Of all the famous rock ‘n’ roll accessories of the past seven or so decades, the top hat of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash is certainly among the most recognizable. (Honorable mentions include Keith Jagger’s skull ring and Elton John’s glasses.) These fashion items become so deeply associated with the musician who wears them that even seeing the accessory alone would be enough to conjure images of larger-than-life performers.
Sometimes these looks come out of months of strategic planning and world-building. Other times, a look can be a spur-of-the-moment decision. Slash found himself somewhere closer to the latter camp when developing what would become his signature look in Guns N’ Roses. As he explained in a 2022 appearance on Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, he found both of his trademark accessories while shopping on Melrose Drive.
Okay… shopping might be too generous a term.
How Slash Came To Find His Trademark Guns N’ Roses Look
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The signature Slash look is as follows: a black top hat wrapped in a concho belt, a pair of aviator sunglasses, a wild, curly mane, and the optional cigarette. According to Guns N’ Roses guitarist, he found the first two elements of his look while walking through the boutique shops in Los Angeles. While on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, he described how there were two stores with equally eyebrow-raising names next to each other on the block: Retail Sl*t and Leathers and Treasures.
The day Slash found his new style, he went into Retail Sl*t first. “I didn’t have any money,” he prefaced. “And I always used to wear some sort of hat. It was just part of the completed, whatever, look you had going on. You had to have a lid. I went in there, and I just saw the top hat. It just spoke to me, I guess. So, I was like, ‘Okay, I figured what the f***, I’ll just walk out with it and see what happens. So, I did.”
Slash said he went next door to Leathers and Treasures after that, which is where he found a concho belt. He lifted the concho belt, too, and took it back to his apartment, where he was living with Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose. Slash wore his concho-clad top hat at the band’s show at the Whisky A-Go Go later that night, and the rest is history.
“I really identified with it,” Slash told O’Brien. “I wore it all the time. It was the way you could pull it over your eyes. You could hide behind it if you were really high. It was great for bad hair days. I had no intention of it being this long-term thing.”
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
