Lana Interview For H&m

[Sam Gho 115]

Not sure I have seen it before. It was posted on the H&M website.

 

 

INTERVIEW

 

Lana Del Rey

 

She’s graced the cover of Vogue, inspired a best-selling handbag and been portrayed by top photographers. When it comes to marrying 
music and style, Lana Del Rey is, by all definitions, the top of the pops. Yet, just two years ago, nobody knew who this American singer/songwriter was. Now she’s the star of H&M’s latest campaign.

 

It really is her. Lana Del Rey steps into the über-cool Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn and she is absolutely gorgeous. She is tiny, slight of frame, and, apart from her fascinating charisma – equal parts innocent girl and adult seductress – the 26-year-old is wearing a crisp men’s shirt, a varsity jacket, blue jeans and blue Converse high-top sneakers. Slightly dressed down from the more glamorous, urban and slightly sexier looks we’ve come to recognise her for – and which she has herself described as “Ghetto Monégasque,” “Gangster Nancy Sinatra” or “Lolita Lost in the Hood” – but nevertheless a stunner.



 

“I never had a defined style,” she explains over a hot drink in a quiet, thoughtful voice. “I wear lots of jeans, white Oxford shirts and white tennis dresses… But I also love beautiful diamonds and long acrylic nails.” 



 

And that is perhaps the secret behind Lana Del Rey’s success, both musically and as a trendsetter. Focusing on the classic icons of the Americana wardrobe/songbook, she can pick and mix the best of different decades. She will draw on influences from jazz, folk and pop in her songs. And wear pieces inspired by the 1920s, 1950s or 1960s, for both men and women, when performing them.



 

It is almost unimaginable now, but just a few short years ago, the incredible Lana del Rey was still an unknown singer, trying to get by in New York City without a proper place to stay. Back then, she sang jazzy folk and pop at open-mic nights around Williamsburg and the Lower East Side.



 

Then on July 1, 2011, a sweet, melancholic clip set to a sad song about passionate love entitled Video Games landed on YouTube – the supernova that was to become a global phenomenon had been set in motion. Video Games was straight out of Lana Del Rey’s creative universe; it was she who’d edited the pictures of old Hollywood and of herself singing. Five months later the clip had spawned 20 million YouTube hits.



 

Lana Del Rey’s immediate success came, first and foremost, from the unique, nostalgic, yet fresh sound she’d managed to create. “I like to write about the way things used to be and paint pictures of my memories with beautiful words and melodies,” she says today of her hit album Born to Die, which has topped the iTunes charts in 19 different countries. ”I wanted the record to sound dark and glamorous... and remind me of the hot summertime. [My producers] filled the tracks with lush strings and sound effects like cicadas chirping and girls laughing.” 



 

The music and DIY footage might’ve set things in motion, but soon the singer’s signature look was as well-known as her songs. The clothes could vary, but the bouffant hair, bee-stung lips, long acrylic nails (painted blood red on the day of our interview), even longer fake lashes and layers of shiny jewelry were always all there. “I know more about jewelry than I do about fashion,” Lana Del Rey confides. “And I love emeralds and diamonds.”



 

When asked about her style icons, she cites Lauren Bacall as a huge influence. “I love her because she’s a strong woman and her style embodies that. Her silhouettes have always been strong, clean and glamorous.” 



 

London designer Christopher Kane, who just like Del Rey merges a nostalgic longing for innocent girlhood with a gritty urban feel, was one of the first to give her music a fashion insider push, using Video Games as the soundscape for his S/S 2012 show. Before long, one of her songs was also used for a Gossip Girl promo, and she was invited to sing at a Dior party. Earlier this year, she attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala as New York designer Joseph Altuzarra’s date, complete with a custom-made outfit. “Joseph wanted to design a dress for me that was dark and glamorous, like my music,” she said of the full-length chainmail-inspired creation. “He knew I liked to revel in my dark side so he also made me a cape that was sheer and black, but feminine and reminiscent of the 1940s.” 



 

And this past spring, Del Rey received the highest fashion honour: the iconic British brand Mulberry launched the Del Rey – a bag inspired by the singer, and a true testament to how her style and talent has captured the world’s imagination.



 

This season, Lana Del Rey’s affinity with the fashion world is taken one step further as she stars in H&M’s fall/winter campaign, shot in New York City by superstar photographers Inez van Lamsveerde and Vinoodh Matadin. We get to meet Lana in the season’s trendy pastels, soft mohair knits, chunky earrings and floral prints. Needless to say, she looks stunning.



 

There is plenty of 1950s inspiration here, a decade Lana has a weak spot for: “I love the sturdy, rich materials that girls’ dresses were made of; the fabrics were luxurious and meant to last. The clothes reflect a time when things were new and beautiful.”



 

These days, wherever Lana Del Rey appears, be it on the front row, on America’s most popular talk shows or on the pages of a glossy fashion magazine, her appearance is always tinted by a certain dreamy sadness. As if the lost loves of her younger years haunt her wherever she goes and whatever she does. It is the same romantic nostalgia that we can hear in the trembling of her singing voice, and in the poetic lyrics she writes about a love so bright it threatens to burn you.



