Red Letter Daisy

It would be easy to dislike Daisy Lowe on principle. As the daughter of former Powder singer-turned-fashion designer Pearl Lowe and Bush’s frontman, Gavin Rossdale, she seems to have it all – rock heritage, a passport into the seemingly glittering world of fame and fortune, great looks and legs that go on for ever. Damn her!

Then again if you were the sympathetic type you could feel rather sorry for Daisy. Her life may have been rock ‘n’ roll but it hasn’t exactly been peachy either. Mother Pearl has had a tough time both in and out of the tabloids and the lurid headlines can’t have been easy for her young daughter to read. Between allegations that Pearl and her partner, Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, engaged in wife-swapping parties with Sadie Frost and Jude Law, her legendary party lifestyle and her well-documented drug addiction and recovery, Pearl and her former Primose Hill set, which included the likes of Kate Moss, have been tabloid staples for years.
Add to that the fact that Gavin Rossdale was confirmed to be Daisy’s biological father only in the past few years after much legal wrangling to make him take a paternity test, you might expect Daisy to be a screwed up glamour brat with a chip or two on her shoulder.
But Daisy in person is a very different proposition. She’s level-headed, friendly and completely charming. Yep, life really is unfair. She’s been blessed with a fair whack of charisma as well. It would be impossible to dislike someone who skips coltishly into the room, flashes a big smile, greets you warmly then confesses she’s dying for a cigarette as she’s had non-stop interviews since landing at the airport. She flew into Dublin as a guest model for the Wanted Weekend – a fashion, music, art and film festival hosted by Wrangler jeans that took place at the beginning of this month.
For an 18-year-old, Daisy’s managed to cram quite a few things into her life – model, DJ and part-time fashion designer, but she’s dismissive of most of these achievements. She may have had handled deck duties at a number of high-profile events – including a set at a Calvin Klein fragrance launch – but Daisy insists it’s just a hobby.
“Someone asked me if I could do it and my best friend is a really amazing DJ and he offered to show me the tricks of the trade," she says. “Since then I just do it occasionally. I do it just for fun. Just so I can listen to the music that I want to dance around to.”
Fair enough, but what about the clothes designing? Daisy has a small diffusion line of a few dresses in her mother’s collection and these are sold in high-end stores such as Liberty and Nieman Marcus.
“Oh, it was kind of like me and my mom being silly," she says. “I said to her that I really wanted a dress that was shaped like this (waves hands in the air expressively) and could she make it for me. So she got the material and then she said, ‘Why don’t we do a line? Let’s have them as a pattern so if people want to buy them they can.’”
But despite all this, her real passion is acting. Having already graced Armand van Helmand’s NYC Beat, next up is the video for Blondelle’s new single. It’s a short horror flick with Daisy being stalked, but she refuses to give away too many details other than that it’s really “gory”. She swears she had to audition for the part and that her relationship with lead singer Will Blondelle was no influence on her getting the job. I’m sceptical, but she’s so adamant about it, I’ll choose to believe her.
“I had to go up against loads of professional actresses," she insists. “I didn’t want to be favoured at all because I want the video to be really good. I wouldn’t have wanted them to choose me if I couldn’t do it.”
At the moment however, it’s her modelling career that’s really taken off. While Daisy’s parentage may have helped put her in the spotlight, she was discovered by a model scout in Camden a few years back, who had no idea that her parents were famous.
With her thick dark hair and heavy fringe, her looks are more edgy, indie cool than preening diva, and since being discovered Daisy has done campaigns for Agent Provocateur and Australian clothes company Wheels and Dollbaby. She has also done shoots for Italian and British Vogue, W and Jane magazines. The photographer Steven Klein is said to be very taken with her.
But no matter who your parents are and no matter what high-jinx the tabloids accuse them of, it’s still easy to annoy them. Last July Daisy did the now infamous shoot for i-D Magazine with boyfriend Will Blondelle. It’s a grungey love story featuring a topless Daisy while Will feels her up and nibbles on her breasts.
“A lot of people were like, ‘Urgh, that’s crude – you got your tits out.’ It was just kinda tongue-in-cheek. We wanted to look like we were having a laugh. And it’s not like it was with some random guy. It was Will so it was kinda sweet as well. My mates thought it was wicked, but my mum was like, ‘Aargh! That’s disgusting!’”