slowdown and dance with.me.uk

Questions from Dublin

Independent.ie
Kylie minogue
Sunday August 19 2007


"Far be it from any of us to give a girl a hard time when she's faced down breast cancer with the same kind of kick-ass perkiness with which Buffy dispatched of vampires, only to emerge, still smiling, to find her relationship in tatters and her gallingly handsome boyfriend making short work of cosying up to someone else. On the contrary, we've got nothing but admiration for Kylie, which is why it's with some dismay that we're forced to wonder -- what's going on with her wardrobe?

Everyone knows that her relationship with her stylist William Baker borders on a marriage. But one has to question whether a man whose appreciation of women is of the strictly aesthetic, non-carnal kind is the best person to advise at a time when looking totally, devastatingly, look-what-you're-missing smokin' hot was never more imperative.

Sure, Baker was the guy who put Kylie in the now-iconic gold hot pants. That was nothing short of a moment of sartorial virtuosity at the time, providing, as the hot pants did, an exquisite balance of exposure and support of that backside. Displayed to such advantage, it could almost be argued that it was Kylie's derriere that buoyed a whole new, glittering phase of her career.

But if it is Baker who is setting the rather prim, frigid tone of her current off-duty wardrobe, then I reckon she might want to reconsider his control as executive creative director and grand artiste of the Kylie brand, or whatever his official title is.

Seen out recently in a billowy, purple, blue and aqua confection teamed with preppy little sandals, Kylie seemed to have lost her golden fashion touch. In her career, she puts her success down to being an all-rounder rather than a specialist, and the same has, in the past, applied to the way that she dresses. She's always been a jack-of-all-trades fashionista who pulled off red carpet glamour with the same impeccable competence with which she rocked her comfy casuals. Even when just strolling around town in jeans and jacket, there was always something kittenish about Kylie, a subtle touch of that trademark, unthreatening raunchiness that was always so quintessentially Kylie.

It was the advent of her Showgirl tour -- cancelled halfway through when she was diagnosed with cancer -- that we saw the apotheosis of the essence of Kylie. Consummate pop professional and unstoppable chart dominator, she managed to straddle the gap between starlet and legend without once losing composure. At the height of her powers, when not out in an official capacity sporting winsome Chloe numbers or camp glittery gowns, she was most often photographed stalking around in knee-high boots pulled over skin-tight jeans.

But recently the strident power-boots have given way to prissy little pumps and strappy sandals. She spent her recovery from cancer in Paris with French actor and former boyfriend Olivier Martinez, and since then there has been a distinctly Gallic tone to her mode of dressing. Which would all be fine and nice and appropriate for a woman now facing into her forties were it not for the fact that it doesn't really suit her.

Instead, Kylie looks like somebody who is smothering her sexuality in complicated tailoring, cute hats and kicky necklines.

Kylie's physical appeal has always been as a glossy pin-up rather than a classic Audrey Hepburn, waspish-type, and her attempts at doing the latter have left her looking decidedly mumsy.

There is something that seems almost defensive about the way she's currently dressing.

Buttoned up to the neck and swathed in clever, quirky shapes, Kylie's choices might be fashion forward and undoubtedly chic, but she's making the classic female mistake of opting for overwrought stylishness at the expense of natural sex appeal.

It's just all a bit too put-together and conscientious. Her coordination might be faultless and bang on the pulse of the zeitgeist, but something about this relentless fashionability -- which should seem effortless -- instead appears exhausting.

Latest reports suggest that she and the smug Mr Martinez have been dating again. With the distinct smell of love-rat still lingering around him, (based mostly on rumour and speculation, but there's no smoke without fire where a caddish man is concerned, we reckon) Kylie needs to stop dressing like a victim. If she wants to avoid being given the run-around, she must reconnect with her still-killer physique and use it to show Olivier that she's still firmly in the game."