David Bowie: Desperately Seeking the Goon Squad

Reading the tributes these past few days to David Bowie, in particular those extolling his fashion icon status, it occurs to me with sadness how little he features in my classroom. Or, more to the point, how little a presence he seems to have in my students’ lives. (I will refer to Bowie in the present tense because his influence on fashion isn’t going anywhere.) Part of the fashion vernacular for over forty years, his trio of early personas alone––Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke––are as outrageous and relevant today as when he birthed them. Not to mention the more traditionally suited and booted Bowie of later years. So I shake my head and wonder why don’t I hear his name on their lips more? Why doesn't he trickle onto their sketchbooks, or at least their Pinterest pages?