-esque Tom Ford Carter

In the footsteps of Burberry whose 2005 spring/summer collection was pure Hockney, Dior and John Galliano creative director Bill Gaytten sent his own Hockney-a-likes down the runway for the current season. He named his Galliano collection ‘ A Big Splash’ after the artist’s famous L.A pool painting. Osman Yousefzada took his palette from Hockney's Californian paintings too for his spring/summer 2012 Osman collection.

Hockney’s is a style master class and at 74 he's still as creative and stylish as ever. He shook up the classic Englishman's wardrobe mixing it with graphic elements in pattern and texture and cut it with his famous handle on colour. His off key dandyism can be ripped off but the all important effortlessness is not so easy. 

Don’t just take it from Burberry, if you want a lesson in style then David Hockney has a lot to teach. Pay homage with a set of superb Hockney worthy frames; the Tom Ford Carter (above).

David Hockey RA: A Bigger Picture on show at the Royal Academy, Picadilly until April 9th covers some fifty years of the artists work on the English landscape. His latest work produced exclusively for the exhibition includes ‘paintings’ created on his iPad. Using an eighteen camera set up Hockney has also produced several films exploring the seasonal landscape. These are shown at the London gallery in a stunning display of large multiple screens.

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