Lily Allen sits down to a late breakfast at Claridge’s. Despite having
finished a string of British concerts the night before, she is fresh-faced,
which she attributes to steering clear of junk food and being vaguely
sensible with the booze.
Allen shrugs off her Burberry quilted jacket, a gift from the fashion house,
and orders scrambled eggs on toast. Her publicist gets up to leave, but
before he does, he hands her a large parcel.
“It’s from Gucci,” he says in a matter-of-fact way. Inside is the brand’s
latest It bag. Called the Indy, this glitzy tote boasts a multicoloured
patchwork python trim, has two enormous tassels and is adorned with silver
panels. It costs £2,850. Not that Allen paid for it. The bag is an
unsolicited gift. Gucci hopes that in return for its generosity, the
trendsetting pop star will be photographed with the bag. Her credibility
will then rub off on the brand, and legions of her fans will stampede its
stores.
At least, that’s the thinking behind fashion’s elaborate celebrity-gift
culture.
On this occasion, however, the system breaks down. Allen heaves the bag out of
its packaging, takes one look at its gaudy detailing and, instead of
squealing with girlie delight, wrinkles her little button nose and laughs in
mock horror. “It’s so heavy,” she says; then adds, “It’s soooo Sarah
Harding”, referring to the brash, blonde Girls Aloud member, before
delivering her final, damning verdict: “It’s f***ing vile.”
The bag is returned to its packaging and won’t be accompanying Allen on the
pages of the celebrity style mags any time soon. So, is she an ungrateful
little pop princess or a woman who knows exactly what she likes and has the
confidence to say so? One thing is clear: Allen is not the type to be awed
by a ritzy designer bag, even if it does cost the same as a week in the
Maldives. But it was always going to take more than free handbags to impress
this girl. Although she insists that her mother was not rolling in money,
she went to Bedales public school and grew up surrounded by wealth and
privilege.
Nevertheless, Allen displays exactly the kind of discernment you would expect
in a girl who has been hailed as a budding fashion icon. In the past 12
months, she has gone from wearing cheap gold and trainers to sporting Chanel
cocktail dresses, a Rolex watch and Louboutin heels. Her quirky
ballgown-and-trainers look has many imitators. Now, she is following in the
footsteps of Madonna and Kate Moss and launching a high-street fashion
range. Lily Loves, a capsule collection of her signature colourful cocktail
dresses, trainers and high heels, hits New Look shops on May 9.
“It makes me laugh,” she says of her new fashion-icon status. “I don’t take it
in. I’m in denial about it. I don’t know if I believe it.
I’m a very self-deprecating person. I am still convinced that everyone hates
me. I still feel like I am 15 years old in school, desperately trying to
fight for everyone to like me. Even though I’ve sold 1m records and had a No
1 single, I still feel pretty pathetic.”
In typical Allen style, this admission of vulnerability is immediately
followed by a laugh. “No, I don’t feel pathetic, but I definitely don’t
think of myself as any trendsetting, cool person,” she says.
The fashion industry begs to differ.
Allen was given the full front-row treatment at the recent Paris fashion shows
— and she is remarkably candid about what that entails. “The reason I went
to the shows was to get the free stuff. How much is there? Loads,” she says
with a naughty glint in her eye. “I went to the YSL show, and they did that
thing of saying, ‘Come to the shop and choose what you want.’ I got my
handbag.”
She points to a chic black and white check Downtown, which nestles at her
feet. “And I got matching shoes and a lovely purple dress and a purple
cashmere scarf and a travel wallet and cigarette case. It was about five
grand’s worth of stuff. I was, like, ‘Brilliant.’ ” She was also treated
royally by Sonia Rykiel and Cacharel.
But not every label is falling over itself to bestow gifts on her. She
mentions a Louis Vuitton dress from the autumn/winter collection that she
already has her eye on. Perhaps the company will present it to her? “Not
Louis Vuitton. They are meant to be the meanest,” she says, with the knowing
self-assurance of a true fashion insider.
But that is exactly what Allen insists she is not. Indeed, the singer displays
none of the simpering gratitude or sense of indebtedness that one might
expect of a 21-year-old who, within a year of releasing her first record,
has been fêted, showered with gifts and spoilt by fashion’s biggest labels.
Part of her disregard for the fashion world may also be down to the fact that
not all of her experiences of it have been positive. “It can be
intimidating, because when you work with fashion people, they do kind of
give you a sigh as if to say, ‘Ugh, she’s not really thin. This is going to
be really difficult.’ It’s annoying,” Allen says.
Nevertheless, she refuses to conform to the size-zero celebrity ideal. “I’m 21
years old, I’m a pretty normal weight — leave me the f*** alone.”
Her defiance is part of her appeal. However many freebie handbags the big
names chuck at her, she refuses, so far, to be overawed. The YSLs, Guccis
and Chanels of this world seem to be far more impressed by Lily Allen than
she is by them. And in a culture where brand names inspire the kind of blind
devotion usually reserved for religious cults, her indifference is healthy.
It’s not that Allen doesn’t enjoy fashion, it’s just that she can’t see
herself becoming obsessed by it in the way that Victoria Beckham and Coleen
McLoughlin appear to be. “They look horrendous. I don’t like that
thought-about thing — the hair, the nails, the tan, the different handbag to
go with every outfit,” she says.
Part of her disdain stems from in-built cynicism. “People of my generation
have become sceptical about it,” she says of marketing and the celebrity-led
culture. “We’ve had it shoved in our faces, and because of all these
reality-TV shows, we’ve seen how it all works behind the scenes. Rather than
think, ‘She must be cool because she’s in a magazine’, we don’t buy into it.”
Allen even seems reluctant to buy into her own success. “It means very little
to me. I’m happy, but, at the same time, I’m just trying to earn some money
so that I can get a house and some chickens and a quad bike or whatever.”
Her one-off New Look range, which will be sold in 267 stores worldwide, should
swell the Allen coffers. And if it doesn’t? “Part of my ethos is that I
don’t care about anything that much,” she says. “I don’t care about
tomorrow. I’m happy with today. If it all goes tits up, it’s not the end of
the world.”
And with that, she digs deep inside her new YSL Downtown, pulls out a handful
of gaudy gold sovereign rings and plonks one on every finger. Not expensive,
not designer, but pure Lily.
Lily Loves is available nationwide from New Look from May 9; 0500 454094
