Billie Eilish: I started wearing baggy clothes because I 'hated' my body

Dazed / Harmony Korine
Dazed / Harmony Korine

Billie Eilish has revealed she started wearing baggy clothing because she “hated” her body as she denied being a “rule-breaking” female musician.

The 18-year-old pop sensation behind the multi-award-winning album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, is known for her distinctive stage look and usually wears oversized clothes while performing.

Eilish, who became the youngest person and first female to win best album, record, song and artist of the year at the 2020 Grammy Awards, said she started wearing baggy clothing because of self confidence issues. “The only reason I did it was ’cos I hated my body,” she told Dazed & Confused Magazine.

The star, whose brother Finneas produced the record, admitted in 2019 she barely looked at herself in the mirror. “There was a point last year where I was naked and I didn’t recognise my body ’cos I hadn’t seen it in a while. I would see it sometimes and be like, ‘Whose body is that?’”

Eilish said she was now happier with herself. “It’s not that I like (my body) now, I just think I’m a bit more OK with it.”

(Dazed / Harmony Korine)
(Dazed / Harmony Korine)

Previously, the singer has claimed she covered her body on stage so that she wasn't sexualised by the media or music industry.

On the first night of her world tour last month, which has been postponed due to Coronavirus, Eilish referenced her look in a video interlude, saying: "Some people hate what I wear, some people praise it. Some people use it to shame others, some people use it to shame me."

(Dazed / Harmony Korine)
(Dazed / Harmony Korine)

The singer added the way she dresses was never intended to be an act of rebellion against the typical look of a female pop star.

She said: “[People write] ‘Billie Eilish: rule-breaker’, or ‘breaking all the rules’, or whatever. And I’d be like, ‘What rules are there?’ I didn’t consciously go, ‘I’m not gonna do that, I’m gonna do this.’ I [just] didn’t think of myself as being in the realm of those people [famous female artists]. I was never comparing myself to them.”

Read the full interview now on dazeddigital.com

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