Costume designer to the stars Fleur Thiemeyer opens up about extraordinary life in new book
She put Rod Stewart into Spandex, got ‘Physical’ with Olivia Newton-John and turned Motley Crue into Mad Max inspired rock warriors. Now costume designer to the stars Fleur Thiemeyer is recounting her extraordinary life in a new book.
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From starting out as a surf crazy kid in bayside Melbourne, Fleur Thiemeyer went on to define the look of a generation of global music superstars.
As one of the go-to custom costume designers at the top echelon of Hollywood rock, pop and celebrity in the ’70s and ’80s through to the Noughties, Thiemeyer’s influence was everywhere, from red carpets, award shows, music videos, album covers, TV appearances and tour costumes.
She put Rod Stewart into Spandex, introduced Olivia Newton-John to diaphanous frocks over bodysuits and then famously put her into body-con workout gear and an iconic headband for her chart topping ‘Physical’ era, worked with KISS during their ‘unmasked’, no make up phase, made Motley Crue into Mad Max inspired rock warriors for their breakthrough album Shout At The Devil, worked with Heart when the world fell back in love with the Wilson sisters, and took Ozzy Osbourne glam.
“The hairband came about because her hair would not keep still, so I tied a band around it,” Thiemeyer said of Newton-John’s famous ‘fitspo’ accessory.
“This was no Einstein moment, I just had to solve a problem.”
Thiemeyer designed outfits for Whitesnake, David Coverdale and Jimmy Page, Van Halen and David Lee Roth before they split, Raquel Welch, Dolly Parton, Liza Minnelli, Helen Reddy, Cheap Trick, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsay Buckingham, Christine McVie, Scorpions, Queensrÿche, ELO, Donna Summer, Earth, Wind and Fire, KC and the Sunshine Band, Sheena Easton, Chicago, Journey, Pat Benatar, Bette Midler, Mick Jagger, Suzi Quatro, Farrah Fawcett and even Spinal Tap.
Now 75 and residing in inner Melbourne, Thiemeyer has recounted her extraordinary life working with the biggest names in music for more than 40 years, in a new book.
“For 30 years people have told me I should write a book,” she said.
“I have not lived an ordinary life. With my career nothing was planned, it was cause and effect. I never had an agent or manager, it all just came. My sensibility and singularness had a lot to do with it. I was not in it for the parties, I was not in it for the notoriety.
“The things (outfits) I wanted to do did not exist in shops.”
Her road to dressing superstars for some of their most iconic moments began in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Thiemeyer was born in Sunshine in 1949 and grew up in St Albans.
After her mother got a teaching position at Highett High, the family moved bayside and Thiemeyer spent her teen years doing athletics, playing softball and basketball, swimming and surfing.
“I was running for the Sandringham Athletic Club and guess who my training partner was? Raelene Boyle,” she said.
“I only ever saw her back because I could never get past her on the track.”
Seeing The Beatles at Festival Hall in 1964 opened her mind to the intoxicating world of music.
After finishing high school, Thiemeyer’s mother sent her to The Bambi Smith Modelling College in 1968 where she met singer Lynne Randell.
“We hit it off straight away and she asked me to a party hosted by Carol West where I met The Who and The Small Faces,” Thiemeyer said.
“She single-handedly changed my life.”
Randell introduced her to the likes of Jeff Joseph, Michael Gudinski and Garry Spry and she came to know the burgeoning Melbourne music scene including Roger Davies, Russell Morris, John Farnham, Rick Springfield, The Masters Apprentices and Molly Meldrum.
Already customising her own clothes, she soon found herself making pieces for local bands.
“It was not my intention to become a clothing designer, I was not this teenage girl who sat around drawing pictures of dresses,” Thiemeyer said.
“That was never in my mind at all, it was the beach, the surf, athletics.”
She made flouncing frilly shirts for Bon Scott during his early days in The Valentines.
She created attention-grabbing pink suits for Zoot while dating band member Darryl Cotton. The Easybeats namechecked her in their hit ‘Sorry.’
She and Cotton moved to London in 1972 and then LA in 1973.
Through Cotton she met Newton-John and the pair started working together almost immediately with Thiemeyer adding her spirited and rebellious style to Newton-John’s stage and red carpet looks.
“She had shows in Vegas coming up and said ‘will you work with me,” Thiemeyer said.
In 1973 she studied at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, where her mentors included design and costume legends Bill Whitten, Bob Mackie and Nolan Miller.
“They told me what beaders to go to, what metal shops to go to, who to go to get the boots and shoes made by,” she said.
“I was already working with Olivia and Dick Clark at the time, but I realised this was exactly what I wanted to do.”
She won the Bob Mackie Award for outstanding design student in 1974 and voraciously consumed art history, English literature and old movies for inspiration.
Through Newton-John, a friendship that lasted almost 50 years, Thiemeyer became music’s clothing and costume designer for an era of stars.
In 1977, via Newton-John, she met Rod Stewart, who remains a close friend.
