Stevie Nicks Stopped Wearing Black After a Series of Frightening Fan Letters: ‘It Actually Started to Scare Me’

Stevie Nicks’ onstage attire has remained constant since she joined Fleetwood Mac. Her shawls, chiffon, and sky-high boots are part of what makes her such an enduring figure in music. At one point, though, she changed up her look because of worrying letters. She explained why she felt she had to make the change and why the wardrobe update didn’t stick.

Stevie Nicks specially designed her onstage attire

When Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac and began to enjoy success in her music career, she realized she needed to nail down a signature style.

“I needed a uniform,” she told The New York Times. She enlisted designer Margi Kent to make “something urchinlike out of Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities.”

The pair worked together and eventually settled on a look.

“We came up with the outfit: a Jantzen leotard, a little chiffon wrap blouse, a couple of little short jackets, two skirts and boots,” she explained. “That gave us our edge.”

Ultimately, Nicks wanted her fashion to be part of her persona. She hoped that the look would shroud her in mystery.

“I’ll be very, very sexy under 18 pounds of chiffon and lace and velvet,” she said. “And nobody will know who I really am.”

She stopped wearing black because of ‘weird letters’

Though the outfits vary, Nicks typically dresses in black. This, coupled with the fact that she described “Rhiannon” as a song about a Welsh witch, made people believe that Nicks practiced witchcraft.

“Rhiannon was the only song I ever wrote about a sort of celestial being,” she told The Guardian, “but that song and the fact I wore black, floaty clothes somehow became this, this … this witch thing.”

After several years, Nicks began receiving frightening letters from people who believed she was a witch.

“About three years into it, it actually started to scare me,” she said. “People were writing me really weird letters that were scaring me.”

She eventually decided that she should change her look to put a stop to the rumors. 

“I had Margi make me up a bunch of outfits that were just horrible – I call them the Easter Egg outfits because they were peach, mint green, and blue … not colors for me,” she said. “And I wore them and so did my girl singers. I thought: ‘I’m going to put the top on the box of this one.’”

The color switch didn’t last, though.

“Oh, after a while I said: ‘Screw that, I’m going back to black!’” she said. “And if they think I’m a witch I don’t care because I’m not a witch!”

Stevie Nicks is working on a TV show based on her witchiest song

Though she isn’t a witch, Nicks wants to make a miniseries about one. She spent a large portion of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic planning a series that explores the folklore behind “Rhiannon.” She’s signed on with a production company and a writer and is already making plans for Harry Styles to star.

“There’s an amazing part for Harry,” she told Vogue. “My favorite character in the series is the only man who goes through all four books. He’s a magician who doesn’t wanna be king, and I think Harry would just be so perfect.”