COSTUME CHANGE

French singer-songwriter and style muse Lou Doillon is bringing a whole new look to the stage when she performs in Australia next year. By Danielle Gay.

French singer-songwriter and style muse Lou Doillon is bringing a whole new look to the stage when she performs in Australia next year.

WHEN LOU DOILLON steps on stage at the start of her Australian shows next January it won’t be her quintessential French-girl style that fans will witness, but a totally new approach to dressing. “It’s the first time I’ve got a costume,” Doillon says with her warm English inflection on the phone from Paris. “I’ve got a wonderful tailor-made [look] by Gucci. It’s a tiny bit flared and it’s very practical, because I love to dance and move around and it allows me to do whatever I want.”

It’s Doillon’s first day off since she embarked on her most recent tour in March. “It reminds me of when I was doing theatre,” she tells Vogue of her recent sartorial shift. “To just get back in the same costume and recreate a show every night wearing the same thing.” She promises it’s something Australia fans can look forward to when she headlines French summer music festival So Frenchy So Chic in Melbourne and Sydney, during her second visit to Australia. Doillon adds eagerly: “Then, at the end of the show, there’s a kind of surprise.”

For the 37-year-old model, artist, actor and singer-songwriter, this literal costume change was born out of necessity. She’s spent much of the past eight years on tour across the globe, something she admits has shaped her style.

“Travelling is a wonderful thing. Being on the road all the time, you realise it teaches you how to adapt and how to be porous in a way to other people’s culture and other people’s style. At the same time, it teaches you how you need to feel grounded within yourself.

You need to find clothes that will make you feel absolutely you.”

Her most recent tour is off the back of her third album, Soliloquy, which was inspired by inner monologues and released earlier this year. “I have this strange theory that all of those inner dialogues are used to make art and need to be heard in a strange way,” she says. “What I love about ‘soliloquy’ is that it’s a term that’s mostly used in theatre. I love the ambiguity of speaking out loud, but speaking to yourself, and at the same time knowing that there’s a presence listening to you.”

The album is Doillon’s most personal yet, from the subject matter to a series of tattoo-inspired drawings she created for each track. “I think I went back to something extremely pagan in a way,” she says.

There was one particular moment when Doillon was performing in her home city of Paris that she credits to transforming the sound on her new album. “Just before getting on stage, I realised that my brain was fuzzy,” she recalls. “I was all over the place, absolutely incapable of getting back in my shoes and getting back to the core of things.” Instead of cancelling, Doillon followed her instincts. She told her manager she would be doing the first song solo and insisted the band clear the stage. “I got on stage by myself, and I started kicking with my boots on the ground and getting a rhythm and I sang the first song just voice and boots.” She took this experience straight into the studio and it inspired the percussion on the tracks. “I thought, for this album, I don’t want anyone to give the groove apart from me.”

Although Doillon has forged a successful career off her own back, interest in her famous family will always follow her – she is the daughter of French film director Jacques Doillon and fashion icon Jane Birkin and half sister to singer/actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. “It’s a very complicated issue, because it’s true that everyone is constantly talking about my family, which does piss me off on one side,” Doillon shares. “On the other side, it’s very frightening, because I have a tremendous amount of love and respect for my family, so I never want to sound spiteful.”

“It’s a very strange position to be in that when I meet people … as soon as I smile, I can see there’s a spark because I remind them of many pictures they’ve seen of my mum. They straight away have a relationship with me, which is odd, because I don’t know them most of the time. I guess it’s like being a ghost.”

If it was up to her, Doillon would like to be remembered for making art that inspires others to follow their freedom. “I’d like to be an example of an old witch in the wonderful way,” she says. “To be able to go around the world and read and sing and show how we can free ourselves. If I could be a spokesperson for that, then I’ll be very proud.” So Frenchy So Chic is on Sunday, January 12 in Melbourne and Saturday, January 18 in Sydney. Go to www.sofrenchysochic.com. Soliloquy is out now.

“I got on stage by myself, and I started kicking with my boots on the ground and getting a rhythm and I sang the first song just voice and boots”