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M A G A Z I N E
JUNE 2014
www.glamour.com
DON’T MESS WITH
LILY “I won’t censor myself”
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In bed with the world’s most fearless sex bloggers
The best place for a woman to live in Britain. And the worst
What your career needs NOW p128
Cheating. With permission.
One writer thinks it could work for you A
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“I’M AN UNUSUAL
WOMAN” And Lily, that’s why we love you! Sylvia Patterson talks to the pop maverick (and GLAMOUR favourite) who’s doing fame – and family – her way P Photographs by Damon Heath Fashion Director Natalie Hartley
Dress and shoes both Saint Laurent; ring Maria Black 215
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do feel betrayed by my sex,” admits Lily Allen, who turns 29 this month, several months into the bumpy re-entry of her 2014 comeback. Four years after she “retired”, disappearing into family life in Gloucestershire with her building boss husband, Sam Cooper, raising their two girls (Ethel, two and a half, Marnie, 16 months), pop culture is more highly sexualised, female-dominated and brutally judgemental than ever. She’s been deemed “racist” (for the twerking send-up video for Hard Out Here) and a traitor to the sisterhood (by feminist bloggers, for saying feminism “shouldn’t be a thing any more”). She agreed with the Twitter follower who deemed her singles “docile pop rubbish” and saw her Our Time video daytime-banned by MTV for the evidently horrifying vision of four Lilys out on the piss, one dressed as a hotdog (the news was Tweeted by Lily, along with the response “age of beige”). “People have got their own agendas these days,” decides Lily, contemplating the bloggers specifically. “It’s obvious when it’s about ego and them wanting to sound clever. It’s sad. Exhausting. Your own sex, in the name of feminism, hitting you back down. But I’m not gonna censor myself. I’m not gonna be beige.” She’s in the back of a car, speeding towards Heathrow, now explaining the “rubbish” singles furore, saying she released her “more saccharine pop songs” first, at the behest of her label, with her best yet to come. “The stuff on the radio is ‘computer says yes’, according to the market research department at Warner Brothers,” she declares, as only Lily ever does. Last year, the Pet Shop Boys deemed Lily Allen a true “maverick”: can’t she stick two fingers up to The Man, as mavericks are supposed to do? “I’d like to, but unfortunately I signed a record deal!” she scoffs. “I took a mortgage out on myself, that’s how it works.” As for the age of beige... “People fear for their jobs in this economy,” she points out. “No one wants to approve something that might offend. But the simple answer is if people paid for music instead of stealing it, we’d be in a position where people would go with their gut instincts instead of being scared of losing their jobs. But I don’t blame anybody. I write all my songs. I just feel sad that the record industry doesn’t work like it used to, y’know?” Is it easy, though, for her to brush off critics? She isn’t made of Teflon. “I think I am made of Teflon.” Lily’s third album is named Sheezus, not only as a nod to Kanye West’s Yeezus, but also to a climate that pits the female pop giants against each other (“Gimme that crown, bitch, I wanna be Sheezus”). It’s contemporary electronic pop, full of digitised vocals and Lily’s sarky social commentary (on fickle showbiz circles, brutal social media, her supposed poshness in being Keith Allen’s daughter) and more personal indoor snapshots: Life For Me details domestic frustrations (“I’m head to toe in baby food/Why does it feel like I’m missing something?”), As Long As I Got You celebrates Sam (“staying at home with you is better than sticking things up my nose… you saved me from myself”) and the moving Take My Place describes how it felt to lose her baby, George, tragically Continued on page 220
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“It ’s s ad w hen you r ow n sex , i n t he n a me of fem i n i sm , h it you back dow n”
Jumper and skirt both Theyskens’ Theory; shoes Christian Louboutin; ring Maria Black
G GODDESS Dress Valentino; shoes Gianvito Rossi; ring Maria Black
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G GODDESS Bra and skirt both Aquilano Rimondi; sunglasses Fendi; ring Lily’s own; belt Aquilano Rimondi
“I w a sn’t g ood at st ay i n g at home a l l d ay. I’m creat i ve, it ’s ju st w ho I a m”
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G GODDESS O stillborn at six months in October 2010. “If I could, then I would scream,” she sings, “this is more than I can take, I’d give everything I own if someone else could take my place.” It’s one reason she still sees her life-long therapist, “not for a while, but I do when I need to.” Did Sam literally save her from herself? “That’s how I felt when I wrote the song,” she muses. Usually, it’s women who save wayward men. “Well,” decides Lily, “I’m an unusual woman.” hen Lily met Sam at Glastonbury 2009, she lived in an “unhappy world”, a binge-drinking rebel pop star disillusioned by showbiz. She’d had three years of pop notoriety and tabloid headlines, of top ten singles, Kate Moss’s circle, booze, blokes, drugs, paparazzi and award-ceremony bedlam, including her indelible appearance at the GLAMOUR Women of the Year Awards 2009, where she stumbled around in her slit-throat Bambi cocktail dress. It all stopped with Sam, the man who finally made her feel “safe and secure”. Back in 2006, the 21-year-old Lily told us her pop career had a specific purpose, to fund The Country Life Dream of marriage, kids, the Cotswolds, maybe “championship chickens”. Very early, she knew what she wanted. “I guess, but if you come from a dysfunctional family like I came from, it’s pretty straightforward, that kind of dreaming,” she muses today. “My parents weren’t around much when I was a kid, so that’s what you want for your kids, not to have that environment.” But her plan didn’t pan out. “I wasn’t