Interview by Lisa Armstrong
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LILY ON KARL
I was absolutely petrified when I first met Karl [Lagerfeld]. All the PRs were pushing me into going and I was like, what am I doing? And I was really s******g myself. And when I did meet him he was like, ‘Hello, nice to meet you’.
LILY ON FASHION
I don’t think I am that groomed: I mean, like today, for example, I did wear a nice high-waisted skirt but I didn’t wear any make-up. It’s always been like that for me, I’ll wear a Fifties prom dress with trainers. I don’t think that look is necessarily over – but I've done it to death. I’d like to do another collection for New Look. I would do some different shapes, though: maybe a long dress that could look stunning, probably not the prom shape again. I like a lot of vintage stuff as well as designer. I like looking around antiques markets, and I get a lot of stuff from the high street.
LILY ON HER WEIGHT
I have lost quite a bit of weight but I didn’t feel any pressure to do it. It wasn’t even intentional, it was more that I split up with my boyfriend and I’ve been mucked up ever since. Also I’ve been touring for a year-and-a-half and I put on quite a lot of weight – it’s easy when you’re eating out of dressing rooms.
Even though I’ve lost some weight, I’m not thin. I’d be really upset if a magazine airbrushed me. But they do, don’t they? I’m about to do a shoot for a magazine that has airbrushed its cover girls in the past. If they do that, I’ll get my press girl to call them and have a go about it.
I still feel strongly about the fact that magazine editors should take more responsibility about using thin models. Like today at the Chanel show, Karl sent three models away because he thought they looked ill. There was a massive difference between the models at the Chanel show and the ones at the Stella McCartney show. The girls looked much healthier at Chanel. They were big – I mean, they looked normal: the fact that I can fit into the samples says it all, really.
LILY ON HER MUSIC
I’ve never really had a normal life. My father was famous and my mum’s a film producer and it was all quite hectic. She was going out with Harry Enfield and we lived in massive houses. So my lyrics were always about trying to find something that was significant to my life and was honest, but was relevant to most other people in the society in which we live. We all fall in and out of love and do bad things to each other, and there are definitely things that exist in my life now that are in other people’s lives as well.
I’m pretty well known in America. I don’t have to explain the lyrics – they’re not thick. I think they like my Englishness; they’ve got enough people that aren’t English doing pop music. In Europe there is a language barrier, so there I think it is more about the melodies.
I do sing about the fashion industry. Some of my upcoming lyrics include, ‘And everybody else is thinner’. And, ‘I’m a weapon of mass consumption, but it’s not my fault . . . ’ I started writing lyrics about two minutes before I wrote Smile. I was terrible at English at school – actually, I wasn’t terrible but I was made to feel terrible. I’ve had lots of therapy since. My writing was so tiny – it’s a sign of an inferiority complex. But I was always only able to deliver half a page and my teachers used shout at me so much for not writing enough, but I couldn’t make my writing any bigger.
LILY ON BEING A ROLE MODEL
I had behavioural problems rather than learning difficulties. I’m dyspraxic, which means I don’t have hand-eye coordination.
I’m not that rebellious, I just don’t like to conform. It really annoys me that people say I’m rebellious when I just speak my mind. The word rebel has negative connotations, which is why it annoys me.
If young girls read that Lily Allen talks about what she wants to talk about and that is rebellious, then maybe they’ll think that they shouldn’t speak their minds, too.
Swarovski Fashion Rocks for the The Prince's Trust takes place at London's Royal Albert Hall on 18th October 2007. Tickets and information are available at www.fashionrocks.co.uk
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