10 Unseen Photos That Prove Debbie Harry Is The Ultimate Style Icon

vogue.co.uk

BY SAM ROGERS AND SUSAN DEVANEY – 1ST JULY 2020

Blondie had their last number one record in 1999, but Debbie Harry is very much at the forefront of people’s minds in 2020 – at least in fashion circles. In February, the frontwoman and punk icon made a surprise appearance on the runway at New York Fashion Week for the Coach autumn/winter 2020 show, and then Junya Watanabe lit up his runway with Harry reincarnations, while playing Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” on full blast.

Vogue previously spoke to Blondie guitarist Chris Stein, who recalled his first encounter with Harry in a club in 1974, when he was in the audience, and she was onstage with a girl group called the Stilettos. “I was very taken with her,” is how he put it. Story goes, she sang only for him that night, and the rest – all 40 million album sales – is, as they say, history.

Stein and Harry became friends, lovers and bandmates, but he also became something of a personal photographer, capturing her every move. A School of Visual Arts graduate, now represented by the Morrison Hotel Gallery, Stein chronicled the band’s early beginnings on camera, from the nascent New York punk scene to the international celebrities they worked with, including Andy Warhol. Like the rest of the world since, Stein was taken with Harry’s charisma, her spirit and – of course – her style.

“There was a very do-it-yourself aspect to the way she presented herself,” he explained. “She didn’t fit into the showgirl motif that was common at that point and she was very casual about it… [Her look] wasn’t a calculated thing. There was a certain spontaneity about what she did that I think people appreciated.” Harry was a new paradigm in rock, her style matched only by her fiercely fabulous attitude. Leather jackets, distressed denim, berets and logo T-shirts were all part of her signature look – transformed into something rather disarming when paired with her bleached blonde hair, charisma and ’70s eyeshadow.

Below, 10 rare photographs of Debbie Harry that every Blondie aficionado will love now and forever.

1/10
@ Chris Stein
Andy Warhol shooting Debbie Harry at the Factory in New York City.

2/10
@ Chris Stein
Harry in a fur stole, wearing sunglasses and a beret.

3/10
@ Chris Stein
Debbie Harry in a black shirt and cowboy hat, about to board a plane.

4/10
@ Chris Stein
Harry sits in the backseat of a car wearing shorts and a striped top.

5/10
@ Chris Stein
Debbie Harry reclines on a car outside CBGB in New York.

6/10
@ Chris Stein
Harry wears her signature distressed denim jacket.

7/10
@ Chris Stein
Debbie Harry in a sequined slip dress.

8/10
@ Chris Stein
Debbie Harry wears a leather jacket decorated with safety pins.

9/10
@ Chris Stein
Harry in a checked suit.

10/10
@ Chris Stein
Harry plays the drums in a logo T-shirt.

https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/debbie-harry-unseen-pictures