The singer on trying not to embarrass her teenage daughter, dressing up for virtual book signings – and sending her father a picture of the 90s album cover where she breastfeeds a piglet
The concept of my [2007] album American Doll Posse was to personify five archetypes of Greek mythology. This is the outfit I wore as SanaTORIum – Santa for short. She was embodying Aphrodite, which I found the most challenging of all five. My stylist Karen Binns and I worked through the concept that each woman has different percentages of these archetypes living in them. Some identify more with HisTORIcal, for instance, who was [embodying] Artemis, or CliTORIdes, being Persephone. This look was the hardest for me because, as a person, I just don’t hold this energy as well as some of the others. It was really important that the message was correct and that there was a groundedness to it.
It was a challenge to photograph five women in the time we would usually have to shoot one, and each character had her own rack of clothes. Looking at this black dress, I was really shying away from it. Unless I’m performing, I would never wear something like this, even in a club, but I had met the designer, Hussein Chalayan, and felt really safe with him. He is a very spiritual being, and I felt he was the right one to help me do this. Once the wig was on and the makeup was adjusted, I started to allow the character to slip in and take over. I think my husband quite liked it.
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