Nylon - October 2008 - (Page 64) skip to my lou ON IS BACK WITH A NEW FRENCH ACTRESS, MODEL, MUSICIAN, AND DESIGNER LOU DOILL E SLUMP. BY SAMANTHA GILEWICZ COLLECTION FOR LEE COOPER JEANS. AND IT’S NO SOPHOMOR Lou Doillon is odd-looking—she is what the French like to call jolie-laide. With her feline eyes, jutting cheekbones, and gangly limbs, the 26-year-old gamine’s appearance is made all the more striking by an exaggerated overbite that makes her lips look indefinitely pursed for a kiss. “I always wanted to look like a little animal that you would want to pick up and take home,” says Doillon, with a smoky, Gallic lilt. “The girl who has the perfect body freaks me out. I always found my mother extremely moving because she had no boobs.” The daughter of actress Jane Birkin and director Jacques Doillon, granddaughter of cabaret star Judy Campbell, and half-sister to chanteuse Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou was practically born into the French creative class. Her acting oeuvre includes roles in Embrassez qui vous voudrez (2002), with Charlotte Rampling; Go Go Tales (2007), opposite Asia Argento; and she is set to star in Samuel Beckett’s play, The Image, on Broadway. What took a bit longer to establish was her congenitally eccentric sense of style. “Because I was born in the ’80s, I didn’t know the fashionable Jane Birkin of the ’70s,” says Doillon, who has transformed from a tattooed 12-year-old with dreadlocks and a tongue stud to the face of Chanel, Givenchy, and Miu Miu. “In a way, I was kind of ashamed of being bourgeoisie. I was full-on thrift shops, stitched patchworks all over my pants, wore Grateful Dead T-shirts… I was a hippie rasta. I always think, these days, that if I ran into myself when I was 15, my teenage self would slap me— I sold my soul to the devil!” The devil, in fact, in blue jeans. Last fall, Doillon inked a deal with denim label Lee Cooper for a six-season collaboration, struck by their century-old cachet (“They are French and English, with a kind of double passport like me; and while American jeans are made for cowboys, these are made for workers.”), 1970’s slapstick advertising campaigns (“They had a ‘Bottom Inspector’ check to see if your butt was nice in your Lee Coopers!”), and ties to music (they sponsor the annual Dubai Desert rock festival, where bands like the Darkness have played). “The brand is super into rock ’n’ roll,” says Doillon—who is currently working on an album featuring her breathy vocals and acoustic ukulele strums. While Doillon’s own denim is embellished with permanent marker scribbles courtesy of her 7-year-old son, Marlowe, the inspiration behind Lou Doillon by Lee Cooper’s second collection is more literary. “I only knew girls who dress up in a comical way, in the sense that they become someone, like the Artful Dodger of Oliver Twist pretending to be tough,” says Doillon. “So, I made high-waisted trousers that had loads of little buttons and biker jackets that made you feel like you had armor on. I was trying to find a kooky version of the girl who wants to dress like a boy.” a look from the fall ’08 collection. 64 profile all images courtesy of lee cooper.
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