Pixie Lott Interview

PIXIE Lott looks like a little ray of sunshine in the abysmally dull, grey interview room in the Manchester Arndale Centre. She’s thumbing around on her Blackberry, presumably tweeting her legions of ‘cats’ as she likes to call them.

“No I'm not perfect at all, it's crazy. I can't cook, I can't ice skate. There's loads of things I can't do.”

After some rigorous searching on the net, I’m armed with the knowledge that Pixie and I used to live in the same town, Petts Wood. A perfect conversation starter, this fact even makes her put her phone down.

“Which school did you go to?” she asks, inquisitively.

“Orpington Junior” I reply.

Sadly she didn’t go to Orpington, and I only lived in Petts Wood for about a year anyway. End of conversation.

We’re not here to discuss tenuous childhood links anyway. Today is the release of Pixie Lott’s fourth collection for fashion brand Lipsy.

She’s wearing an eye poppingly short blue number from the range, coupled with a pair of plain black brogues and some grey socks – a racy yet quirky look she’s quick to defend.

Pixie Lott

“It is short, but you know it's comfy. It's a little playsuit. Usually most of the stuff is pretty short. I guess I just like short things, like mini-dresses, from the sixties and stuff so that always inspires the Lipsy collection.”

It’s an obvious collaboration between Pixie, the young and trendy pop star and Lipsy, the brand for girls who aspire to dress like young, trendy pop stars. But according to Pixie, she’s more than just the face of the range.

“We do design meetings and stuff and we talk about the trends and what staple pieces I want in the range. I talk about vintage fabrics I've got, I show them sketches or dresses that I've got myself, or an actual piece from a vintage store, or stuff that my mum used to wear.”

Her love of fashion isn't exclusive to Lipsy though, judging by her ‘FOUR outfits in 24 hours’ episode at London Fashion Week recently. (That was an actual Daily Mail headline by the way.) She gives me the rationale behind this seemingly excessive number of outfit changes.

“I wanted to go to all the shows but my schedule's so busy at the moment. I forced myself out to go to the Jaeger show, the Fendi party, and the Roberto Cavalli party all in one day. When you go to the events you kind of have to wear the dresses from the designer of whatever show you're going to, so it's not like I said ‘oh I'm going to change for every show’.”

Fans wait to see Pixie Lott in Manchester Arndale

It is easy to forget that she is, really, just a 20-year-old girl, like myself. You certianly won't find me getting changed three times a day to please high fashion designers though. Then again I’m not the recipient of lovely freebies either – one of the many perks of being a celebrity. But what is Pixie Lott's favourite freebie of all time? Clothes? Jewellery? Cars?

“My favourite is my Nando's card because I take all my friends and I just go all the time. It's free all the time. It’s called a high five card and it's black.”

It is indeed black. I used to work in Nando's (yet another link between Pixie  and I). A lot of celebrities really love Nando's thanks to their exclusive black cards. JLS love Nando's. Whitney Houston loves Nando's. Even heavy metal band Lamb of God love Nando's. God-forbid all these high-paid stars actually pay for their own plates of chicken.

As far as excessive lifestyles go, Pixie is probably as normal as it’s going to get to be honest. She did her GCSEs while recording her debut album and got straight As - one of the many achievements that have led her fans to consider her to be God-like. And so begs the question, is Pixie Lott perfect?

“No I'm not perfect at all, it's crazy. I can't cook, I can't ice skate. There's loads of things I can't do.”

She’s right. God would definitely be able to cook and ice skate.

Talk turns to her first love, music, and her new album, ‘Young Foolish Happy’ - a progression from her first, ‘Turn It Up’, with a more mature, soulful sound and an equally mature looking front cover.

“I'm serious now you see” she laughs. “We're still kind of like deciding what the cover's going to be, but there's a few pictures....I'm not sure [what the official cover art is] to be honest. But I think a lot of people liked that picture because it has a lot of emotion in there. It's like more of an arty kind of picture than smiles.”

Arty and solitary. I suggest she replace the pregnant Una Healey in the Saturdays if and when she goes on maternity leave.

“I wouldn't like to be in a girl band, no. I mean it's good that they get to share the interviews a bit and it's not like so full on I guess, plus you've got friends with you all the time, but I'd hate to like share the stage or share the song.”

So that's a no to that idea. Still, Pixie has her own band of celebrity admirers to keep her company. Namely Tinchy Stryder who name dropped her in his song ‘Spaceship’ in the complimentary (and cocky if you ask me) line “Yo, I got one or two on my list/ let me tick 'em off/ Rochelle from The Saturdays/ Pixie Lott.”

Pixie Lott's New Album Cover

“I was flattered. I'm good friends with Tinchy" she blushed. "And you know the rappers, they always like to put a little name in their songs don't they. He told me about it and I was like ‘oh really?’. I laughed when I heard it. He's funny.”

Aside from her rap fling with Tinchy Stryder, it would appear Pixie doesn’t take celebrity friendship too seriously. She admits she hasn’t personally invited any of the celebrities (Danny Cipriani, Dionne Bromfield, Wretch 32, Fazer from N Dubz, Jodie Albert, Sarah Jane Dunn and Gemma Merna) on the guest list for the Lipsy party in London tonight.

“I don't really know who gets invited, but I always send out a text to my friends. There are a lot of acquaintances in this business but I think the most important thing is to invite my school friends.

“One of my best friends is coming tonight. She's actually going out with one of The Wanted boys now.”

Pixie Lott: matchmaker?

“Yeah, they met through me. I introduced them actually. But this was before they were The Wanted.”

It must be nice having a celebrity friend like Pixie, getting to go to all the celebrity parties and meet all the famous boys. Not to mention the copious amounts of free Nandos.

 “They always come to all the events and stuff. They've met quite a few celebrity boys and they've had plenty of chances” she laughs before returning to her Blackberry thumbing as the interview draws to a close.

She’s probably texting her friends. Clearly I didn't grow up in the right part of Petts Wood. How different my life could have been...

Pixie Lott’s new Lipsy Collection is out now. Visit www.lipsy.co.uk/store/pixie for more information.

Read about the Pixie Lott Lipsy launch party in London, on our sister site London Confidential.