When Sonic Youth took off in the early 1980s, Kim Gordon would invariably find herself being hauled to the front of the shot if the band was being photographed. The bass player and guitarist claim it was because she was the shortest, and not because she was the only woman, but whatever the reason, being singled out didn't suit her. "I felt anxious on those shoots," she says. "The first one I remember was for this indie magazine called Option in 1985. They only put me and Thurston [Moore, Sonic Youth's cofounder and Gordon's husband for 27 years] on the cover. The whole thing made me uneasy."
It is difficult to imagine Gordon being anything but coolly assured. In past photographs, gigantic sunglasses and nonchalantly smoked cigarettes gave her the air of a Jean-Luc Godard heroine, a look Gordon referenced by dressing like a grunge Jean Seberg. "I had this striped cotton dress that I wore every day of the 1991 tour we did with Nirvana," she laughs. "All the sweat from being on stage meant it just got smaller every time I wore it."
As a founding member of one of the figurehead bands of the 1990s US grunge scene, Gordon is regarded as a pioneer among female rock stars of her era; elder stateswoman to more riotous female voices such as Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna or Hole's Courtney Love. It was an electric time to be a woman in rock music, particularly when it came to clothes. "I remember when Kathleen [Hanna] wore a bra on stage with the word slut written on to make a political statement. It was like punks dressing in bondage gear, telling the world: 'Society restrains us.' That was the early 90s for you; now you don't really see that." She pauses, before adding: "I love the way Lady Gaga finds humour in fashion, but it's still very stylised."
In her younger days, Gordon wore babydoll dresses and paisley skirts, often subverting their girlishness with clumpy boots. These days she wears Marc Jacobs shift dresses, but still possesses a tomboyish streak.
Gordon separated from Moore in 2011, and Sonic Youth have drifted to a halt. "It's hard to say when the life of a band starts and stops… but playing music together is an act of trust. When that's broken, it's impossible to continue."
For now, she is concentrating on her work as a visual artist as well as collaborating with free-noise musician Bill Nace. Previous projects include a clothing line called XGirl and a collaboration with Parisian label Surface To Air, but at heart she is still the teenager who slung together outfits from the thrift store. "My mum was a seamstress. She made her own clothes in the 60s: long, floaty, bohemian dresses. She was a child of the depression – you made everything yourself."
Growing older, Gordon says, is comparable to being a teenager when it comes to knowing how to dress. "I wasn't very confident about clothes, I was always hunting through racks, never sure what looked right. It can be like that again when you're older." She marvels about how good her daughter Coco looks in just about anything. "She'll throw on a sweater over a T-shirt and she just looks incredible."
Whether you're talking about a picture taken today or one taken 25 years ago, you could say much the same thing about Gordon herself.
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