"It's becoming something bigger than yourself, where what you're wearing is just as important as what you're playing:" How Greta Van Fleet are dressing for success

(Image credit: Neil Krug)

With their Aztec print tunics, embroidered silk suits, shimmery capes, feathers, scarfs and pendants, Greta Van Fleet are leading a revival in old-fashioned rock star fashion.

Working with Nashville-based designers Stephanie Thorpe and Kate Brown, Greta Van Fleet’s wardrobe has developed into an explosion of colour and chest-exposing rock-star chic that harks back to the heydays of Rush, Queen and Led Zeppelin, with a liberal dose of high-end hippie couture.

“It’s an important aspect of who we are, and has become part of experiencing the band,” says Josh. “You’ll see people come to the shows dressed up, with rhinestones, feathers, painted faces and all this outrageous gear.”

“It creates another avenue of reaching the audience,” says Daniel.

“It’s almost like stepping out on stage in our armour of battle,” says Jake. “It’s becoming something bigger than yourself, where what you’re wearing is just as important as what you’re playing."

Josh: “There’s a line in the song Sacred The Thread, which is about fashion and self-expression: ‘To dress up a wound is to heal a scar.’ It’s the idea that the cloth that we wrap ourselves in can be so sacred. To step out on stage and feel like you belong there is to sometimes become the idea of the music, and when you wear it, literally, you do. It creates a great deal of communication with the audience.”

With a pinch of typical sly humour, with a grin Sam adds: “Or maybe it just comes down to how fucking tight we are as a band!”

Bill DeMain is a correspondent for BBC Glasgow, a regular contributor to MOJO, Classic Rock and Mental Floss, and the author of six books, including the best-selling Sgt. Pepper At 50. He is also an acclaimed musician and songwriter who's written for artists including Marshall Crenshaw, Teddy Thompson and Kim Richey. His songs have appeared in TV shows such as Private Practice and Sons of Anarchy. In 2013, he started Walkin' Nashville, a music history tour that's been the #1 rated activity on Trip Advisor. An avid bird-watcher, he also makes bird cards and prints.