Are you absolutely sure that’s Dua Lipa? The musician looks nearly unrecognizable on the cover of Vogue France sans her signature full, dark eyebrows. I absolutely did a double-take, and I bet you did too!
Lipa snagged the coveted September cover of the magazine this year. She’s pictured posing for the lead shot with her brows completely bleached, a new look for the multi-hyphenated pop star. The musician wears a leather jacket with an oversized suede collar pulled up around her neck and on either side of her face.
Her long black hair is gelled down and slicked back from her face, and her makeup is minimal to put even more emphasis on the bleached-out brows. Her natural dark brows have been lightened until they’re practically invisible, and her lashes, too, are super pale. “Dua Lipa, as you have never seen her before,” the magazine wrote on Instagram, and yep, they nailed it.
In more photos from her September shoot, Lipa keeps the bleached brows and wears them with a severe, slicked-back updo and a sharp contour, the ideal contrast to the oversized suits and jackets by designers like Courrège and Givenchy in her spread. In another shot, she dons a black bob wig with baby bangs, but keeps the bleached brows. The photos were taken by iconic photographer Mert Alas and are a big departure from Lipa’s usual sparkly, glam aesthetic.
The photos and accompanying article are all about duality and showing both sides of the singer’s personality — the public-facing pop star and the real Lipa — and the bleached brows and sleek hair are truly transformative. “There’s a lot of duality in me… But it’s within this duality that I find peace,” Lipa explained, “And where I allow myself to turn down my confidence when I’m at home. It’s refreshing.”
This story originally appeared on teenvogue.com.
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