Article from
www.fashion18.com
By Amy Verner with files from P.J. Tarasuk
This just confirms what we've suspected all along: Hilary Duff is adding some grit to her girlie persona. And who are we to stop her? Consider it a rite of passage, one that includes edgier music, evolving fashion tastes, a gig as CEO of her own lifestyle company, and a new tattooed love interest who tests whether opposites really do attract.
These could be typical changes for any girl who has just turned 18. But Hilary, of course, is hardly typical. She soared to fame as Lizzie McGuire and has been plumping up a resumé filled with film, music and clothing (not to mention tabloid superstardom) ever since. Her latest CD,
Most Wanted, shot straight to number one when it came out in August.
The three new songs that supplement her previously released material (a greatest hits album and still under legal drinking age!) are perhaps the best indication that Hilary is shedding her saccharine skin. She shares writing credits with the Dead Executives, otherwise known as Joel Madden (front man for the band Good Charlotte) and his twin brother, Benji.
For anyone who's been holed up in a cave, Joel, 26, is Hilary's current grungy love interest. When she arrives at the chilly hockey arena in a summery red sundress and cowboy boots, her giant steamer trunk full of clothes is even covered in a life-sized photo of her and Joel (who, of course, also shows up in the flesh and hangs out all day as her most adoring fan). Together, they represent the best of teen tunes and alt anthems. Her single "Wake Up" may sound like a blend of references-from '80s sensation Tiffany to vintage U2 guitar riffs-but the lyrics reveal a reality that is entirely hers:
There's people talking / They talk about me / They know my name / They think they know everything / But they don't know anything about me.
And lately, people seem to be talking even more, especially when the topics concern her new teeth and her noticeably different (i.e., thinner) physique.
"I try to be tough about it," she tells us in the locker room, which has been transformed at her request into a Moroccan-themed fantasyland. "I don't care about such crap; it's so stupid when you read stuff like that."
As for the weightier issues, yes, she's trying to be more conscious of what she eats, which means forgoing her beloved fries and pop.
Having developed and launched her own clothing line, Hilary appears very confident about her wardrobe decisions; she even tells our fashion editor, Tammy, that she specifically wants to wear a pair of shoes that scruffy Joel got for her at chi-chi Louis Vuitton.
But regardless of whether or not she has had any influence on Joel's brand awareness, his musical tastes have certainly rubbed off on her (probably because they snuggle so much!). Old Green Day plays on her iPod, and she says she plans on incorporating Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin and Depeche Mode into forthcoming songs.
"He definitely changed my music tastes so much," she admits, "and has opened my eyes to so many different types of music. I love it, and I think it's really changed me a lot as a person."
She released her album
Metamorphosis in 2003, but these changes add up to even more of a transformation. She pooh-poohs the notion that Joel is entirely responsible, though, insisting instead that this is merely the natural process of self-discovery. "Other couples look like they match; I'm not interested in becoming someone who looks like Joel would be with her," she says. "So I still make all the decisions on what I wear and how I look. I'm getting older, so maybe stuff that's a little more edgy in a photoshoot is fun to do."
We get Hilary dolled up-first in a brown Chloé dress with Swarovski crystals, then in a black empire-waist number by Louis Vuitton. "Look at my hot girlfriend!" Joel yells. "Shut up, Joel!" she says, all embarrassed. More than hot, she looks very grown-up. But even with constant supervision-whether by one of her three managers or her mother-she can't hide the fact that she's still a teenager, and she makes no apologies for her free-flowing potty humour. Her entire entourage of set builders and stylists makes up her own personal on-the-road family-she even wears religious charms from her makeup artist. She spent her summer on a tour bus, stopping to perform and promote. Though she is hardly one to complain, she admits that some personal time is so necessary.
"I'm ready for a bit of a break," she confesses with a raspy voice as she nurses a mug of tea and keeps her throat lozenges at the ready, "but I feel like I've had so much opportunity and a lot of success, and I just feel grateful and lucky."
All that work means there will be plenty of Hilary on the horizon: a world tour, a new movie with her sister, Haylie, called
Material Girls (and a remake of the Madonna anthem),
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (which she filmed in Toronto), another album, and additions to her clothing line, Stuff.
So really, she has little time to internalize the exaggerated fodder of gossip magazines. "I work hard to keep a certain image; I think that's why so many people relate to me or think I'm cool. I'm one of the only people out there who hasn't fed into some crazy lifestyle."
Sure enough, Hilary has woken up to the world around her and has realized through her career that, like her song says,
It's never really easy but it's OK.