She designed for him for 25 years, including creating the Spandex one shoulder bodysuits, skin tight leggings, billowing shirts, leopard print tops, and wide hip hugging belts which defined Stewart’s ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ era.
“We were at the pool at Olivia’s house in LA and her friend Susan George called and said ‘can we come and visit?’,” Thiemeyer said.
“A red Lamborghini pulled up and Susan got out with Rod.”
The quartet headed out to dinner that evening at a club.
“I wore a black spandex skin tight suit that looked like a swimsuit with legs and Rod looked at me and said ‘what the hell have you got on?’,” she recalled.
“He called the next day and we started working together.
“He was interested in doing costumes like Nijinsky and the Russian ballet and I knew how to make Spandex work like he wanted.
“I probably presented him 15 different sketches and straight away he picked eight or nine. I got them all done and he went out on tour with them.”
Her already stacked roster of star clients was turbo charged with the launch of MTV in 1981.
“MTV changed everything,” Thiemeyer said.
“It was an era where images became so massive. The sound of the voice became the look of the clothes.
“I became the go-to girl because I had dealt with sets, lights and cameras because of all the TV specials I had done with Olivia and Liza (Minnelli) and Raquel (Welch) and the managers and record companies knew me. After MTV started, those next 10 years were crazy for me. I could be working with up to 40 people a day.”
Powerful artist manager Doc McGhee asked her to dress hair metal rockers Motley Crue in 1982 for their breakthrough album Shout At The Devil.
“Nikki (Sixx) was thinking of something like Escape From New York meets Mad Max so I gave him books on medieval armoury and said ‘tell me what you like’,” she said.
“They came back to me with ideas and I probably did 15 drawings and they picked four.
“They had been a band playing around LA since ‘81 when I met them in ‘82. There was no pre-conditioning, they weren’t Hollywood brats wanting to be rock stars. They were hungry.”
When Thiemeyer’s longtime friend Sharon Osbourne rang and said she wanted her husband Ozzy Osbourne to go glam for his Shot in the Dark era in the mid-’80s, she was straight on the plane to London.
“Sharon said ‘I want it glam, I want it loud, I want it to move’, so hence I did the beaded gowns,” Thiemeyer said.
“His coat was like something Diana Ross would have worn. It was a great song and working on that video was just amazing. Ozzy was up for everything. I worked with him from ‘86 – ‘92.”
She worked with Heart to create the cover look and tour and video costumes for their massive self-titled 1985 album which included the hits Never, Alone, These Dreams and What About Love.
Patching a leather jacket as a favour led to Thiemeyer teaming up with Pat Benatar during a period where she had hits including We Belong and All Fired Up.
“Someone gave me a leather jacket and asked if I would repair it,” Thiemeyer said.
“When they told me it was Pat’s jacket, I put a note in the pocket saying who I was and that I would love to work with her.
“She literally called me later that day and I was at her house the next day and we started working together straight away.
“I remember doing the ‘We Belong’ video. She was pregnant, so it had to be shot in such a way to hide that fact. I did an oversized white jacket for her with bright green earrings and bright green gloves.
“It was all done as a distraction and all anybody thought was how great she looked.”
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie became a client and friend.
“I loved working with her. She was a brilliant talent and lovely person,” Thiemeyer said.
“She wanted a bit more of an English feel (to her look) and that is where I came up with the coats and velvet jackets and beaded pieces. She wore one of those jackets when they played at Bill Clinton’s (1992) inauguration.
“Then I started working with Mick Fleetwood and did a lot of stuff with him. At some point Mick decided he was going to open a restaurant called Fleetwoods and he brought me in to design all the staff uniforms and I helped him with the look of the club and so on.
“When Lindsey Buckingham went solo I did his (outfits) for his Go Insane album cover and videos.”
In the early 2000s Thiemeyer moved back to Australia with her son and worked for Jeanne Pratt at The Production Company before hanging up her measuring tape.
She started writing her book charting her life at the heart of Hollywood rock and pop superstardom in Covid in 2020.
“I picked it up again in December 2022 and finally finished it a couple of weeks ago,” she said.
“I hope it will be released by the end of year.”
Thiemeyer put her success down to hard work, trust, creativity, understanding the personality of those she worked with and knowing how to get along with people.
“I was dependable, I had integrity, I had respect, I was damn good at my job,” she said.
“I worked hard at my art, I did not take it for granted. They used to say ‘ring Fleur, she will take care of it’.”
Her teen years looking for waves on the Victorian coast were also a key foundation for her international success.
“Being out in the water with a bunch of guys when you are 13, you learn how guys think and how to get along with them,” she said.
“It stood me in good stead for what was to come.”
After a lifetime jetting from New York to LA to London creating looks that help build legends and images that stand the test of time, she has one piece of sage advice for anyone chasing their impossible dream: “Don’t take sh*t from anyone.”
Originally published as Costume designer to the stars Fleur Thiemeyer opens up about extraordinary life in new book
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