Look of the Week: Lily Allen is a wayward nun, cigarette and all
By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN
(CNN) — There are no saints in the aftermath of a complicated breakup, and in one of the visuals accompanying Lily Allen’s latest album, “West End Girl” — interpreted as a post-mortem on her marriage to actor David Harbour — she assumes the role of the wayward nun, donning the familiar black and white habit to take a smoke break.
The surprise album, which Allen released last Friday, can be taken as a play-by-play of the downfall of her five-year marriage, which began with Las Vegas nuptials in September 2020 after the couple met on celebrity dating app Raya. Though Allen did tell Vogue the album is only “inspired” by the relationship and not “all gospel.”
Since its release, listeners have been piecing together a bigger picture of their relationship and its fallout, referencing the lyrics with years of reports and rumors. Also in the crossfire: the couple’s divisive Architectural Digest feature in early 2023, featuring their eclectic Brooklyn townhouse, which is now being retrospectively eyed as a warning sign. (“Perhaps The David Harbour-Lily Allen Home Is Worth Wrecking,” pop culture critic Hunter Harris penned as a Substack headline at the time.)
Blessedly, the album visuals are striking not in their maximalism, but their quieter reverie. Throughout the images, Allen unsettles Catholic iconography: In one looped video, she clasps her hands in prayer, wearing the blue and red of Mother Mary; on the album’s cover, painter Nieves González depicts the singer as an updated Baroque icon, stoic in polka dots and chiaroscuro lighting.
In the video loop of Allen as a nun, she crosses a leg to reveal sheer tights and black pumps as she smokes a cigarette. She seems to be grappling with the duality of desire — something she candidly sings to in the song “Sleepwalking” (“I know you’ve made me your Madonna / I wanna be your wh**e”). But the visual metaphor resonates across the album at large. Allen doesn’t depict herself as the virtuous, scorned wife, but a real and raw person who cycles through anxiety and insecurity until everything reaches its bitter end.
Nun imagery has often been deployed in music, art and fashion to symbolize a reverence that is readily subverted, by sex, sin or feminism. Lady Gaga has worn the habit in music videos and on tour, while designers including Rick Owens have frequently played with the cloth caps’ austere form. And though Allen’s version of a nun is certainly no stranger to vice, she is perhaps most subverted by a lack of faith in herself, as she painfully recounts going against her better judgement again and again.
“Listen, I am in a period of self-discovery at the moment and I’m really trying to explore how I’ve got myself into certain situations in the past,” she told Vogue. “I need to unpack some things and break some patterns and probably talk to my therapist about my relationship with my dad.”
Online, some commentators have already dubbed the upcoming months “West End Girl Winter,” as Allen ushers in a period of self-reflection, leaving 2024’s “Brat summer” far in the rearview mirror. The key items for this new season are yet to be determined, but will presumably include a posh home, smudged eyeliner, revenge heels and an incisive pen. The full nun’s habit remains optional.
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