Beth Ditto has managed to become a beauty and a fashion icon while refusing to accept the conventions.
Her sincere rebellion has caught the attention of the world and the likes of designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and, now, Alexander McQueen – for whom the above photos were created.
Speaking with Black Book, Beth offers some refreshing insights.
Do people tell you all the time that you’ve really opened their minds to broader definitions of beauty?
Girls in general have really nice things to say—especially big girls. It’s mostly men who aren’t as open. I think men fear me sometimes. I played in Greece last summer and, I swear, when I went into the crowd, people actually ran away from me. But things like that make me really happy. You make a decision: if you are going to participate in the music industry and put yourself out there, you have to know that it’s all full of shit.
There is a lot of power in the shock of being unashamed. A friend told me that flaunting a big girl body in a punk-rock way is kind of a libertine thrill, like a drug.
It’s kind of like a drug… it’s a performance. It’s funny how something so normal and mundane that you see every day—your body—can be controversial. The shock value is intense. It’s like carrying an art piece around with you all the time.
Are you rubbing people’s noses in their own prejudices?
I don’t really care about other people’s prejudices. I don’t take things super personally, unless it’s someone I really respect. It’s really about making an art piece out of what you’ve been handed. It is about being resourceful. When all you have is an ugly sweater-vest, cut it up and make a really cool skirt out of it! When all you have are these really hateful people, cut them up and make something funny out of them.
You’ve called gay men out in the fashion world for turning women into size 0 paper dolls.
It’s not the fault of gay men. That’s a symptom of the problem… As kids, we’re not allowed to express ourselves, because we’re put in these binary boxes of what our gender is supposed to be.
Cardboard is so boring anyway!
Get, it Beth!
[Images via Black Book.]