Peaches Geldof

FAME AND THE GIANT PEACHES
You'd be forgiven for forming an opinion on Peaches Geldof without meeting her. Splashed all over the tabloids, you can chart her ill-mannered escapades and impetuosity almost weekly; a marriage here, a near overdose there, a bitchy jibe sprinkled on top. Dig a little deeper and you can also find a young girl trying to forge her way in the world on her own merits, escape the endless comparisons to her dead mother and perhaps lastly, trying to enjoy a youth that all of the above has so far seemed to deny her.

Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Drummey (nee Geldof) was born on the 16th of March, 1989. With Bob Geldof as her father and Paula Yates her mother there was little chance of Peaches enjoying an average, anonymous childhood. It was the death of her mother by way of accidental heroin overdose in 2000 that stripped away any last hope of that completely. Raised solely by Bob since Yates' then lover Michael Hutchence was found hanged in 1997, Peaches has been brought up with sisters Fifi, Pixie and Heavenly (Yates' and Hutchence's daughter). Used to being in the public eye it was only ever going to be a matter of time before the Geldof girls reached an age where they would start being allowed out without their dad and start to make headlines of their own. Whilst Fifi, the eldest, has kept her nose relatively clean, preferring anonymity to the limelight the same cannot be said for Peaches and Pixie. Following in her mother's footsteps, the opinionated Peaches entered the world of journalism, having her first article published at the age of 14. Her subsequent columns for Elle Girl, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph chronicled the mind of a teenager struggling to cope with everything from exams to holidays with the family to being famous by default. In more recent years she has extended her journalistic capabilities to a documentaries; first with Teenage Mind in 2005 and then the following year with Teen America. Both documentaries similarly sought to capture the trials of teenage life, though they also left a lasting and often less than favourable impression in some people's minds about the young Geldof.
With the presence of Peaches in the gossip columns these days it is easy to gloss over the fact that, unlike other famous daughters she actually has something going for her, that she contributes to the world she lives in – it's the media that contributes her to the tabloids. We may see the 19 year old heavy lidded and in need of assistance to a cab after a long night partying; we don't hear about her design collaboration with fashion label PPQ. We can candidly watch Geldof at her dealer's house placing an order for various kinds of drugs; we don't get to witness her at university in Brooklyn where she now lives. It becomes easy to criticise someone when they are presented in this way. The celebrity obsessed media in more recent years have thrived on the misfortunes and problems of young starlets, and the celebrity obsessed public has lapped it up. Britney's breakdown was meticulously charted for us by the paparazzi yet now that she seems to have her life and career back on track we see comparatively very little of her. Amy Winehouse has been media fodder for some time now, her spiralling decline into narcotic implosion playing out like a slow motion car crash we all have a ticket to witness. It seems only fair then to make note of Peaches Geldof's achievements, rather than to exclusively focus upon the less salubrious side of her personal life.
Having modelled for British designers PPQ at last year's London Fashion Week, she was invited by founders Percy Parker and Amy Molyneux to create a capsule collection for the label. Her favourite piece from the collection is “either the black lace top with high necked cream frilled collar, or the velvet and lace black and white party dress.” The result has pleased the designers enough to ask Peaches to contribute again for their summer collection, though this may strike some as a little contradictory bearing in mind her views on fashion.
“Most people who know me know I don't follow fashion. I mean, I just dyed the ends of my hair blue for gods sake, its not like I'm having my highlights constantly re-done and worrying what colours going to be 'in' next fall. For me, fashion is all about the individual. I hate stars that look totally over styled like Victoria Beckham, she looks totally uncomfortable at all times, give me Courtney Love with her baby-doll nighties and ripped fishnet tights over her any day. Fashion is about expressing oneself, and for me it depends on my mood. When the sun shines down in Williamsburg I go to my local deli dressed in a 1950s $20 dress from Beacons Closet, complete with matching yellow bow in my hair and bobby socks. Fashion is about pushing boundaries, the idea of waking up and putting on the same old pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt takes the fun out of life. Vivienne Westwood once told me that people who aren't creative or have no love of art don't dress up. I asked her why and she simply replied "because it's fun". Sage advice from the queen of eccentricity.”
She cites Chrissy Miller, Marc Jacobs, Luella, Chloe and Balmain as her favourite designers, though says that her own style “flits between being very folk, 1960s hippie, all headbands and paisley print see through dresses with suede furry coats and ankle boots to 1990s grunge ie a plaid shirt with black tights and doc martins to gothic, a black lace vintage dress with black lipstick.” Inspiration comes from gothic fairy tales like Struwwelpeter or Hans Christian Anderson and the music of Nirvana and The Jesus and Mary Chain. She has been charting on style lists for the last couple of years so it really comes as no surprise her eye is being put to good use.
