La Roux, Elly Jackson on herself:
When I was younger I dressed like a bit of a loser. I didn't have a clue. Even though there were things I loved when I was a kid, like dressing like a wizard, I was pretty directionless. My mum's an actress and used to have a lot of theatre clothes around that she'd been given (or slyly stolen), and there was this amazing to-the-floor patchwork coat that I wore to school a few times. Most of the time as a child, though, I just wore tracksuits because I thought I was a boy. And when I was eight I became really into football and started wearing an Arsenal shirt every day.
I think at school you're almost incapable of doing anything outside of what your peers do. I went to an incredibly strict, religious private school, and it sucked the life out of me. There were ridiculous uniform regulations, like only wearing a certain type of black shoe. When I got to 16 or 17, the people I was associating with at school didn't fit in with the person I wanted to grow into. Although I didn't know it then, I think I was incredibly stifled. My friends were all very girly, going out in miniskirts, and I just didn't get it. I also got a lot of crap as a teenager because I was quite a lot bigger than I am now. There would be groups of girls at the bus stop just shouting: "FAT!", and I lost a lot of weight after that. When I went to college, I started to come out of my shell. It was full of arty, musical people and I felt free to experiment. I wore skintight pinstripe trousers and really pointy black shoes - I looked a bit like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Until a couple of years ago I had hair down to my chest. Everyone said I looked like Joni Mitchell. I'd had enough. So I kept cutting it until it got to my ears and started experimenting with it. From then on I just started to look more and more like Rick Astley. I do wear it slicked back sometimes, though, and like to think it echoes Young Americans-era David Bowie. My record label has never had anything to do with the way I look, and I don't think they ever wanted to. Looking at the kind of women you see on TV, I wouldn't think people would find someone like me attractive, but a lot of girls come up to me in clubs and say things like: "I've got a boyfriend, but I'm attracted to you." That's insane. I have also had girls come up and say that I make them feel better about the way they dress - about not being girly girls and helping them feel better about who they are as people. I don't sit down and write music thinking that sort of thing will happen, but it's amazing. I don't know whether it will last though - I still don't really feel like I'm having that much of an effect.
