The Working Wardrobe: Neneh Cherry

To Neneh Cherry, style is an attitude. “Who and what you see, just out on the streets, has always been my biggest inspiration – like when you’re sitting on the Tube, or on the subway, and you see someone and think, That’s it… you’re owning it,” she says, on the set of her PORTER photoshoot in East London. Cherry’s own relationship to style, and memories of the clothes she wore growing up, are documented in her new book, A Thousand Threads – a deeply personal memoir that stitches together the fabric of her life, from navigating fame, motherhood and friendships to finding her unique sound as a woman in music. “Making music is such a huge part of my survival instinct, cleaning my soul and being in the world, and writing a book is obviously a very different thing but it’s also a gift,” she says.

Born in Stockholm, Cherry was raised between Sweden and New York. Her career began in London in the early 1980s, when she started singing backing vocals in punk and post-punk bands. But it was her debut solo single, Buffalo Stance, released in 1988, that catapulted her to super stardom. The track – an eclectic mix of hip-hop, dance-pop and punk – was named after the Buffalo collective, a group of creatives formed by stylist Ray Petri, known for their radical and irreverent sense of style.

For Cherry, who was an honorary member of the group, it was an opportunity to carve out a look of her own, with the help of both Petri and fellow Buffalo devotee Judy Blame. The late maverick fashion stylist and designer was responsible for some of Cherry’s most iconic outfits, including the gold jacket, bra and mini skirt she wore for her very first performance on Top of the Pops (the now-defunct British music chart TV show) when she was seven months pregnant. “When we were working together, it was very much a collaboration – and about always using the space to say something, to send a message. Judy made that possible for me. He had an amazing eye.”

As for the clothes she likes to wear now, she loves a good jacket (as evidenced in this shoot) and has a thing for sneakers. “I think [my style] is quite ragga-chic. Me and my daughters, we invented this character called Raggy-O, like Jackie O,” she says. “It’s quite classic but also sporty.” Cherry is mother to Naima, Tyson and the Brit Award-winning singer, Mabel – and, when it comes to growing up with a mother who is a fashion icon, she shares that the style inspiration is mutual – “We inspire each other all the time – they might not necessarily be like, ‘Oh, I want to wear what you’re wearing’, but that’s not always how inspiration works, right?”

Read on for Cherry’s musings on street style and buying the clothes that you love…