Icons Unplugged Brigitte Lacombe

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- Carine Roitfeld

THE WEEKND HATES GIVING INTERVIEWS. In the past, they’ve required the 27-year-old Canadian singer songwriter to make himself available backstage or at his condo, only to have his body language scrutinised and his hairstyle woven into elaborately clumsy metaphors.

Before releasing Starboy, the hugely successful 2016 album that established The Weeknd as one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, he chopped off his famous dreadlocks and stashed them in his manager’s safe. But his new, softer coif, which plateaus ever so slightly above his forehead, still attracts annoying questions that he would prefer not to answer. Instead he offers a glimpse into his psyche by way of email.

Ask the press-shy cinephile about his favourite movies, for instance, and he’ll opine about his favourite villains. “The last one I was really infatuated with was Heath Ledger’s Joker,” he writes. “David from the new Alien saga who has no remorse for human life” also piques The Weeknd’s interest. He adds that when he was 10, Nas and Puff Daddy were his style gods for their “haircuts and baggy clothes,” and that until a few years ago he loathed wearing suits.

He’s gotten good at it lately, though. In May, when he and girlfriend Selena Gomez made their debut as a couple at the Met Gala, it was his bespoke Valentino tuxedo, accessorised with a diamond-and-sapphire Cartier woman’s brooch, that landed him on nearly every best-dressed list.