 

And perhaps it is this nostalgia that makes us all love Lana Del Rey so much. However much she experiments with her look, or whichever context she’s in, we recognize her by the rawness of her feelings – and the intimacy she creates by wearing those feelings on her sleeve. In a world of information overload, Lana Del Rey cuts through the noise and touches us with her honesty. She’s the perfect pop star – and fashion icon – for our times.

[Davis 115]

Reading it right now

[evilentity 13,302]

She is tiny, slight of frame, and, apart from her fascinating charisma – equal parts innocent girl and adult seductress – the 26-year-old is wearing a crisp men’s shirt, a varsity jacket, blue jeans and blue Converse high-top sneakers.

I need a facepalm emoticon. :imbeingsarcasticbitch2:

[ScaresMe 17]

 

I need a facepalm emoticon. :imbeingsarcasticbitch2:

 

isn't she 26? or 27?

[Lana Del Rey 750]

I wouldn't call it an interview tbh

[Baby V Alex 2,858]

I wouldn't call it an interview tbh

 

^^^this, it's more like a biographic text

[RileyThomas 349]

Yeah it just describes her fashion and her fashion inspiration. Good read though.

[Eulonzo 76]

 

I need a facepalm emoticon. :imbeingsarcasticbitch2:

isn't she 26? or 27?

She's 26, turning 27 next June.

[evilentity 13,302]

She's 26, turning 27 next June.

She claims she's 26, but she's already 27.

[Sam Gho 115]

She claims she's 26, but she's already 27.

 

How do you know she is 27?

[evilentity 13,302]

How do you know she is 27?

See my posts here and here. The copyright thing isn't the first evidence I've seen indicating she was born in 1985. I don't feel it's appropriate to link to here, but she lists her birth year as 1985 on a personal account and I've also seen friends and family wish her a happy 27th birthday.

[Arzi 1,979]

 

so she's 27 smh

[evilentity 13,302]

so she's 27 smh

Yeah, the 27 Club watch started two months ago.

 

Yeah, I'm going to hell. I know.

 

[ednafrau 831]

See my posts here and here. The copyright thing isn't the first evidence I've seen indicating she was born in 1985. I don't feel it's appropriate to link to here, but she lists her birth year as 1985 on a personal account and I've also seen friends and family wish her a happy 27th birthday.

 

It's such a tiny age difference, one year - not worth lying about, but oh well!

 

Sam Gho, thank you so much for posting, I loved this interview/article ♥♥♥

 

Yeah, the 27 Club watch started two months ago.

 

Yeah, I'm going to hell. I know.

 

 

nooo! now we know where the evil in the entity comes from jk!

[Eulonzo 76]

27, 26, whatever age she is, She looks beautiful. That's all that matters.

[ednafrau 831]

27, 26, whatever age she is, She looks beautiful. That's all that matters.

 

absolutely! she IS beautiful, inside & out (corny as that may sound).

[Coney Island King 24,903]

Yeah, the 27 Club watch started two months ago.

 

Yeah, I'm going to hell. I know.

 

 

lol.

 

 

Cute interview!

[Sam Gho 115]

 

 

Sam Gho, thank you so much for posting, I loved this interview/article ♥♥♥

 

 

 

Glad you liked it!

[Monicker 3,030]

 

I need a facepalm emoticon. :imbeingsarcasticbitch2:

 

I don't get why you're this bothered by journalists repeating her claim (which is a mere one year off from her real age). Do you think they're going to check her copyright files and do extensive sleuthing of her personal accounts and other sites on the suspicion that she might have lied about her age? You think they read LDR forums to verify what has taken fanatics months of research and stalking to ascertain? If you were a journalist and you sat down to write an article on an artist and saw that every source gave the same date of birth for said artist, you'd dig around to confirm the birthdate without having any actual reason to doubt it in the first place?

[evilentity 13,302]

I don't get why you're this bothered by journalists repeating her claim (which is a mere one year off from her real age). Do you think they're going to check her copyright files and do extensive sleuthing of her personal accounts and other sites on the suspicion that she might have lied about her age? You think they read LDR forums to verify what has taken fanatics months of research and stalking to ascertain? If you were a journalist and you sat down to write an article on an artist and saw that every source gave the same date of birth for said artist, you'd dig around to confirm the birthdate without having any actual reason to doubt it in the first place?

A few technical points before I address your larger point: First of all, it hasn't taken months of research to ascertain. A number of us have known this for awhile, but didn't feel it was appropriate to link to a personal account. I only posted it now because the copyright filings also indicate this. Secondly, if you read this Complex magazine interview, and read between the lines of questioning a little, it appears the interviewer was on to her and probably hadn't been given the same date of birth from every source.

 

To your main point, I'm more bothered by Lana continuing to lie about it than journalists mindlessly repeating it. It just furthers the narrative that she's manufactured, has erased/rewritten her past, etc.

 

That being said, while I don't necessarily expect music journalists to meticulously fact check every birth date, I do see this as symptomatic of an overall lack of credible reporting in the music press in general, and regarding Lana Del Rey in particular. They seem to do less fact-checking for an article than I do for a forum post (which admittedly probably says as much about me as it does about them). But if I were a music journalist interviewing or reporting on an artist, the first thing I would do is seek out a fan from the fanbase who is knowledgeable, but not blindly supportive-- someone like me or a lot of others here-- and find out what questions I should be asking.