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Kim Gordon Gives her Secrets on Badassery

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Gordon with some sort of evil, man-sized muppet.Photo: Getty Images


Kim Gordon has always represented unstudied badassness to us, so when we spotted her in three front rows — 3.1 Phillip Lim, Anna Sui, and Marc Jacobs — we were determined to ask just how she pulls it off. The answer: H&M.

On Anna Sui.
She’s always made clothes that reference periods when clothes represented something meaningful to musicians. I don’t really wear her clothes. I sort of feel like a lot of the stuff is too young for me, quite frankly. But I feel like lately I’ve seen things that look more like I could embrace as a woman.

On thrift-store shopping.
I will sometimes, but not anything that sort of looks vintage. Because I kind of feel like when I dress in vintage stuff that represents the seventies and sixties, I kind of did that. I’m more conservative now. I’m so boring.

On finding age-appropriate stage clothes.
It’s kind of a challenge [laughs]. There are certain requirements. I like to wear a dress because it’s against type. And it can’t be black. People think of extreme music as black leather. There are certain ideas of what you’re supposed to look like if you rock. I like the contrast between something that looks vulnerable and this hard music. I like a party dress. I’ve worn stuff from Sue Stemp recently because it’s a dress that doesn’t look like a dress. And I bought a white dress at H&M recently. It doesn’t look like anything. I don’t necessarily want to wear anything that screams a [certain] designer.

On not shopping at Forever 21, starting now, in solidarity with friend Anna Sui, who’s suing them.
Oh no! Are they ripping her off? I just went there the other day with my daughter [grimaces and shrugs]. I’ve definitely bought a dress at H&M that looked a lot like Anna Sui. What can I say? It was really cheap. —Jada Yuan

Kim Gordon Gives her Secrets on Badassery