Whitney Houston:I Will Always Love You

As you all know by now, one of the most famous, beloved singers of all time, Whitney Houston, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, February 11, 2012 in her Beverly Hills hotel room. Although there is speculation that the 48-year-olds death was due to a combination of drugs and alcohol, no official cause of death has been confirmed. But does it even matter how she died? Fans of the six-time Grammy-winning, 170-million-album-selling artist don't seem to think so. When the news broke on Saturday, people began to flock to her discography.

As a result, 195,000 digital copies of the best-selling single of all time by a female artist, Houston's "I Will Always Love You," have been purchased in the past week. Those sales, combined with a huge presence on the radio, have propelled the song back into the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for the first time since 1993. It currently sits at No. 7, while two of Houston's other songs, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "Greatest Love Of All," sit at Nos. 35 and 41, respectively. She may be gone, but Ms. Houston's music will certainly live on forever.


As a style blogger, it feels weird to write about the passing of Whitney Houston. Like it's not my place or something. Culture critics like Sasha Frere-Jones from The New Yorker and Rich Juzwiak from The Daily have written beautiful, moving pieces about her legacy and the significance of her career, and knowing both of them professionally, I can testify to how heartfelt the eulogies are. After the news of her death broke, MTV aired an hour-long music video special last night, and though part of me wants to chime in about that voice, and what she did for women of color in music, the aspect of Whitney Houston's life that we'll talk about here is her memorable music video style.

From her super '80s, backless, body-con getup in "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" to the all-white fur coat and white flip-flops of a G'd up Whitney decrying some philandering scumbag in "Heartbreak Hotel," the fascinating thing about the Jersey-born Guinness Record-holding multi-platinum recording artist is that despite her model body and stunning face she never fell victim to a hypersexualized image.

It's not that she downplayed her good looks (she was always immaculately turned out) but in revisiting all of her greatest hits, it's notable that she predominantly opted for big-lapel suits, ripped-up boyfriend jeans, oversize leather and denim jackets, knee-length skirts, and a grip of turtlenecks. With the exceptions of her early work like "I Wanna Dance..." and "How Will I Know," Houston rarely played the protagonist of her videos (though I guess she did take a turn as the "other woman" in "Saving All My Love").

She was usually the omniscient narrator, which apparently required some sartorial gravitas. Seriously, take a minute and watch EVERY video and you'll notice she wears a jacket or coat in a great number of them. Whitney Houston never met a matte red lipstick she didn't like (until she discovered an appropriate dark burgundy for "It's Not Right But It's Okay"), and nobody wore a turban or choker better. Nobody. So in honor of a style icon and a game-changer, we bring you Whitney through her music videos.