Alice Olins
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Against the wishes of her record label Lily Allen, 22, uploaded her first single on MySpace in 2005 and gained critical acclaim before she had officially released any music. The daughter of the actor and comedian Keith Allen and the film producer Alison Owen, Lily was included on the NME Cool List in 2006 but was also rated No 10 in BBC Three’s Most Annoying Person award. Lily Loves, her collection of dresses and accessories for New Look, was launched yesterday.
I hope no one was sad enough to queue up for my range at New Look. Queueing for hours and hours for a dress is just stupid. The whole process could be avoided if the fashion companies and the media didn’t hype everything up so much. We all know that if the shop runs out of stock they’ll order more, so what’s the point of queueing? It’s part of the whole lie. I don’t think we will sell out, we’re not Kate Moss. Some people say that Kate Moss has lost her mystique and credibility since doing her range for Topshop – she’s a lot richer, that’s for sure. Good luck to her.
I get along with the paparazzi: they give me cigarettes and money for parking meters. I used to hate being papped, but they aren’t going to leave me alone so I might as well just get along with them. Yes, they intrude on my personal life, but that’s the industry and it’s legal. If it wasn’t, I’d do something about it.
I think my performances are interesting enough not to need a flash dress. I don’t have stage wear per se, it all depends on my mood. Sometimes I just shove on a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a vest and other times I’ll wear a dress and heels, but I never feel the need to put on something really amazing for my performances. I wear whatever’s clean. If I were a piece of clothing, I’d be a Chanel suit, because it’s amazing.
I was quite an aggressive teenager. The gold jewellery – I wore a lot more back then – was a kind of deterrent. It made me look mischievous so people didn’t want to come near me. I still wear bits of it, probably for the same reason.
I don’t get enough freebies not to have to shop. And it’s pointless buying your own designer stuff, because the magazines slag you off if you wear the same things more than twice. When a designer gives me something free and I like it, I usually go and buy more anyway. So they do quite well out of me in the end. I’m wearing an Yves Saint Laurent Downtown bag at the moment – I’ve got two, I bought one and was given one. I get more beauty products then I do fashion stuff. And I’m constantly getting free mobile phones though I’m not exactly sure why.
Fashion editors can f*** off. Lots of them are responsible for the skinny issue. If fashion editors put bigger models in their magazines, then maybe girls wouldn’t be sticking their fingers down their throats so much. It makes me so angry, they should think more about what they’re doing to the younger generation. It’s in the magazines’ and advertisers’ interests to make girls want to be skinny and feel s*** about themselves because then they will go out and buy their products. It’s just another part of the capitalist, materialistic, evil world that we live in.
I’m honest. I don’t think of the effect on my career when I say something outspoken or controversial. It’s not necessarily a good thing, but I’m just completely incapable of lying. If I sat down with a media trainer for a couple of months, I’d learn not be so brutally honest, but I don’t want to be that person. It’s inevitable that the media will knock you down as well as build you up. I can’t expect everyone in the world to love me and think I’m amazing for the rest of my life.
The range for New Look is not about creating lots of mini Lily Allens. I care deeply about young girls in this country and the whole skinny issue. I told New Look from the start: I want to make clothes that will look good on everyone. I think people of any size should be able to go clothes shopping and feel good about themselves.
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