Grace Jones’ Beauty & Style Evolution – Essence

It’s no secret that Grace Jones is rare. Born today 78 years ago, the legendary Jamaican-American singer, supermodel, and actress has been a defining figure in beauty and style ever since, making history as one the greatest icons to grace Earth.

Her avant-garde style obliterated the mold of what a Black woman is supposed to be, dominating the Studio54 club scene in the 1970s and ‘80s in a fashion we’ve never seen before. The year the club was founded, for example, she wore a doobie with a platinum blonde ponytail attached to the top. In other looks, like at a performance at New York’s Roseland Ballroom the following year, she transformed into a primal tiger (next to a real one on stage nonetheless) with a spray painted body suit just like the carpet of the disco.

By the ‘80s, she spanned clean cut hightops (which became her signature), breast plates, sharp suiting, and even stronger makeup looks. It was provocative, androgynous, and impossible to replicate, like at the 25th Annual GRAMMY Awards after party at the Biltmore. From wearing her afro as curled horns and peacock-like eyeshadow in James Bond’s A View To Kill (1985) to even painting her face white with a blonde bob on her 44th birthday party in 1992, her tongue-and-cheek style is exactly why she’s forever unforgettable. 

Throughout the 90s the fun-loving party girl trained everyone to expect the unexpected. Johnny Bravo hard hat hair at the 1994 premiere of Ready To Wear, a pleated headscarf and glamorous gold jewelry at the Evita Los Angeles Premiere in 1996, and the most dramatic headdress you would never think of. In 2003, tin suits and locs, like at Armani Exchange’s Nightclub in the Sky Party, left her drenched in sweat with red lipstick smeared on her microphone. 

In Belgium in 2008, she performed in a jacket made of straw and a towering hat with an angled blonde bob built in. In the 2010s, her iconoclasm leaned even further into costumes, headpieces, and even an oversized diamond ring at the Vogue Pop Up Club launch in 2013. Over the years, her beauty and style has proven to be a part of performance, from big hairy hats at Fendi’s spring 2023 show to a fascinatorandred lipstick for eyeshadow inone of her latest appearances at the amfAR London 2025 gala. 

Now, with a lifetime of historic looks under her belt, the performer has proven to be a legend that’s impossible to understand. In honor of Grace Jones’ 78th birthday, take a look at how her beauty and style has evolved over the years.