Table of Contents
Boy George Admits He Likes to Wear His Sweatpants Occasionally & See the World as George O’Dowd. Boy George doesn’t always have to be stealing the limelight. PEOPLE caught up with the 65-year-old British heartthrob at the preview for Julien’s Auctions’ Bold Luxury: Boy George Edit, a benefit for MusiCares, where he opened up about his love of lounging in his sweatpants to experience the world as George O’Dowd and not Boy George.
Boy George Enjoys Living Away From the Spotlight
“I will always, in my day, go out in my sweatpants and a beanie, and it affords me a luxury of seeing the world that I would not have done as Boy George,” he says. “So I get to actually be George O’Dowd and in that, sort of really get to experience everything, hear everything, see everything, not be patronized, not be treated special.”
George also reveals that sometimes, “It gives you a real insight into what people are like. And then the minute they find out it’s you, it’s like a whole other personality comes out.” The singer discusses his complicated relationship with fame: “There are so many things that I’ve seen and been around by just default of becoming famous so quickly.”
“One minute you’re nobody, and the next minute you’re shaking hands with Frank Sinatra, or you’re wearing that hat over there to meet Margaret Thatcher. I didn’t wear it [intending to] meet her, but it was the perfect hat because the fabric was quite establishment,” he says. “It was like a tweed, almost like a gentlemanly kind of respectful fabric, but made into this bonkers hat.” “And it’s only sometimes in hindsight when you look at the moment, you go, ‘That’s interesting. I didn’t even think about the disturbed conformity of why I was wearing the hat and the statement it was making,’ and then just meeting her and having a sort of brief encounter.”
How Fashion Helped Shape His Identity
On his fabulous look: “I think my look is really a fusion of kind of gangster, Jewish culture, Rastafarian, Sticksman. It was all hybrids of rock and roll; Little Richard, I think, is always in there. He ignited the whole thing around what you could get away with in vocal expression, and his voice was insane. And in fact, all my heroes loved Little Richard.” George proclaims how amazing it was that he discovered the right role model for him at the right time in his life: “When I was a kid, there was no internet, but I found Little Richard. I found that energy and I knew what it was, and it was so alluring to me.”
“Because to me, what I was wearing was thrift store, ragamuffin, kind of just grabbing stuff, making my own style based on an idea of glamour that I’d grown up with, Hollywood, fox furs and a monocle, a hat, a veil, come on, flowers,” he says. “But silhouettes, you realize, actually it’s all about silhouettes, and you’re always borrowing a silhouette from whatever decade, and you’re adding stuff to it.”
“I think it’s a great tribute to his creativity,” he says. “Because the tartan outfit that I got my mum to make me was based on a Vivienne Westwood, and the fact that it’s lasted and it’s not even falling apart, it should be because it’s probably almost one of the oldest things in here. And talking my mother into…” George trails off. “She had her patterns. It was like there’s a trouser pattern, ‘Add a bit. Make it wider here. Just cut, cut…” He laughs. “And she’d be, ‘You look like a clown. ‘ And I’d say, ‘Kind of cool. ‘”
Why Boy George Never Planned to Become a Model
George mentions he was told by a friend that one time, when he was 16, he could even make a good model.
“I think the friend eventually regretted this piece of advice as he told me to make up myself, since once I put it on, it was like, ‘Oh, hello, which lady is that?’ And that was the day I began to enjoy what I’d loved and created since childhood, something about individuality.”
You won’t want to miss any news – click here to receive PEOPLE’S free daily newsletter in your inbox and remain in the know about the best that PEOPLE has ever brought you: celebrities, human interest stories. “Selecting only a few samples out of what was in the show is an immense honor,” said the model. “It’s not just being a man or woman that defines you, it’s being a certain kind of man or woman,” remarked the model. “Fashion is so many costume changes, that’s why clothes are so important, but they don’t tell the whole story.
George the star also states, “When I go to a fashion show, and I see a model, they look so unhappy wearing their outfits. So that really shows that fashion is all about how you feel, and I am the one who makes use of that feeling to the extreme.” George has never taken to being a male model as a career path, despite the fact that it is his face that is used most by brands, especially in print ads.
Boy George Reflects on His First Modeling Experience
“Well, I actually hesitated and was somewhat resistant to modeling. It was my friends who insisted so much on my becoming a model. They didn’t give up and kept on convincing me until I finally agreed. However, what prevented me most from accepting becoming a model was the fact that I was quite afraid of having my makeup done. So once someone told me how makeup could completely change my look and even enhance my beauty, which is when I got a bit confident, but still not entirely convinced.
And then, after that, people started telling me how amazing I looked in that makeup, which I never thought in a million years they would say to me, because to me, they were not the kind of people who would say such stuff. So, that really surprised me, and it was one of the best things that I remember to this day. That made me think that I might have a future in modeling, but again, the part I didn’t like was getting my face painted, as that looked very artificial to me.
“I was pretty nervous, and it took a lot of coaxing, but mainly by my own instincts that finally got me to agree to the first photosession. And I was totally taken aback by what the photographers came up with in the post processing (I mean, the final shots), which was, in fact, totally different than what I imagined I could be. I mean, that day alone gave me enough confidence to continue modeling.”
