Cowell admits: I do dress terribly
HE HAS been widely ridiculed for wearing high-waisted trousers and shirts slashed to the navel. Now X Factor mogul Simon Cowell has admitted what has been obvious to millions for years: he doesn’t have a clue about fashion.
Cowell confesses that he often hates the way he looks on TV because of his terrible dress sense. He says: ‘I am not one of those people who can look back and go, “Oh, God” about what I looked like in the 1970s, because I look as bad now.
‘That’s why I don’t buy clothes. I am not really interested.’
In an upcoming Radio 2 interview with showbiz agent and old friend Jonathan Shalit, Cowell admits the public ridicule aimed at his high-waisted trousers was both a low point and a wake-up call.
He says: ‘When I first went on TV – and boy did I get some stick for it – I didn’t even think about it.
‘Then Ant or Dec picked up on the fact that I was wearing these really embarrassing trousers. Of course it got picked up in the press and then I looked at the picture and I thought, “Christ they were right”. I didn’t know what I was doing and so that stopped.’
Cowell, who has a two-year-old son Eric with partner Lauren Silverman, believes his lack of fashion sense is partly due to growing up in the pre-internet era.
He says: ‘I hope I don’t sound ancient, but the difference between us growing up and today is that because we didn’t have the internet, we were unbelievably naive.
‘I didn’t understand fashion – obviously I still don’t.’
The first part of It’s A Yes From Me – The Simon Cowell Story, is due to be broadcast on Radio 2 on Wednesday at 10pm.