Joan Jett has been one of my idols for as long as I can remember. Before getting into metal in my preteen years, my journey with heavy music first started with the queen of hard rock herself. While other girls wanted to be Britney or Christina, I wanted to be Joan Jett. This week’s musically inspired outfit is in honor of her and the 1988 album Up Your Alley. Keep reading to find out how you can recreate this Joan Jett outfit + learn about the album.
I will never forget the first time I saw Joan Jett. In 2002, Britney Spears was releasing a cover of Joan’s “I Love Rock N’ Roll”, which of course garnered media attention. While Spears was being interviewed on television about it, there were clips included of Joan performing the song, as well as interviews with her. You know how in the movies when a child is completely awestruck by something and the scene moves in slow motion? That was me at 9 years old seeing Joan Jett on TV for the first time.
Seeing a woman who could rock just a hard as the guys, look how she wanted, and say what was on her mind was a game changer for me. For the first time, I saw someone that I felt understood me. Joan Jett was the embodiment of what it meant to be truly free in my eyes. She wasn’t playing by society’s rules of what you should look like, say, or do. Instead, she made her own.
The Basics of This Joan Jett Outfit
- Cropped Faux Leather Jacket: Vixen by Micheline Pitt
- Basic Black Tank Top: Kohl’s
- PVC Low Waist Skinny Pants: Vagabond Kreations
- Bolt-250 Boots (Unisex): Demonia
- Classic Heart Belt w/ the Celtic Buckle: Bellatrix Armor
- Cross Necklace: *unknown (see note)
This Joan Jett inspired outfit is so easy to recreate and most of the items you probably already have in your own closet. But if you don’t, have no fear because I have recommendations for small businesses that carry these items. They’re all brands that I love shopping with and I think you will too!
Joan’s outfit on the cover of Up Your Alley is simple, yet super stylish. Fashion wise, it is quite literally up my alley. I’m a firm believer that with just a few alternative outfit staples, any basic look can be instantly transformed. That’s exactly what we’re doing here. Here’s the album’s cover just for reference:
Small Businesses To Shop With For This Joan Jett Outfit
The first thing that caught my eye about the photo is Joan’s leather (or vegan leather) jacket. This cropped vegan leather jacket I picked up a while back from Vixen by Micheline Pitt is very similar. If you’re in the market for one I highly recommend it. I wear mine all the time and it was worth every penny. Before you spend too much on one, check out these tips where I also talk more about this specific jacket. If you already have a cropped black leather jacket, that will work just fine for this look.
The second thing that stands out to me about this look is definitely her belt. As soon as I saw it, I knew I could find a similar style from Bellatrix Armor. They’re based out of Los Angeles and specialize in handmade to order belts with a heavy metal twist. Their products can be made to ANY size and are available in both standard leather and vegan leather. This was actually my first purchase from Bellatrix Armor and I will definitely be back. Not only was the turnaround time pretty quick, but I am absolutely in love with this belt.
The two other major components in this outfit are the pants and the shoes. The low rise PVC pants I’m wearing here are from Vagabond Kreations. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog you probably already know it’s one of my favorite places to shop. This is especially true for pants and this specific pair is one of my favorite pieces from her. All of her items are handmade and one of a kind. However, Vagabond Kreations does release similar styles frequently in her monthly collections so make sure to check out her site.
Everything Else You’ll Need for This Joan Jett Outfit
Since Joan is wearing short black boots in the cover shot, I went with my Bolt-250 boots from Demonia. The chains are already attached to them so you wouldn’t need to add a boot strap, which is what looks to be on Joan’s boots. However, if you have a basic pair of short black boots, Bellatrix Armor also makes boot straps. I’ve actually seen styles similar to the one in the Up Your Alley cover shot on their Instagram.
Finally, the last two items used to complete this look are a basic black top and a long necklace. It’s hard to tell exactly what kind of top Joan is wearing since the photo is from the side and her collar appears to be popped. Because of this, I just went with a standard black tank top that I had for work appropriate outfits at my office job. The cross necklace I’m wearing is actually my husband’s that he got as a gift many years ago. Hence, why I’m not totally sure where it came from. With that being said, you could really use any long necklace here.
About Up Your Alley
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts released their sixth album Up Your Alley on May 23, 1988. While they had seen success in the early 80’s with the albums I Love Rock N’ Roll, Album, and Bad Reputation, their chart topping success had grinded to a halt afterwards. The albums that followed didn’t seem to have the reach of those prior, but that changed with Up Your Alley.
The album is filled with hard rock anthems including one of Joan’s most well known tracks, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”. For a girl like me, Up Your Alley is as empowering as it is fun. There is an intriguing sense of fearlessness on songs like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” where sexiness is expressed not just lyrically, but also instrumentally. My favorite thing about this album is how care free it makes me feel every time I listen to it. “You Want In, I Want Out” and “Back It Up” are great examples of this.
Media Perspective
When doing the research for this post, I was actually slightly disheartened by there still being a lack of coverage for this record. With Joan Jett being as widely recognized as she is today and songs from the album like “I Hate Myself For Loving You” still receiving a lot of airplay, you would think it would be talked about more often. I ran into this same issue when writing this post for Lita Ford’s Dangerous Curves which at the time, I chalked up to it just not being as well known. But again, Up Your Alley is a much larger record from a commercial standpoint.
Then I tried to think maybe this is just because of when it was released. Maybe it’s just that it’s not talked about now. But with that, I can find plenty of articles celebrating rock releases from male musicians that dropped in the same year. Yes, there were a lot of classic heavy albums released in 1988, including Metallica’s …And Justice For All. It just makes me feel that this is another example of how great music can be so easily over looked. This is why I started my blog, because I’m tired of being told by big corporations what I, the consumer, will like and should celebrate.
What The Critics Were Saying
I did come across this review about the album that was done by a writer for Rolling Stone in 1988. The reviewer does discuss the music. However, he also makes sure to say, “Maybe if Jett didn’t look and act like a cover girl for Outlaw Biker, tough-talking tracks like “Little Liar” and “Back It Up” would be recognized for their underlying strength and dignity, and Jett would get more recognition for her reliability.”
While I understand these were different times, it doesn’t feel like this attitude has changed all that much. If it has, why is it still so hard to find articles talking about just the music, how it was created, etc.? I also can comprehend that perhaps he’s referring to the album cover itself which is talked about in most album reviews in general. But then what would that have to do with how she acts? If that’s the case, why was it different for Metallica?
Again, this was written in 1988 and I’m not attacking this review or the person that wrote it. His opinion is valid and there’s still so many people that feel this way. Little did this guy realize that 33 years later a heavy music enthusiast like myself would be writing about Joan’s iconic cover and how she looked and acted had such a big influence on who I am today. I know I’m not the only girl like this out there, and perhaps there would be more of us if there was an equal amount of coverage for albums like this.
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