Billie Eilish is taking the music world by storm, and now she’s coming for fashion. The teen dark pop star appears in the newest Calvin Klein ad campaign, called “I Speak My Truth In #MyCalvins.” And unlike CK campaigns from the ‘90s, Eilish is fully dressed in her signature oversized skater gear. I definitely dressed like her in high school (...all the way back in the ‘90s), and for me, it was a way to stand out from the crowd. But Eilish reveals that her style isn’t just about looking fire — for her, baggy clothes serve a protective purpose.
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“I never want the world to know everything about me,” she says in the campaign video. “That’s why I wear big, baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what’s underneath.” Eilish points out that if she wore more figure-revealing clothing, she would be subject to a litany of sexist remarks about her body. “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what’s underneath. Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she's got a fat ass.’”
That our culture feels entitled to women’s and gender-diverse people’s bodies is nothing new. That entitlement manifests in, among many things, the fetishisation of youth and policing women’s sexuality with clothing — not to mention the intersections of fatphobia, transphobia, and racism. Many women are way too familiar with how our appearances can dictate how we’re treated in public. At 17, Eilish subverts our image of what a pop star and a teenager are often expected to look like. Using clothing, she’s able to protect herself from disrespectful and unkind comments.
Check out the video below.