In tapered grey trousers, a crisp white shirt and a blue jacket, Coco Sumner stands in the evening air smoking a cigarette, brown hair lank about her sharp features.
‘I want these shoes,’ she says.
‘They’re Church’s. I’ve got some Church’s but these are cleaner and nicer than mine… mine have no laces.’
Coco – real name Eliot Sumner – is the 20-year-old daughter of Sting and Trudie Styler, who last year launched her musical career, recording as I Blåme Coco. Her debut album, The Constant, was an impressive marriage of electro-pop and indie rock, full of abstract lyrics and references to Lord Of The Flies, delivered in cool, dusky tones.
However, it is hard to find a review of The Constant that doesn’t mention her privileged upbringing. Despite her ability, Sumner has begun to encounter the drawbacks of having famous parents. She appears willing to ride out these uncomfortable early days in the hope that true talent will out.
‘If people don’t know someone, they have opinions beforehand – that’s what English people do,’ she says firmly.
‘I’m just being myself and I’ve worked very hard.’
In person, Sumner is strikingly beautiful. She has modelled for Burberry but doesn’t sit easily among pop contemporaries. In fact, Sumner doesn’t seem to sit easily anywhere; she is nervous and gawky and speaks frequently of not quite fitting in.
I ask her to define her style.
‘I don’t really speak the lingo when it comes to this type of thing,’ says Sumner.
‘It’s got an element of mod. It’s very English. Adrien Sauvage is a good friend of mine, so he made me a few jackets. There is a rule that cuffs have to show two centimetres from the end of the sleeve.’ She pauses and looks again at her outfit. ‘I don’t really think about how I dress.’
Sumner is viewed as a prime example of Brit-girl cool but she greets this charge a little blankly.
‘I’m touring all the time, so haven’t really had a chance to catch up on what people think,’ she says. ‘And I’m fine with that, because I don’t really see myself as cool.’
What is cool, I ask?
‘Churchill was pretty cool,’ she smiles. ‘He was a cool cat. David Bowie’s really cool. And Kate Bush is very cool. I have so much respect for her because she was really big but never sold out. She just lived in this world of her music and didn’t care about the fame – that’s what I do.’
Accordingly, she keeps a close-knit group of friends and tries to steer clear of celebrity parties.
‘I don’t really hate anything about them, I just don’t care,’ says Sumner. ‘I don’t want to go to a party where you don’t know anyone.’
A while ago, Sumner’s family moved to New York but she remained in Britain, splitting her time between London and a cottage in Wiltshire. ‘On Sundays, I get quite sad, because Sunday is family day and I miss them,’ she says. ‘Whenever mum’s back, I’m like a little kid again.’
Despite a fleeting appearance in Stardust (a film produced by her mum), she has few big-screen ambitions.
‘I would make documentaries, if it was a worthy cause,’ says Sumner. ‘I have a lot of respect for people who put themselves in harm’s way to make people see that something needs to be done.’
The image thing is precisely what she hopes to avoid.
‘I don’t particularly like attention,’ says Sumner. ‘I like to do things on my own. I like to dress myself. People always ask that at shoots: “Do you want any help?” That’s the weirdest question.’
She gives a half-shrug.
‘I don’t look into myself too much. I don’t think I’m shy so much as a better listener than I am a speaker. I just really don’t wish for attention.’
(via metro.co.uk )
No comments:
Post a Comment