How David Hockney Turned His Style Into a Living Masterpiece
By the time 600 drones redrew A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist over the night sky in Bradford this year, David Hockney felt less like a painter and more like shared muscle memory. We recognize him before we name him. The peroxide fringe that started with a Clairol ad in the sixties. The round, black glasses that turned his face into a kind of logo. The cardigans that seldom match the shirt, the ties that ignore harmony.
Most of us met him first through images rather than biography. Pool paintings printed on student posters. Double portraits on museum tote bags. Later, the record-breaking Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), the Tate retrospective that clogged Instagram feeds, the iPad drawings from Yorkshire that have now sold for millions and fed into this year’s Fondation Louis Vuitton survey. Throughout it all, his clothes remained in step with the work. Early studio pictures show a skinny kid in stripes in a cramped London print shop. In California, he slips into rumpled suits, goofy ties and sweater vests, always a little off-key in the most precise way.
Fashion has been mirroring him back for decades. Burberry built collections on his palette. He sits in Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed Hall of Fame not as a polished mascot, but as proof that consistency can become its own kind of glamour. The point is not polish, but a lifelong commitment to seeing color properly, then wearing it as plainly as possible.
David Hockney’s Best Looks
- On Set at Royal Court Theatre
- Working at His London Studio
- Theatre Portrait
- Hockney and Warhol
- Studio Portrait, New York
- Portrait at Home
- “Pacific Heights” Premiere
- Artist David Hockney, Théâtre du Châtelet
- Portrait of David Hockney, London
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Frankfurt Book Fair
- “The Arrival of Spring” Unveiling, Centre Pompidou
- “David Hockney: Retrospective” Exhibition, Centre Pompidou
- The Queen’s Window Reveal, Westminster Abbey
- The Broad and Louis Vuitton Celebrate “Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth,”
- Pre-Grammy Gala
- “A Year in Normandy” at Musée de l’Orangerie
- “David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” Gala Opening
- “Do You Remember They Can’t Cancel the Spring – David Hockney 25” Exhibition
On Set at Royal Court Theatre
- London, 1966
On the set of Ubu Roi, Hockney does a Mod professor thing wearing a neat, trim suit, small lapels and a tight polka-dot tie, topped with a matching spotted hat. The oversized black round frames sharpen the cartoon effect, so he looks like he’s stepped out of one of his own line drawings and onto the stage.
Working at His London Studio
- 1967
In his seersucker phase, he stands in a pinstriped suit that’s cut slim through the leg and slightly cropped at the ankle, with a narrow black tie and polished loafers. The pale stripes mirror the elongated figures on his canvases behind him, turning the whole studio into a vertical study in white, grey and charcoal.
Theatre Portrait
- London, 1971
Sinking into a cinema seat, Hockney pairs a velvet jacket and slim tie with sharply cut trousers and those oversized circular frames. The look captures his early-career persona: part serious man of culture, part mischievous observer treating the auditorium like his private studio.
Hockney and Warhol
- London, June 29, 1976
Hockney shows up to an art-world summit in a cheeky “Loch Ness Scotland” ringer tee, round specs and a pint in hand, standing beside Warhol’s narrow tie and trench like the mischievous cousin of Pop. It’s tourist merch treated as uniform, proof that he could undercut the scene simply by dressing like the most relaxed man in the room.
Studio Portrait, New York
- January 29, 1981
At his desk, racing a deadline for the Met, Hockney wears a striped polo and baseball cap, the uniform of a Little League coach translated to the world of opera sets. The horizontal bands of color feel like a sketch for his stage designs, clean, graphic and completely uninterested in looking “proper.”
Portrait at Home
- Los Angeles, 1987
Sunk into a floral armchair, he wears a sky-blue sweatshirt over a white shirt with tan chinos and a slim belt, his round glasses acting almost like another graphic motif in the room. It is the definitive Hockney uniform: domestic, color-blocked and in dialogue with his own interiors.
“Pacific Heights” Premiere
- Westwood, 1990
Hockney shows up in a sand-colored suit over a teal shirt and cobalt polka-dot tie, finished with a tan belt and well-worn brogues. The palette feels straight out of California light, but the slightly crumpled tailoring keeps his English art-school insouciance intact.
Artist David Hockney, Théâtre du Châtelet
- Paris, November 4, 1991
In a brown tweed suit layered over a brick-red cardigan and candy-stripe shirt, Hockney looks like a slightly unraveled professor who moonlights as a set designer, which is more or less the truth. The loosened tie and slouched pockets echo the hand-drawn scenery behind him, turning the whole outfit into an extension of the stage.
