Icon: Grace Jones

Our love letter to the beautiful women who blazed a trail to the top of their profession through intelligence, style, grit and uniqueness…

 “Ladies and gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones!”  Feline, fierce and fabulous, our Miss Jones, 69, is back to thrill as the subject of a documentary, “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” that recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.  In it, the model, singer, movie star and all-around agent provocateur shed her fearless performance warrior image to reveal a side, the public rarely gets to see; a vulnerable family-oriented woman.

The tireless Jamaican-born diva began her career as a model in the Seventies on both sides of the Atlantic.  Grace’s skyscraping cheekbones and androgynous look made her a runway favorite of designers Yves Saint Laurent and Kenzo, who catapulted her to the pages of such fashion magazine giants as Vogue and Elle.

Of course, nothing ever comes easy; modeling was sometimes feast or famine for Grace in part because of her unique looks. Always searching for new ways to express herself in a world that isn’t interested in mahogany beauty and boldness, she went into the studio and started singing on a lark.  Grace’s collaboration with graphic designer and lover Jean-Paul Goude and record producers Sly and Robbie shot her into pop consciousness with singles  “Pull Up to the Bumper,” “Slave to the Rhythm” and “My Jamaican Guy.”  The Glamazon then chose to make her screen presence known by appearing in such films as “Conan The Destroyer,” “ A View to a Kill” and in the movie that is near and dear to countless 50BOLDer’s, “Boomerang!”

It is hard to keep up with this Jones.  She appeared at a live performance three years ago at the famed Roseland Ballroom in New York City.  She sauntered onto the stage like over half an hour late, (was this diva move really a surprise?) wearing a velvet bustier and sporting a tiny Philip Treacy hat cocked to one side of her head like the memorable Nigerian inmate Simon Adebisi on the famed HBO series “Oz.”  She then summoned up a guttural growl stating, ”Nightclubbing.  I am…dead.” Gotta love her!  In an age where the greatest entertainers have throngs of people on stage hucklebucking, Grace Jones is still able to mesmerize her fans with a huge dose of attitude and a change of mere headpieces. She truly kept it crunk at the show, going way past the bedtimes of many of her followers.

There is a line in Grace’s documentary that sums up how she continues to innovate, create, and look fabulous…“Sometimes you have to be a high flying bitch.”

Work. Grace. Work!