Women I Love: Beth Ditto

I know, I know, I know. Every fat woman in the world loves Beth Ditto. But my love for her is still quite new, so I’m still very much in the honeymoon stage. Therefore, she gets a mention on my very exclusive, very prestigious, Women I Love section.

What I love more than anything – more than her brilliant songs with The Gossip, more than the line she did with Evans – is that she’s a chameleon.

She displays her body like it’s an artwork:

Modelling for House of Blue Eyes, September 2008

The Gossip performing at London’s Forum, 13 September 2007

At the 2007 NME Awards

She can be a fierce couture bish:

Love magazine, March 2009

At the 2009 Mercury Music Awards, London

Photo by Alice Hawkins

BlackBook by Shawn Mortensen, May 2009

BlackBook by Shawn Mortensen, May 2009

She’s friends with Jeremy Scott and looks great in his dresses (for this, I will be forever jealous):

via Jeremy Scott's Twicpic account

At the JC de Castelbajac Fashion Show during the 2009 Paris Fashion Week

Photo by zerbit on flickr

NYLON magazine, May (…or June) 2008

And she looks like she’s the sweetest girl in the world:

At the Love magazine launch, December 2008

LOVE YOU, BETH.

Beth Ditto

I have a confession to make: I never really liked Beth Ditto.

I don’t even know why. Her music was catchy enough (I like to dance around my room to ‘Standing in the Way of Control’), she was doing a great job of making fat, queer women visible and – even better – showing that fat, queer women don’t have to settle for being like everyone else and the Fatosphere is completely in love with her. But something about her just… grated. In spite of all her good parts, I still didn’t like her.

Then the bitch had to go ruin everything by being fabulous.

The tide began to turn when I saw the previews for her new line for Evans on Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too! and The Musings of a Fatshionista. Her line is amazing: the domino leggings, the cropped biker jackets, the adorable ballet pumps that look like feminine spats. I’m around a size 16/18, and even though I’m on the small end of plus size, clothes shopping in Australia is an absolute nightmare. Yet here is a fat icon designing the most bright, fun, eye-catching – almost garish – clothing for girls like me and girls much fatter. Utterly amazing. All of it makes me want to pack my things and move to London in time for the 9 July launch.

Then there was this radio interview on Triple J. Ditto is polite, outgoing and has the sweetest Southern accent of all time. And she’s really quite funny. No wonder everyone is in love with her; she’s so disarmingly friendly. I found myself wanting to be best friends with her. Damn it.

And finally I saw this picture of her on Fatshionista:

Beth Ditto by Steven Klein in Pop Magazine, 2007

Looking like a million bucks in bespoke Gareth Pugh.

So I’m done. YOU WIN, BETH. I finally see that you are amazing and I am now, officially and on the record, a big fat fan.