4 Iconic Musicians Who Got Their Signature Look by Accident

Fashion is often elective, but other times, it serves a practical function as well as a stylistic one. For musical artists, their external aesthetic often informs a listener’s opinion of their brand before they ever hear an actual song. When something like a traumatic accident changes this outward appearance, it can be devastating to an artist’s career.

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Other times, it becomes synonymous with that artist’s entire legacy, as was the case for these musicians whose signature looks (even the temporary, album-specific ones) stemmed from accidents of varying degrees of severity.

Hank Williams Jr.’s Sunglasses and Hat Combo

Before August 8, 1975, Hank Williams Jr. bore, at the very least, a passing resemblance to his father, country music royalty Hank Williams. But on that fateful summer day, Williams Jr. almost lost his life after he fell over 400 feet off of Ajax Peak in Montana. Unsurprisingly, he suffered devastating injuries that left his face badly scarred and deformed. Upon returning to the public eye, Williams Jr. donned a large cowboy hat, dark sunglasses, and a full beard, all of which were meant to cover up signs of his healed injuries. After a while, it became Williams’ signature look.

Paul McCartney’s Mustache

Though not quite as bad as falling off a mountain, Paul McCartney took a serious fall off his motorbike while driving in Liverpool in December 1965. When McCartney landed on the concrete, his tooth went through his lip, which left a scar. In the months that followed the accident, McCartney grew a mustache to lessen the impact of the scar in the many, many photos that people were taking of the Fab Four at the time. Eventually, the trend spilled over into the rest of the band, and everyone started growing mustaches. These days, their hairy upper lips are inextricably linked to their Sgt. Pepper’s era.

Michael Jackson’s Sparkly Gloves

When Michael Jackson started wearing a single sparkly glove in the 1980s, many assumed it was a stylistic choice to go along with his suits, fedoras, and loafers. In reality, Jackson began wearing his trademark glove to hide the vitiligo appearing on his hand. Ironically, the very condition that Jackson worked so desperately to conceal led to him developing this signature look. The condition itself wasn’t an accident by true definition, but the way it came to define his aesthetic kind of was. By the end of his career, those gloves were worth tens of thousands of dollars.

David Bowie’s One Dilated Pupil

David Bowie famously had one pupil more dilated than the other, which contributed to his space-age aesthetic. But the cause of this condition, called anisocoria, was anything but extraterrestrial. When Bowie was a teenager, he got into a fist fight with a friend over a girl. Bowie suffered a blow that paralyzed the muscles that contracted his pupil in his left eye. The rock ‘n’ roll icon eventually leaned into his odd look, even going so far as to thank the childhood friend who punched him for giving him such a memorable style. All’s well that ends well.

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