10 things David Bowie gave fashion

I have never met a single person who didn't like David Bowie.

He made pop music weird, brilliant and clever; he redefined what it meant to be cool; he was irreverent, revolutionary even - this is a guy who turned down a knighthood (in your face Mick Jagger). He was excited and interested in everything and ahead of us all in every way.

To listen to Heroes is like standing on top of the world, being in love and getting a job promotion all at the same time. He was extraordinary; he made being alive look exciting beyond reason.

Aside from his music, he gave the fashion world wardrobes upon wardrobes of material to plunder. In our unshockable era, it's not easy to create a look that is truly attention-grabbing - but his Ziggy Stardust alter-ego is still arresting three decades down the line.

In no real order, here are the 10 things Bowie gave fashion:

David Bowie came from Beckenham, a quiet suburb of south London and as a former resident I can attest that nothing much happens there. This didn't deter Bowie, a skinny, pale, snagged-toothed ginger lad from parading around Beckenham in lace-up ankle boots, patchwork coats and statement jumpsuits. People thought he was weird to start with, but eventually, everyone started to copy him - in fact, by the 70s, the world wanted to be him. He made weird cool.

Let's have a moment for Bowie's Ziggy Stardust getup. There aren't many outfits that are as enduring; skin-tight matching shirts and trousers in bold prints, teamed with metallic boots; knit jumpsuits in bright colours, clashing everything. It was part sci-fi, part Japan, and totally outrageous. And the real achievement is that it still looks shocking today - Bowie was always ahead of us.

Even when he lived in quiet Beckenham, Bowie walked around dressed as a girl. As his career evolved, so did his androgynous style - plunging necklines, catsuits, wild makeup, and then later, high-waisted trousers teamed with shirts a la Katharine Hepburn. He managed to make androgyny sexy in a strange, subversive way. Men wanted be him and women wanted to have sex with him.

Bowie embraced glitter and metallics in a big way, favouring glitter jumpsuits, shimmering eyeshadow and sequined sharp-shouldered jackets.

Remember the time Bowie dressed as a space age pirate? The real reason was that he has conjunctivitis and didn't want to cancel the show, so he used an eyepatch to cover up his gammy eye.

Apparently, Hedi Slimane of Saint Laurent uses photos of Bowie in suiting to inspire his menswear collections. It's not hard to see why - the cut of his tailoring were consistently on point, specifically his Thin White Duke phase. A true dandy.

The bolt of lightening that covered Bowie's face on his Aladdin Sane album cover has been replicated countlessly, most famously by Vogue who recreated the look on Kate Moss in 2003.

Although Bowie toyed with lots of different hairstyles, it's his ginger mullet that he's most associated with - making kids with flame-haired barnets think that they too could be the kings of cool.

Stars are synonymous with Bowie - bold, playful and glamorous. Today any sign of a star-covered boot (preferably in metallic or glitter) summon up images of the music hero.

Bowie was into heels, mostly chunky platform boots. Part of his gender-blending mission, he was also known for wearing wedges, but mostly hit up the stage in stacked block heeled boots -currently inspiring the catwalks of Saint Laurent.