In the 53 years since Don McLean soared to fame with “American Pie,” he’s woven cultural touchstones, environmentalism and homelessness into his music. But who knew the singer-songwriter is such a diehard about fashion?
His artistic leanings are traceable to “Vincent,” which he wrote and performed about Vincent van Gogh 50 years ago. The chart-topping song is said to have influenced artists like Tupac Shakur, and it’s also the inspiration for the new children’s book “Vincent Starry Starry Night,” which the Grammy Hall of Fame member has penned the foreword for.
An interview about the book unexpectedly veered into the musician’s fervor for fashion, including many of his own designs, which he said he has never spoken about publicly before. Still performing, McLean knows 10,000 songs, has written about 200 and has 400 tracks. His nonmusical pursuits are also vast. “I have many interests, and they all make me very happy,” he explained.
The 79-year-old chatted — approvingly — about Taylor Swift’s sense of style day-in and day-out (as well as her posture and manners). “I’m really fascinated with her style. Everything she does works, and it’s always modern. Everyday the photographers are all over her and she can’t wear what she wore yesterday. How does that work? She must have a couple of people who buy things for her.”
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(Swift also sent him flowers and “a proper note” in 2021 when she knocked “American Pie” off the number-one spot for the longest-running song to top the Hot 100 list, he said.)
With multiple homes and “many hundreds” of clothing items, the singer-songwriter designs many of the items that he wears — especially shirts with epaulets and Western boots — and relies on locals like “Pepe the Tailor” in Palm Desert, Calif., to create them. Without “the body that you need to look really good in clothes,” McLean said, “I make clothes look as good as I can look by having them tailored as I want them to. I’m crazy about all of this. I design everything.”
With 40 books that cover more than a century of men’s and women’s fashion history, McLean flagged ones about preppy style that continue to have a lasting influence among many, including Swift’s panache for plaid pleated skirts. He’s also working with Los Angeles-based Ahmad Khan, a western silver and goldsmith, on designs for bolos and belt buckles. McLean has collected hundreds of watches, including ones from Cartier, Rolex, IWC, Breitling and antique ones too. That hobby started in the 1960s, when he was strapped for cash and was singing with Pete Seeger in a haunt overlooking the Hudson River, and “this guy gave me this pocket watch.”
Have we mentioned his ardor for Brooks Brothers? Or why on the day of our interview McLean was wearing a finely made pair of shoes that once belonged to the former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown?
“I’m really in love with civilized taste. I really love Brooks Brothers. It’s a bastion of civilization. I go there sometimes just to look at some of the older salespeople, who are dressed better than anybody I’ve ever seen,” he said.
And McLean is “so nuts” about ties that he goes to Brooks Brothers just to look at those sometimes. “I’m fascinated by the silks and what they can do with them. I love rep ties, which was something the Duke of Windsor would wear — a paisley tie. [President Joe] Biden wears nice rep ties — things that people wore at Harvard, Yale and prep schools,” McLean said “[Donald] Trump is in that friggin’ red tie all the time. He’s really got to stop with that.”
As for why he was sporting Brown’s wingtips that are a cross between sneakers and shoes, McLean said he’d bought them on eBay and they were advertised as such. “I went through everything because I’ve known this guy forever and I love the way he dresses.”
In tune with the times, he noted how women’s double-breasted pantsuits in muted greens, tans and “other nice colors seem to be the thing — the jacket and pants combo that Kamala [Harris] wore everyday [campaigning],” he said.
His girlfriend, Paris Dunn, wore an abbreviated version of that style when the couple attended a White House state dinner for Kenya’s President William Ruto in May. The hot pink dress that Dillon bought at Saks Fifth Avenue “was a little high on the knees, but she’s very beautiful and the color was gorgeous. That’s the trend they’re wearing except with matching pants,” McLean said.
Much less laudatory about the Tom Ford suits that Daniel Craig wore in some of his “007” James Bond roles, McLean said, “The jackets are tight, the sleeves have like two-inch cuffs. I just don’t see how you can move around in those things. Every suit seems to be so tight that you can see the end of the tie through the suit jacket.”
Thrifting is nothing new for the musician, who referenced a 1972 festival concert where he wore a 1920s woolen coat. Around that time he also designed a shirt made from mattress ticking for a major performance. Designing belts with conchos — dome-shaped silver ornaments — and Western wear have also long been an interest, since a boyhood neighbor gave him handmade moccasins with silver conchos.
“Ever since then, I’ve been in love with Western things. I know a lot about saddlery, riding, packing, gear, bits and spurs,” McLean said. “I’m a Western horseman — I rode for 30 years.”
No longer the diehard Levi’s 501 button-fly wearer, he is always on the lookout for “the right blue jeans.” Amazon is a resource. “They don’t cost that much. If I don’t like them, I give them to Goodwill. Most of the time I find great ones, but they’ve got to have a little bit of softness and stretch. (His ties to Levi’s also used to include being hired by its late leader to sing at the executive’s milestone birthday parties.)
Asked about AI’s impact on the arts, he said, “That could be good or bad for the arts, because everything is already so manufactured and inhuman. How could AI make that much of a difference? Maybe they could design some cool clothes and that’s OK. They killed Milli Vanilli 40 years ago for lip-syncing — everybody has their voice processed.”
As a self-described film aficionado with an extensive library, he believes that actors like musicians need to singlehandedly carry their work genuinely, as Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe had. How that is done when an image is now so manufactured with Botox, “Photoshopping, voice tuning and every other dang thing,” McLean said, “You’re not getting meat, you’re getting Spam. You’re not getting cheese, you’re getting Velveeta. Like everything else, once people get too involved with anything, they ruin it. The purist things are done in solitude and without thinking about getting a reaction for it.”
McLean still performs the eight-minute “American Pie,” but there no plans for another anthem for America. “I don’t need to do another anthem for America. One is exactly what it needs. It’s all the same. It will all be OK. In America, you never have the country you want, you have the country you aspire to.”
Asked if there is anything he would like to set the record straight on, McLean said, “Other than the fact I’m a wonderful person, no? All that I’m trying to do and have always tried to do is to give people something that they would love with my music. It might help them or matter to them. I’ve realized I did that and continue to do that.”
