She wore skater pants and an Adidas T-shirt to her homecoming dance, but that doesn't mean Michelle Branch is not hooked on fashion. Here she describes her own funky style and spills the secrets of dressing for the red carpet. How do you manage to stay true to your casual image and still dress up for events?
I'm my own stylist; I go out and buy all my clothes. I just did the VH1 Fashion Awards and I dressed myself for that. I like to feel comfortable in what I'm wearing and the easiest way to like everything that I wear is to shop for it myself. How do you find time to go shopping?
When I'm on the road, we'll have days off and I'll go shopping, or when I'm home I'll go out to the mall. If I don't have time, that's when I call in stylists and tell them what I'm looking for. That's when it does come in handy How did you decide on the outfit for the VH1 Fashion Awards?
It was a little bit nerve-racking because I knew that if I was walking down the red carpet and people didn't like my outfit, I was the one to blame. But I went shopping and bought a lot of clothes. I tried each outfit on over and over to decide which one was appropriate for the event and felt most comfortable and which I could wear again. When I buy stuff, I want to be able to wear it more than once! Describe what you wound up wearing.
The outfit I wore for the red carpet was this really cool skirt that had lace sticking out of the bottom, and a lacey blouse and a tuxedo jacket over it. For my performance outfit I chose these amazing maroon corduroy pants with a black longer top over it. Has your style become more girly recently?
It isn't something I've really thought about, but when I wore that outfit to the fashion awards everyone was like, "Wow, you're wearing a skirt!" I do wear skirts, I just haven't been to any events where I felt like wearing one. Do you ever worry about ending up on those worst dressed lists?
It's something I worry about, but I never want people focusing on what I'm wearing and talking about what I'm wearing. I hope that I always look nice, but I also don't want the pressure of always having to really worry about what I'm wearing because people are paying attention to it. I like to look nice enough to skate by without any comments. How has your style changed since you became famous?
Before I was doing this, I was still wearing the same lines of clothes but not so many of them. I had no reason to really buy new outfits every two weeks. Now it's hard to wear things more than once because you get photographed often and you're constantly doing things that require different wardrobes. The cool thing is that I get a lot of my clothes for free or at a discount. Two years ago I would have never thought of paying $80 for a pair of jeans, but now I'm getting them for free. Do you have a favorite thing to wear?
I am obsessed with pants. I have hundreds of pairs of pants and I'll go through my closet and be like, "Oh yeah, I forgot I have these!" Jeans probably fill up my closet the most. Is there a fashion trend from your childhood that you regret taking part in?
There's a couple, but one of the worst was these baggy, baggy pants with boxers hanging out. That's what I wore for a couple years. They were humungous pants. When I finally started wearing jeans that actually fit right, I freaked out because they seemed so tight. I guess after wearing those huge jeans that I could swim in, it was a weird transition. Do you do much vintage shopping?
Yeah I do, because I live in L.A. So most of the time I go out and go to Melrose and do the old T-shirts. It's worth the time because when you do find a few, you feel glad that you put effort into getting them. It's not like going up to a rack and seeing twenty of the same shirt. Do you ever alter clothes after you buy them to make them more you?
If I see something that I really like but it's just not quite right, I'll buy it and either take it in to a tailor to fix it up or I'll have a stylist cut off the sleeves or do something funky to make it mine. How do you think your style helps your fans know who you are?
I know when I meet people, my first impression is a lasting one. When you look at somebody, you kind of form an opinion. As a musician, I am really thankful that I am able to dress myself and wear what I want because that's who I am. Hopefully, people see me and form whatever opinions, but know that's me, not something I'm trying to be.
