‘Try to think of yourself as beautiful’

Few stars have influenced the fashion and make-up of the last few years like Kim Wilde has. Maybe you like to wear black clothes now and comb your blonde hairs in her style. Or is it your sister who imitates Kim’s worldfamous looks on a saturday night? We asked Kim for a few tips on how to look as beautiful as she does.

“Do you think my image is so original, then?”, Kim laughs. “I can’t remember anything other than this for myself anyway. When I was fourteen or fifteen I had a hard time, like any girl, to look god. I started to imitate other stars. The Beatles were very popular then. Linda McCartney was one of the most seductive women in the world to me. I felt I was an ugly duckling by comparison. Can you imagine how a teenager with braids and without any make-up looks when she wants to be a diva?”
Kim wasn’t built to look like Linda. “I was very young”, she remembers, “and I didn’t know how my looks would evolve. When I started singing, I cut my braids and started to colour my hair. The real Kim Wilde started to surface. After all those years I realised that you don’t invent a personality. It comes through on its own.”
Kim’s big secret is that she wants to let nature have its course. “I have to confess that I don’t leaf through fashion magazines much and that I don’t like fashion trends much”, she says. “I don’t think about what to wear for hours on end or how to look for a photo session. I don’t need advice from others either. I decide it for myself.”

Kim prides herself that the clothes she wears don’t come from the high street stores. “I’ve got lots of belts from my father from his rock ‘n’ roll years”, she says. “The leather jacket that has become my trademark of sorts is from my brother. He has lent it to me and I never gave it back. My dresses come from the London markets. You don’t need lots of money to look good.”
Kim is also modest about her hairdo. “Do you know I only go to the hairdresser’s every three months?”, she laughs. “His name is Keith and he does most of the London jetset. I prefer to cut my own hair. It’s much more fun.”
“For photosession I often have to wear eyeshadow”, Kim sighs. “I think I look better without it. For live-shows I can’t go without it. Powder, rouge, lipstick, mascara and eyeshadow. On stage you have to accentuate your face and make your eyes bigger.”
When we ask if she has one last piece of advice for all readers who like to look as good as she does, Kim answers: “Let nature do its work, try to be imaginative and try to think of yourself as beautiful. That is the biggest secret!”