Solange in Honey Magazine

Five words to describe yourself?
Water, blood, melanin, bones, and ... vajajay.

Five words that the public would use to describe you?
The general perception is that I am crazy, maybe? That I am attention-seeking. But I think everyone can say that I’m smart. At least I think I come across smart. I don’t really know (laughs) because I don’t really care.

Let’s just start with the question that’s on everyone’s minds: the big chop. We fell in love with the cut right away. We wanted to shoot you before the cut, but we were really excited when we saw it because we could really get fashion-y.
I guess you just go through different phases in your life. I was pretty much at the point where I needed the change and I needed to focus my energy on more productive arenas. I was putting too much into my appearance and I needed to make this about growth and going to the next stage of my life. I felt like I was being distracted by something as simple as hair. I’ve always been really fearless about change. I’ve cut my hair the same way when I was 16 and again when I was 18. This was my third time.

You talked a little bit about your stages for fashion and philosophy but what would you say this stage is in your style evolution? What are you looking toward for spring 2010?


I think right now, I’m learning how to incorporate completely different extremes as to my last record, it was just like an overstimulation of extremes, which I love. Now, I’m learning how to have one more simple extreme or one more statement extreme, and learning how to blend those together. But you probably will still see me rocking animal print as I did the other day. Someone cracked up laughing and was like ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going with flannel, leopard and stripes?’ I was like ‘I’m going to tackle my day.’

Do you have any advice to industry moms in particular, or just young working moms who still want to be themselves?

I think balance is the essential key to motherhood. I think it’s a really hard rhythm to find, but if you learn how to capture it, it makes the rewards so beautiful. I try not to ever be away from him unless he’s with his dad. We have equal custody, so we work together on it, but it definitely gets hard when I have all these opportunities coming at me. I have to say no to a lot of things because at the end of the day I know that no matter how many awards or accolades or praise or money I get, the one thing that really is a judgment of me is what kind of mother I am. A lot of people feel like their life has to stop because of the child, and they have to let go of their interests. You definitely have to compromise some of them, but I’ve been really blessed. When I went to see Grace Jones, Julez was right there with me. Julez is right there with me when I go for my bike rides. And when I go on tour, he’s with me. And I feel so blessed to be in the position to do that.