Peaches' penchant for dressing up has also lead her to take to the catwalk and catalogue for racy lingerie company Agent Provocateur. In stark contradiction she has spoken out before about women who reveal too much in their outfits, though it does tie in with her self confessed exhibitionism, so there is some semblance of balance there. It is easy to forget when someone is elevated to celebrity status that they are still much like anyone else of their age group. The media does not forget the gaffes and slip ups, the feuds and spats, and so things said in the boisterous arrogance of youth become carved in stone. Miss Geldof has her own share of embarrassing foibles of this nature, as well as other dalliances that are a part of growing up for many teenagers. She has been accused on several occasions of shoplifting, the most recent in the first week of November, though with every occurrence no charges have been pressed and the items have been duly paid for. There is also the little matter of Peaches being caught out buying drugs from Amy Winehouse's dealer. Again no charges were pressed after a video of Peaches was leaked showing her allegedly ordering a variety of different drugs for her weekend, but if that wasn't enough she was then reported to have had an ambulance called to her apartment over a suspected drug overdose. “I had a bad experience; it was nowhere near an overdose” she has said of the matter, and furthers her point by stating that she is not addicted to drugs, has not smoked crack and it is not something for anyone to worry about. Putting this into perspective one wonders how many young lives and lifestyles would be brought into question should their life choices and experimentations be made public knowledge.
One piece of Peaches news that has seemed to die down is her marriage to musician Max Drummey. Long associated with rock boys, Peaches broke off her relationship with The Horrors singer Faris Badwan some months ago, marrying the little known American rocker a month later. Though there were cries of 'publicity stunt' they have since died down as it has come to light that the marriage was more a whimsical bit of foolishness rather than premeditated media manipulation. Peaches has since claimed she loves Drummey now but doesn't hold out for things to last. Nevertheless, in the face of public perception and for all the media conjecture she has boldly continued to do what she does. To that end her other projects include Djing alongside friend Fifi Brown as the Trash Pussies, presenting various other reality shows and documentaries and her latest foray into the media world, starting her own magazine.
Disappear Here is the title of Peaches Geldof's new magazine. The title is taken from Bret Easton Ellis' début novel Less Than Zero. The protagonist has been driving aimlessly when he comes upon a road sign for a motel saying Disappear Here. The novel, much like all of Bret Easton Ellis' work is a depiction of vacuous, misguided wanderlust at the hands of affluent youngsters who have everything they could possibly want and therefore nothing to aim for. Geldof has sported a tattoo of the saying since she was 14 so the book obviously touched her enough to resurface through this idea. The idea behind the magazine is to create a magazine about music, fashion and lifestyle all in the alternative vein. With a Roladex of suitably hip musos and fashionistas at her disposal there is little chance of the publication lacking street nous. A good deal of that important hip factor could be dispelled though by the recent MTV reality show following Peaches on her quest to launch the rag. With a small team of attractive acolytes assembled, though mysteriously not of Peaches' choosing, the team get to work on creating a mock up to entice financial backers. Mentored along the way by James Brown, the figurehead of lad's mag Loaded, Peaches manages to distance herself from her staff rapidly, going so far as to openly embarrass and insult them, whilst contributing little more than a narration to the show. She puts in little face time to the filmed project giving the viewer the sense that if she can't handle the PR of the making of the magazine, the real thing will need either considerable fortune or someone else's help to survive. As the series ends the future of the magazine looks bleak with ratings for the show faring considerably worse, but reports have it that there will be an issue out by the end of the year.
There is little to argue that people find Peaches Geldof an infinite source of annoyance. She leads a privileged existence, can turn her hand to whatever she chooses without fear of failure or recrimination, and for anything she does that may warrant merit there is a wealth of contrasting behaviour to negate it. At the same time it is prudent to remember that Peaches never asked to be born into fame, that she is living out some of her most formative years in the public eye and given her difficult childhood she should be forgiven a certain precociousness. She may court fame and publicity for her working projects, though it is doubtful she asks the press to be around her at all hours of the night, waiting for her to leave a club looking less than picture perfect. This however is the lot of someone in her position and she'll continue to go about her life, accepting the good press, living with the bad and probably not caring too much about either along the way.