Why does Nick Cave always wear a suit?
Picture a punk – do it, right now. What are they wearing? Studs? Ripped jeans? Leather? The instant image is a kind of Sid Vicious type. It’s someone who looks roughed up, fresh from a fight, dangerous. It’s also typically someone who looks a little scrappy, as if not a single item of their clothing ever originated from a plastic hanger in a shop. It’s supposed to represent the energy of the subculture; the rowdiness, the DIY ethos, the rage – so what’s Nick Cave doing wearing a suit?
To some, it’s the final death knell. For a long time, there has been a choir of voices keen to revoke Cave’s punk card. Some want to rip it away every time he sits down behind a grand piano and plays a ballad, some want to burn it when he does things like go to the King’s coronation. It begs the question of what punk is and whether an artist is ever pushed out of their home genre when they evolve. Despite being one of its leaders and most celebrated figures, does Nick Cave no longer belong under the label of punk? And is his suit-clad frame a reflection of that?
Back in his early days, he’d never be caught looking so formal. In fact, younger Cave would probably bully him now, as his first moment, as part of The Birthday Party, saw him very much fit the stereotype. Not only were they deemed one of the wildest and most violent bands around, but they all very much wore the uniform of beaten-up T-shirts. Maybe there would be a blazer here and there, but never, ever, a well-tailored one.
Now, every time I’ve seen Nick Cave live, I’ve lasted about five minutes before I’ve asked the question – where does he get his suits? I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a more exquisitely suited man than him. His suits look like they spawned from his skin; they fit him so well. Maybe that’s enough of an answer then – Nick Cave wears suits but he looks fucking great in them. He looks cool in them. But no, there is an actual answer.
However, the man himself is fascinated by people’s fascination with it. At a live Q&A celebrating the release of Wild God, it felt like half the people who were handed the mic to address the artist solely wanted to ask him about his choice of dress. From the stage, wearing said suit, Cave looked baffled. Would you ask a police officer why he was wearing a badge? To him, it’s the same thing.
The story behind Nick Cave’s suits
There is no one clear moment to pinpoint when Cave started wearing a suit. There are images of him sporting them from throughout his career, but it seems that the transition was slow, rather than it ever being a clear change or a sort of marketing image switch. Instead, it beautifully traces his development as an artist. As the music became less and less rowdy and wild, his attire calmed and became more refined, too. By now, as one of the most respected musicians around, his suit seems to reflect the authority he holds.
That’s sort of how he sees it, too. “I always wear a suit, because I have important work to do and I’m not going to go to work in a pair of bermudas and bright flip-flops,” he told The Times, and that’s that really. The suits are a reflection of respect, both the respect he gives his own work, reporting before that he still wears the suits even if he’s working on his songs in private, as well as reflecting the mutual respect that flows between a celebrated artist and their audience. Cave dresses nice for his crowd, his crowd look up to him, so he dresses well to reflect that in that arena, he’s in charge.
But it’s more than even that. Cave’s suits are really a reflection of his psyche. Just as his style has changed with his music, it’s changed with his mindset too. Long gone is the chaotic junkie, now, Cave craves order. “Structure is very important to me. Without structure, I can’t work,” he said, talking about his strict routine of going to his office and working, with the putting on of his suit being another part of this daily ritual.
“I see the suit as a kind of uniform,” he told Dior, who now makes a lot of his suits, as well as a specific tailor in Soho. On the ritual of only ever working in a suit, it all comes down to exactly what the sharpness of a suit has always represented: authority, respect, formality, with Cave claiming that, to him, it represented “personal respect for the work at hand.”
