Be More Lizzo: the LOVE magazine cover star the world’s been waiting for

If 2019 is a game of two halves, it’s one part Brexit, xenophobia and posh straw hats on Instagram and another part Lizzo.

Certainly, the 31-year-old Texan has swept through the cultural zeitgeist like an ice-cold blast of fresh air amid a heatwave.

Along with an inexorable desire to carry a flute like a handbag, the artist once known as Melissa Viviane Jefferson has given us a Glastonbury set we’ll never forget, the immortal lyric “no, I’m not a snack at all, baby, I’m the whole damn meal”, and the steadfast belief that everyone should wear a polka-dot negligee and a neon pink feather overcoat to one of Anna Wintour’s parties.

Now Lizzo is back with more gifts. This week the Juice singer is unveiled as the cover star of LOVE’s September issue, where she graces the magazine’s pages sporting everything from Richard Quinn to Miu Miu to Chanel in a shoot styled by Nell Kalonji.

Among the most arresting images is a shot of the singer wearing a puffa-cum-prom skirt from Pierpaolo Piccioli’s collaboration with Moncler. She also features in a bodysuit custom made for her by London designer Richard Malone. The hallowed setting is becoming increasingly familiar territory for Lizzo, who has been quick to earn style icon status.

In a fashion world that’s grown weary of over-manicured imagery and the influence of those whose validity hinges entirely on Instagram likes, this Lycra-clad beacon of self-love and self-expression is what we need now more than ever. “Love is something I purposely throw out and then receive. It’s important both to give and to suck it right back up into ourselves” she says in the accompanying interview with GQ’s Jonathan Heaf, employing words that echo the motivational speech with which she brought the Glastonbury masses to tears.

It seems she also might have taught the fashion world a thing or two about body diversity too. “I was quite surprised that Nell Kalonji, who styled the shoot, could barely find anything for her on the high street, even tights — only one shop in Brixton!” said the magazine’s editor-in-chief Katie Grand. “Everything else considered XL or oversized is still not the right size for a large portion of England’s population.”

Of course, her contribution to 2019 is about far more than the body she does it in. “Lizzo knows that she is described as iconic because she is oversized and reveals skin, and I love that she doesn’t care about that. Still, she doesn’t want to be pigeonholed,” notes Kalonji.

Accordingly, her greatest asset, even beyond the sublime voice, is the belief that anyone can be who they want to be. “Back in the Nineties you had to fit into a mould or follow a particular pop algorithm to be successful, and I think men could always be themselves, especially white men. But now, being an individual will get you there.

Lesson: be more Lizzo. Truly, she’s the whole damn meal.

Read the full interview in LOVE Issue 22. Autumn/Winter 2019 goes on newsstands on August 6 (thelovemagazine.co.uk)