MEN OF STYLE: David Hockney

I love a distinguished older gentleman, so it’s fitting to nominate David Hockney as a collective style icon for Summer 2026. Ever classic, always cool, and maestro of a striped shirt. Not to mention an innovator since the dawn of his career.

I have been Hockney obsessed since I was 13, taking my first photography class and trying to emulate his style.

David Hockney in 1967, and with me in 2017.

In the 1960s, David began experimenting with photographic collages to create multi-perspective works using hundreds of photographs taken from different angles. One of his most famous pieces using this technique is Pearblossom Hwy., 11-18th April 1986, which is in the collection of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles

Pearblossom Hwy., 11-18th April 1986, David Hockney.

David utilized this perspective shift while making his pool paintings in the early 70s, which helped define Los Angeles’ image in contemporary art for decades to come. The below piece, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures,) which he made in 1972, last sold in an auction at Christies in New York for $90.3 million dollars. At the time it set a record for the most expensive artwork by a living artist.

I was so inspired by his pool paintings, that in 2007, when I was hired by Van Cleef & Arpels to design a “West Coast” collection of Haute Joaillerie (I’m talking one of a kind pieces from €70k—€7 million Euros using rare stones,) I created this “Homage Hockney” cocktail ring:

Here is the finished ring. Before you ask, no I do not own this, I wish I did! The last time I saw it in person was in 2010 during Oscar season when two actresses were fighting over who got to wear it to the awards ceremony. Sadly, not my decision to make. If I could have kept one piece from this collection I made for VCA it would have been my Hockney ring. Alas, a girl can dream….

Speaking of pools, if you haven’t seen the 1973 semi-fictional documentary on Hockney, A Bigger Splash I urge you to check it out ASAP.

It’s not just art school girls like me who are Hockney fanatics. Creative men are eternally influenced by Hockney’s wardrobe. See: Harry Styles being painted by David in 2022.

Now in his late 80s, David is as prolific as ever, with five exhibitions of his work in this year alone. If you are in the UK or Oregon in the next few months, you can check out current works in person HERE. Ever curious about digital technology, in 2008, he started making drawings on his iPhone, and then switched to a iPad, using it as a sketchbook to capture the changing seasons and light.

David still smokes like a chimney, with the stamina of a man half his age, and the output to match. You’d think he’d let his style get a little sloppy, he’s certainly earned it, but ABSOLUTELY NOT! He even makes a walking cane look chic. So I challenge you all, in this year of the Fire Horse, in the midst of geopolitical chaos, to take a page from the Hockney playbook, and go out SWINGING.

David in the 70s and a photo I took of his jaunty cap and cane at his house in Los Angeles, late 2010s.

xoxo

Liz