Who’s that girl? Lourdes Leon storms the FROW
She’s got A-list pedigree – and a fierce attitude to match. All eyes are on Lourdes Leon, says Louise Gannon…
NEW YORK FASHION WEEK is the perfect occasion to make a statement. And insiders at Alexander Wang’s show last week witnessed a message sent loud and clear by Madonna’s super-cool daughter Lourdes Leon, 19, who used the opportunity to publicly ‘frost’ Kylie Jenner.
After two years of concerted attempts by Kylie to befriend Lourdes, the reality star was deliberately blocked by Madonna’s security aides from approaching the teenager throughout the pre- and postshow melee. According to one source, Madonna had even choreographed their arrival to ensure they both arrived late – delaying the start of the show by 45 minutes – to avoid any possible contact.
As Lourdes (wearing a not-yet-available fuzzy Strict jumper by Wang) giggled with her mother, Kylie (in a revealing silver dress from the designer’s current collection) sat four seats down with her boyfriend, Tyga. Throughout the show, Lourdes avoided eye contact with Kylie.
One witness said, ‘It was a mega frosting from Lourdes. Kylie is desperate to have Lourdes as part of her circle and you could see her being blocked from going anywhere near. They’re both 19, both into fashion, and Kylie just thinks Lourdes is the coolest girl in the world. She’s tried to reach out to her through friends and mutual acquaintances but Lourdes has never bitten. She even invited
her to her 18th birthday party but didn’t get a response. Unfortunately, Kylie hasn’t got the message, so Lourdes decided to make a clear point. Her worst nightmare would be to appear in a selfie with Kylie.’
In the past year, Lourdes has become one of the most intriguing members of fashion’s young new wave, with clear views on how she wants to lead her life, who she wants to be friends with and how she wants to dress.
Since her 18th birthday last year, she’s turned down modelling and acting contracts (worth an estimated £5m) to focus on her studies at Michigan University (her mother’s alma mater). She also chose to live in a simple student dorm, not to have any security detail and to eat in the same canteens as her classmates.
In a direct attack last year on the celebrity lifestyles of the likes of the Kardashians, members of her set told a Hollywood website that, ‘Lola wants friends who will change the world, not take selfies,’ marking herself out as a very different sort of privileged teen.
Even Madonna admits to being ‘in awe’ of her daughter, whom she also calls ‘Lola’. In an interview, she gave me a hint of what sort of girl Lola was as a young teenager. She said, ‘My daughter is very clear about what she wants to wear and what she thinks I should wear. She does a lot of eye-rolling at me. She’s a very smart kid. She’s pretty much like me but she’s much more herself. She’s always known to put her education first.’ A few years earlier, she proudly told me how her daughter was ‘just about fluent in French (she also speaks Spanish and Italian).’
Madonna has also publicly stated that she ‘has never watched Kim’s [Kardashian] TV show’, adding, ‘She’s famous without being an artist. I think that is a sign of the times.’
It appears Madonna’s own fashionforward daughter has taken it upon herself to show that times are changing. Having been born with a silver spoon (literally – she received one the day she was born as a gift from designers Dolce & Gabbana), Lourdes has been raised by Madonna ‘to prize education, intelligence, and culture over money and talent over celebrity’. As the daughter of the world’s most famous woman, she was given a bird’s eye view of the ramifications and effects of fame from a very young age.
One woman who’s worked with Madonna for two decades observes, ‘Lola is smart as a whip. As a kid, she was treated almost as an adult by her mother. Madonna always made sure there were good mentors around – people from the art world, intellectuals, feminists, strong women.’
But while much is made of Madonna’s moulding of her progeny, the influence of her actor and dancer father, Carlos Leon, has also had a huge effect. Leon remains a friend of Madonna’s and is a constant figure in Lourdes’s life. When he married fashion designer Betina Holte in 2013, Lourdes was his ‘best woman’.
The source said, ‘Carlos is a great guy. He has a softness, which Lola loves. He’s introduced her to Cuban culture. She has soaked up influences like a sponge.’
In terms of fashion, Lourdes (who believes her mum’s very early look remains the ultimate style template) has clear but divergent opinions from her famous mother. ‘Her look is urban-cool, she dresses her age and there is real attitude there,’ says one observer. ‘She’s a grunge kid who won’t shave her armpits but she also understands glamour. Her clothes do not wear her. She’d never wear the flesh-flashing clothes Kylie loves.’
In the past year, it has been Lourdes who Madonna turned to for advice when her world imploded over her son, Rocco, refusing to live with her and remaining in the UK with his dad, the film director, Guy Ritchie. As previously revealed in Grazia, it was Lourdes who kept in regular contact with both Rocco and her mother, and it was Lourdes who advised her to speak to a therapist for teenagers to get their relationship back on track.
And with the lesson of the Kardashians playing out daily in the press, Lourdes is also thought to have advised Rocco to curb his partying and focus on ‘finding his passion’, rather than become prey to the celebrity school of selfies and easy money.
The source said, ‘Lola wants to act but she wants to learn her craft. She also has an interest in geopolitics, from understanding the situation of her siblings [David and Mercy] from Malawi. She’s not into the vacuous world of celebrity, she hates reality TV. Lourdes Leon is probably the coolest girl in the world right now. And she chooses her friends very carefully.’