SEPTEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM 281
Awards in February—she developed a bad
habit. “I used to bite my nails,” the now
24-year-old confesses. Holed up in a Los
Angeles studio in Laurel Canyon, where
she is recording her highly anticipated
sophomore album—a follow-up to 2017’s
chart-topping self-titled debut—Lipa’s
perfectly polished acrylic tips tell a
different story. “I love nails now. Big, big
fan,” the British-Albanian pop star says
by way of explaining that she has stared
down her early beauty demons, which
also included a brief fragrance tryst with
Curious by Britney Spears. These days,
Lipa’s manicurist, Michelle Humphrey,
changes up her nail designs every two
weeks when she’s in London, much to
the thrill of her more than 30 million
Instagram followers. Her signature scent
also just got a big upgrade.
Lipa is the new face of Yves Saint
Laurent Libre, a gender-bending riff
on fougère, the traditionally masculine
fragrance category that is heavy on
herbaceous lavender and earthy
oakmoss. Thanks to an infusion of
hyperconcentrated Moroccan orange
blossom, and a proprietary
note exclusive to YSL called—
wait for it—Diva Lavender,
which isolates the freshest
elements of the aromatic purple
flower, any overt muskiness
is effectively tempered. The
perfume, which stops just short
of being billed as a unisex
offering, is a nod to the sexy
independent streak of Saint
Laurent’s boldest designs,
and a duality the singer can
get behind.“I am not a high-
maintenance person,” Lipa
insists, distancing herself from the pop-diva archetype, which
she has successfully avoided since exploding onto the scene
with her breakout single “New Rules,” the tropical house track
that surpassed one billion streams on Spotify last fall. She
is just as comfortable makeup-free in a Vetements sweatshirt
dress as she is in a heavy lash and Christopher Kane’s lace-
and-satin gown, which she wore to this year’s Brit Awards
a mere 48 hours after its fall runway debut. It’s the kind of
fluidity that Libre seeks to bottle, and that has helped make
Lipa a beauty icon for a new generation.
Born in the U.K. to Albanian immigrants who fled the
country in 1992 during the turmoil in the Balkans, Lipa grew
up in Northwest London where her parents held service
jobs to make ends meet. They returned to Kosovo when she
was 11, and after a few years, Lipa campaigned to return to
London so she could attend the Sylvia Young Theatre School,
the legendary performing arts academy that counts Amy
Winehouse and Rita Ora as alumnae.
When she was 15 her parents agreed,
and she moved back, alone, to live with
a family friend. In those days, it was
all oversize T-shirts, leggings, UGGs, and
“streaky foundation,” Lipa recalls with
a shudder, admitting that it has taken her a
while to find her look—which hinges
on a black, angular bob—and her sound.
She owes her record deal to some good
digital-era networking (interest in her
demos on Twitter and a few fortuitous
DMs led her to a music lawyer, who
ultimately made the connection to Ben
Mawson, Lana Del Rey’s manager); but
it’s the husky, deep vocals that can be
heard on such anthemic hits as “Be the
One” and “IDGAF” that set Lipa apart
from the indistinguishable monotony
of Top 40 radio playlists. Hers was the
only voice that super-producer Mark
Ronson says could “convey the emotion,
sultriness, and diva shit”
on “Electricity,” the addictive
electronic track Ronson
coproduced with Diplo that won
Lipa her second Grammy of the
year for Best Dance Recording.
Lipa’s complete mastery of
the material warrants Ronson’s
use of the D word, but there is
very little else about her that feels
entitled or aloof. “When people
started stopping me for pictures,
I thought I had to wear makeup
to look decent. Then I started
caring too much about what I
looked like, and decided I didn’t want to care,” she reveals.
“If I’m looking tired it’s because I am working and I’m happy
to be working. If I have a breakout, I have a breakout. These
things make me who I am.”
At the moment, Lipa has no plans to follow Rihanna and
Lady Gaga into that other 21st-century pop-star archetype:
makeup mogul. She’s too busy anyway—performing,
recording (among the rumored projects: taking on the theme
song for Cary Fukunaga’s highly anticipated Bond 25), and
enjoying the relative calm before her new album drops next
year. In June she attended Glastonbury again, this time
as a fan, to dance and sing along “too loud” to Janet Jackson,
Miley Cyrus, and Kylie Minogue. Nearly bare-faced and
wearing a bedazzled bralette and oversize track pants, she
might have gone unnoticed among the half-naked throngs,
were it not for the trail of orange blossom, lavender, and
oakmoss scenting the air in her wake.—hanna hanra
NAME RECOGNITION
THE FRAGRANCE’S SURPRISING
INCLUSION OF ORANGE BLOSSOM AND A
UNIQUE FORM OF LAVENDER RIFF ON A
CLASSIC MEN’S-SCENT PROFILE.
“I started caring too much
about what I looked like, and decided
I didn’t want to care.
If I’m looking tired it’s because
I am working and I’m happy to be
working. If I have a breakout,
I have a breakout. These
things make me who I am”
VLIFE
COURTESY OF YSL