good at staying at home all day, it didn’t suit me. I’m creative, it’s just who I am.” What did she miss? “I missed the positive feedback about my music from my fans,” she decides. “I missed the rush of performing. I missed the free clothes and handbags and the good tables in posh restaurants. I did!” Did she miss the fame? “Not really, because things are so negative now,” she notes. “It’s very seldom celebratory and positive. I don’t miss being slagged off in the Daily Mail. But I am enjoying the attention. And having my hair and make-up done, and feeling glamorous. I’m not covered in baby sick any more.” Having talked to Lily several times since her pop-changing debut, Alright, Still in 2006, I’ve a feeling Lily’s holding herself back, less willing to unleash those famed opinions and caustic hilarity. I wonder if the past few months have burnt her, and perhaps she’s feeling she’s put a bomb in her lovely life? “My life is still lovely!” she insists. “I still go home to my beautiful children and my husband who love me and appreciate me for who I am. I have dinner and watch EastEnders. There is no bomb.” Two weeks later, after a promotion/holiday trip to America (she took Ethel and Marnie with her), Lily is round her mum’s house with the kids, while Sam is renovating their Gloucestershire home. Does she find him hunky in his working overalls, all sweaty and manly? “He always looks hunky to me!” she cackles, as Marnie dives into her neck for a cuddle. In New York, she attended a Game Of Thrones premiere with her actor brother, Alfie, Thrones being the second role of his career requiring full-frontal nudity (after Equus). This reminds me of Lily back at school in ’98, mortified over her dad’s appearance as part of British P band Fat Les (alongside Blur’s Alex James and Damien Hirst) on the cover
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Shirt and skirt both Paule Ka; earring Givenchy; ring Lily’s own
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Shirt and leggings both Emanuel Ungaro; shoes jimmychoo.com; ring Maria Black
Hair: Eamonn Hughes at Premier Make-up: Polly Osmond at D+V Management Nails: Michelle Humphrey at LMC Worldwide Fashion Assistant: Holly White Prop stylist: Luke Abby
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Background paint (Estate Emulsion paint £36 for 2.5l and £63 for 5l) supplied by Farrow & Ball
O of a national newspaper “with his knob out”. Sixteen years later, showbiz websites bear the headline: OMG: Who wants to look at Alfie Allen’s cock? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, eh? “Aiieeee!” responds Lily. “But my dad with his knob out isn’t the same as a written part!” Over in America, the UK tabloids constantly monitored her and fell upon the “bum selfie” she posted of her lower back in a bikini (seen to be “showing off her newly svelte figure”) with the words: “if @innout burger did a bikini, oh wait #cantkeepyoureyesoffmyfatty.” Why would she do that? “No comment other than because the bikini was made by In-N-Out Burger, which you wouldn’t associate with bikinis!” she balks, before shutting down any discussion on any body issues, “because it’s boring”. Still: avoiding body issues and posting bum selfies sends out hugely confusing messages. “Yes, but there’s a lot of confusion in the world! The lyrics on my album are full of confusion and hypocrisy and contradiction.” We talk about her new friendship with Miley Cyrus (the pair met in LA last year) and how this squares with the Hard Out Here twerking satire. “Because she’s owning it and it definitely comes from her,” explains Lily. “She’s rebelling. I love her. If you wanna put your body on display like that, it’s absolutely fine. It’s when somebody else tells you that you need to do that in order to sell your product that’s offensive.” She contemplates the often toxic nature of today’s social media, how it “brings out the worst in some people”, but she can’t be disingenuous: “It made me what I am.” Today, it’s obvious she’s stepping back from her natural pop provocateur role, but perhaps it’s understandable. Since we last spoke, she was spectacularly misinterpreted after a Radio 2 interview with Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman, where she witheringly said that behind every great pop woman “there’s always a ‘man behind the woman’ piece” – meaning a sexist story asserting an all-important male influence from producers (while men-behind-the-men reports do not exist). This was reported literally, that Lily Allen herself believed there’s always a man behind the woman, reinforcing the very thing she was criticising. “Yes, so I have to choose my words more carefully now,” she admits. “Because people are just determined. Times are tough, people need promotion, they need scoops. And they make me look a tit.” Tragically for pop culture, then, Britain’s most outspoken pop star is doing exactly as she said she wouldn’t: censoring herself (and so the world turns slightly more beige). “I’ve only got good intentions, but I’m gonna have to button it, definitely,” she nods. “It’s not just about me any more, I’ve got the kids.” She also has Sam, who, throughout this bumpy re-entry, still makes her feel safe and secure. “I was really worried about working and the pressure it was going to put us under,” she confesses. “And it’s actually made him more protective and more loving and more caring. He’s there for me. It was a tough decision to make, a scary adjustment, and for the children. But my relationship with my husband is as strong as it’s ever been. It’s lovely to come home to.” This summer, as part of her UK tour, Lily returns to Glastonbury, the festival she’s been attending since she was two months old, though we won’t see any repeat of her famed ballgown-and-can-of-Strongbow appearance of 2007. “Mums are not allowed to drink Strongbow!” she laughs, and bundles Marnie away, back to her lovely life, avoiding all the bombs she possibly can. G
“My l i fe i s lovel y ! My ch i ld ren a nd my hu sba nd love me for w ho I a m”
Lily Allen’s new album, Sheezus, is out now 223