Karen Elson Is Singing for Herself Now
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Conquering one creative field is tough enough in the 21st century, and yet, Karen Elson has managed to conquer two—and all with an ease that is refreshingly sincere.
From the moment she turned 15, the British-born model has been at the center of the high fashion world, having walked the runway for all the top designers, starred in multiple global campaigns for Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu, and appeared in more than 35 Vogue covers. Today, at 43, she is still as striking and recognizable in her fiery red hair as she was then, but now a mom of two, with centuries of experience and a newfound outlook on life, she is entering a new era.
For the past couple years, Elson has been diving deep into her music career, which she kicked off in 2010 with her album The Ghost Who Walks, and resumed in 2017, with Double Roses. This April, she released her third album, Green, a dreamy, hopeful ode to living.
On Thursday night, she performed her new hit "Sparrow," at Bergdorf Goodman's New York Fashion Week party, held on the upper level of the men's store. And industry personalities and artists in silky black suits and feathered party dresses came together in the red-lit venue to listen.
"There's something about Bergdorf's—it is so synonymous with New York City. It's synonymous with luxury and with the dream," Elson tells BAZAAR.com. "Always throughout my modeling career and now through my singing career, the only thing I ever wanted to do was blend the two and find a way to do it authentically. And performing here tonight, it's such a relief that I can be here and sing for myself. I mean that in the most sincere of ways; I absolutely love singing and performing, and to do it in a place like Bergdorf's, with my fashion community, means the world to me, because it's like finally I can blend the both."
Elson says that with Green, she finally feels like she's been able to let down her boundaries between music and modeling and "accept that I'm both, and find a way to make both work together."
"I think something happened to me during the height of COVID-19, where I stopped taking myself seriously, and I think for so long as a musician I felt really insecure and I felt like if I wasn't like grinding, or in a van, or in a festival in a field in the middle of nowhere I wasn't proving myself," Elson says. "But then I finally got over it and got over my own hangups. I said, 'I'm going to make a record that's easy and warm,' and I'm so glad I did, because this record is that, and... it could be in the background at Bergdorf's and I'm totally happy with that. I am, I am totally happy with my music being in the background, because I think that's how music is consumed a lot these days—it's sort of how it catches people's attention."
The new album, Elson says, is a reflection of how she sees life today, from a different, more kind lens, following the COVID-19 lockdowns. She notes that when, in March 2020, the world shut down due to the virus, it was the first time in her adult life that she "finally stopped and stood still." She says, "It was very profound for me because I realized I don't want to work as frantic as I do."
And her outlook on fashion changed too. Though she says seeing the work of new and veteran designers during Fashion Week absolutely still excites her, supporting smaller artists and paying attention to sustainability has become increasingly important to her. Some of the brands she's loving at the moment include the cool and sleek Nellie Partow, and the sustainable and sophisticated Another Tomorrow.
"I think it's just about recognizing our imprint," Elson says. "At its height, at its most dreamy, fashion is meant to uplift. It's supposed to make people dream. And sometimes fashion can get quite convoluted in that sense, and for me it was just recognizing that I don't want to be part of the problem; I'd much rather be in the camp of bringing something good to the table. That's really where I am at right now in fashion—unless it feels fun and positive in some way, I don't have time to play the fashion games and politics anymore."
At Bergdorf Goodnight, the luxury department store's NYFW fete, Elson performed in a glamorous black long-sleeve wrap gown with gold and pearl embellishments by Moschino, styled with abstract pearl drop earrings by Completedworks.
She recalls to BAZAAR that on a recent show during her residency at Café Carlyle, she was singing onstage when she saw her 16-year-old daughter, Scarlett Teresa, enter the room wearing Elson's Alexander McQueen-era Givenchy Couture dress (which the designer gifted to her many years ago), which she had pulled straight from the musician's closet.
"She looked incredible in it; and with her generation, I love seeing how fashion is interpreted through their eyes. These kids have great style, they really do. The way her and her friends put outfits together? I could never do that at her age, and it's so effortless," Elson says. "That absolute creativity in the fashion community has always been what I gravitate toward."
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