Chappell Roan is known for a few things: releasing bangers and bops, protecting her peace and her space, and always giving us immaculate looks. On the latter front, the star is opening up about her favorite looks ever and letting on us on some of the, ehm, dirty work that goes behind the scenes to get the #look.
Roan recently appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper and took the chance to take a little drip down her sartorial memory lane, reminiscing on some of her favorite looks she's worn on stage.
When asked to pick her favorite onstage 'fit ever, Roan did not hesitate. “I wore one for Bonnaroo that was club kid themed, and it was medical latex, sexy, kinky girl," she said. "It was kind of disturbing in a way, but I felt so awesome. I looked scary, but I love looking kind of crazy and scary.”
A close runner-up is her Lollapalooza wrestling-themed 'fit, also courtesy of her long-time stylist Genesis Webb. “The Lollapalooza one was so f*cking awesome because I got to wear tennis shoes," she told Cooper. (ICYMI: the singer is believed to have drawn the largest crowd in the festival’s Chicago history, and she was not even originally slated to perform on the main stage.)
When asked if her unforgettable Statue of Liberty drag from Gov Ball was in her top three, Roan took the chance to give us a little backstory on the lengths she went to pull off that look. “I don't think people know this: I had to spread my cheeks,” the singer shared, referring to her body paint.
“I had to spread my cheeks and get sprayed with green, and it didn't come off,” she continued. “The way I got that off was I took three baths and [used] not soap [but] dish soap. I literally poured dish soap in. I rubbed my whole body with coconut oil, jumped in, and scrubbed with a literal kitchen sponge, and all of it came off except there was a green tint to my skin, so I literally looked moldy for four days. I was scrubbing my bikini line, and my pubes were pulling out." Hey, can't say she's not committed!
Elsewhere in the podcast, Roan also opened up about how fashion serves as a vehicle for her to separate her on-stage and off-stage personas. “I'm very modest when it comes to my day-to-day [dressing],” she said. “I used to dress f*cking crazy. Before all of this happened and I had energy and light in my eyes, I would literally just wear my thong out, mini skirt, bottom ass cheeks out, nipples see through."
“I dressed really, really, bimbo-y,” she continued. “I would wear silicone breast inserts to make my boobs come up to my f*cking clavicle. [But] I just lost my shine because it became a job, and then I was like, 'I'm f*cking tired.'”
The star recounted that when she first moved to LA, she used to go out in drag makeup and heels all the time. “[I was] a maximalist, and that was so amazing, and then… there was no separation,” she said. “I would be out as Kayleigh in that and then I'd be on stage as that. I would look at myself in the mirror and be like, ‘What’s the difference between Chappel and [Kayleigh]?”
Roan has been pretty open in the past about keeping her private and professional lives separate, which her stage moniker helps achieve. When asked what Chappel Roan would mean to young Kayleigh, the star got candid: “I don't even know if my younger self would be able to register than as a part of me. That's how removed I [feel.]”
“Young Kayleigh felt so restricted," she continued. “I always did want to dress up and be super girly or be really tomboy. I just wanted to be free but didn't ever think it would actually happen. Now that it has, I don't think she would believe it at all.”
As for what the future holds, Roan is promising bigger and better things this year now that she's confirmed as a headliner for Primavera Sound, Reading, Leeds, and more. “Girl, you know I'm going to be coming out with looks for the festivals,” she told Cooper. And we shall keep our eyes peeled.
