Billie Eilish says she didn't feel sexy for 1 second with blonde hair: 'People treated me differently'

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Billie Eilish explains how her fashion choices make her feel. (Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Billie Eilish is sharing the thought process behind her fashion choices.

The “Bury a Friend” singer, 20, spoke to HighSnobiety about her iconic style, which includes oversized hoodies and baggy pants. While her boyish outfits may be more representative of her style thus far, she has also tried out more feminine looks, and even traded in her dark hair for a platinum blonde ‘do for a time — a look she rocked during the release of her second album, Happier Than Ever.

“People saw me as this 15-year-old, a kid, who wore this kind of stuff, looked this kind of way, acted this kind of way, said this kind of way. I felt like I couldn’t change. That’s why I went so far to the other side,” she told the outlet of what inspired her to tweak her look. “I was trying to prove, ‘Hey, f*** you guys, I can do whatever I want.’ Now I can look really masculine if I want, and really feminine if I want, and it’s not gonna be a f***ing headline.”

Yet just because her look seemed sexier than her sweatshirts, doesn’t mean that’s how she felt in her feminine outfits.

“I feel sexier when I dress masculine,” she admitted. “I didn’t feel sexy for one second of being blonde…When I was blonde, people treated me differently. People completely changed their demeanor [around me].”

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 28: Musician Billie Eilish attends the World Premiere of
Billie Eilish at the premiere of "No Time to Die" on September 28, 2021 in London, England. (Photo: Getty Images)

The “Everything I Wanted” artist added that she felt people approved of her as a young person in the music industry partially because of how she dressed.

“I think that people have taken me more seriously because I’ve had this more masculine [way of dressing] throughout my career,” she shared. “If I had been more feminine and girly, people would’ve been a lot less respectful of me.”

Eilish has opened up about how her different style choices have made her feel before. In a September interview with The Cut, she noted that her style was “extreme for a long time and masculine and big” before she went “100 percent the other way” and “wanted to be feminine.”

She added, "Then there was a period of time where I really had no idea what the f*** I was doing."

Eilish explained that feeling sexy comes from when she’s “dressed in a way that I feel confident in.”

"Sometimes I feel sexiest when I feel more masculine, in a weird way, but then if I smell more feminine. It’s a mix that I crave," she said. "I go through phases of thinking I’m the hottest bitch on earth, and I go through phases thinking I shouldn’t exist."

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