Portrait of David Hockney, London
- April 25, 1995
For this garden-portrait setup, he pairs a dove-grey chore jacket with a red shirt and matching polka-dot pocket square, framing his own face in saturated color the way he does his sitters. Wide, sand-colored trousers and brown sandals keep the silhouette casual, as if he’s stepped out from his own canvas for a cigarette break.
Victoria and Albert Museum
- London, 2003
At the Ossie Clark retrospective, he appears as a walking collage sporting a soft tweed blazer, a patterned sweater, a check shirt, a loosely knotted printed scarf and brown check trousers, all topped with a tilted straw hat. The palette skews tan, plum and sky blue, channeling Clark’s ‘70s glam through Hockney’s own eccentric, slightly rumpled party uniform.
Frankfurt Book Fair
- Germany, 2016
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, he stands before a giant poster in an olive cardigan, mustard tie and sky-blue shirt, the colors stacked like swatches from his studio wall. The flat cap and round glasses keep him on-brand, turning a standard author photo call into another proof that Hockney dresses like his own best dust jacket.
“The Arrival of Spring” Unveiling, Centre Pompidou
- Paris, 2017
Standing in front of his riotous woodland, he doubles down on the palette with a pistachio cardigan, scarlet tie and soft white cap that reads more gardener than grandee. The clothes mirror the work’s optimism, turning the usual museum photo op into a live-action Hockney in flat color, graphic lines and zero interest in looking neutral.
“David Hockney: Retrospective” Exhibition, Centre Pompidou
- Paris, 2017
For his own retrospective, he shows up in a blue cardigan striped in electric green, paired with stone trousers, wine-red slippers and that now-trademark ivory cap. It’s the uniform of a man who knows the room is full of his greatest hits and dresses accordingly, matching the paintings’ saturation instead of disappearing into museum black.
The Queen’s Window Reveal, Westminster Abbey
- London, 2018
To unveil his stained-glass tribute to the late monarch, he leans into his own palette with a cherry-red tie, grass-green knit, check scarf and round yellow specs against a basic dark jacket. In a setting built on stone and solemnity, the outfit does exactly what the window does, smuggling pop color and Yorkshire stubbornness into the heart of the establishment.
The Broad and Louis Vuitton Celebrate “Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth,”
- Los Angeles, 2018
At The Broad, Hockney stands out on the red carpet with his navy blazer, mint cardigan and a hot-red knit tie, finished with cobalt-rimmed glasses that echo the museum’s logo behind him. The walking stick and pocket square give the whole thing a slightly professorial tilt, as if he’s stepped out of a painting seminar and into a fashion spread by accident.
Pre-Grammy Gala
- Beverly Hills, 2019
For a night honoring industry power brokers, he turns up in a lime sweater vest, red kerchief, boxy black jacket and those cartoon-bright glasses, reading more Laurel Canyon survivor than banquet guest. Standing beside Joni Mitchell, he looks like the only man in the room who came straight from the studio, refusing to sand down a single eccentric edge for the step-and-repeat.
“A Year in Normandy” at Musée de l’Orangerie
- Paris, 2021
In front of his 300-foot iPad panorama, he wears a russet-check suit with a traffic-cone tie and his usual yellow frames, basically dressing like a walking color study. The look mirrors the work behind him, all hedgerows and half-timbered roofs, as if he decided the opening needed one more pastoral still life and volunteered himself.
“David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” Gala Opening
- London, February 21, 2023
For the London premiere of his immersive show, he layers houndstooth on houndstooth, then throws in a spotted tie and neon frames for good measure, like a walking thesis on optical overload. The cigarette, “End Bossiness Soon” button and rumpled lapels underline the point: that this is a lifelong contrarian who dresses the way he paints, with no interest in minimalism, rules, or anyone else’s idea of good taste.
“Do You Remember They Can’t Cancel the Spring – David Hockney 25” Exhibition
- Paris, April 7, 2025
In Paris, Hockney arrives as his own best artwork, dressed in a russet checked suit, matching flat cap and bright yellow glasses framing that familiar deadpan stare. The look is pure Hockney logic, a clash of pattern and color that mirrors the joyfully maximal works behind him and proves he’s never believed in the idea of “too much” where dressing or painting is concerned.