Music

Haim on Feminism and Fashion

Ahead of their Dior x Guggenheim performance, the dynamic trio on what it means to be a woman musician today. Plus, a closer look at their custom Dior looks.
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Ever since the musical group Haim hit the mainstream, sisters Este, Alana, and Danielle have been vocal about their views on feminism. The trio have told the media they do not want to be called a "girl band."

On a similar parallel, Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri has become, in a way, the face of feminism in the world of fashion. She's one of the few women designers for a major fashion house, and you'd be hard pressed to walk away from any fashion crowd without seeing one of her now iconic "We Should All Be Feminists" t-shirts paying tribute to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Of course, this made Haim feel like a natural pick as the musical guest for last night's Guggenheim International Gala pre-party, sponsored by Dior.

"I think we all need to band together and be very supportive of each other," Alana told L'Officiel at the event. "I think that’s the most important thing that we can do right now; if you support your fellow women, especially in the music industry, because there’s not really many women producers, there’s not many women engineers or sound mixers."

As her sisters nodded enthusiastically, she continued: "I want to see more of that. I want women to feel ok to take on jobs that they are usually not even allowed to be in. If a woman goes into a studio, 95% of the time, they don’t even hire a woman as a runner to get coffee, which is how most engineers start."

"It’s insane, it needs to change," added Este. 

Haim's music, in both its lyrics and message, also has an implicit hint of feminism. Though much of what they do could be considered love songs, they tend to have an empowering message behind them—and often sound like they're offering advice to a close friend, or sister, for that matter.

If a woman goes into a studio, 95% of the time, they don’t even hire a woman as a runner to get coffee, which is how most engineers start.

Once on stage, the sisters seamlessly played a set, switching instruments with each other after each song. All three of them wore scarlet red Dior looks that were custom made. Here, we spent a few minutes chatting them up before the show.

 

KB How is the music industry changing for women?

 

AH I think it’s so much fun play shows and meet people afterwards because it’s so awesome to have a young girl come up to me and say ‘I saw you guys and now I want to be a sound engineer, or I woke up this morning and I love music, I just want to be a part of it, I don’t know what I want to do, but I want to be a part of it. That’s so awesome and so inspiring, and I feel like it’s happening more and more which is so important and so beautiful.

 

EH But we also have to keep doing all we’re doing.

 

KB How does a vintage aesthetic inspire your music?

 

EH Our parents love listening to oldies and I think we grew up listening to music from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, it has always just seeped into our DNA. We also love using old gear. All of our instruments are vintage. We find a lot of inspiration from it as well.

 

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KB You also must love wearing vintage clothes too. What's your favorite place to find them?

 

AH When we’re not wearing beautiful Dior clothes, every city that we tour, we always try to find a thrift shop to go in. But name a city!

 

KB New York!

 

AH In New York, we love Beacon’s Closet. We’ve been going there for years, and when I first came to New York, that’s the one place we wanted to go; the one in Brooklyn.

 

KB How has your style evolved since you've been on the big stage?

 

AH We all had awkward stages. I feel like every person in their life has an awkward stage. We all definitely had an awkward stage. Our fashion just really evolved with what we felt comfortable with on stage. It’s really hard to find clothes that you can thrash around in and sweat in and get ripped apart and feel comfortable in. That’s really where our style evolved from.

 

KB If you had to boil the message of your music down to one thing, what would it be?

 

AH Confidence. To be confident and stand up for yourself. Even if you can’t even say the words, you just really have to feel it and be as confident as you can.

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Haim's custom Dior outfits
Haim's custom Dior outfits
Haim's custom Dior outfits
Haim's custom Dior outfits
Haim's custom Dior outfits
Haim's custom Dior outfits

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