Bebe Rexha is no stranger to Hollywood. After years of writing hit songs for other artists — including Eminem featuring Rihanna’s “The Monster” — she burst onto the scene as a solo artist in 2014 with her debut single "I Can't Stop Drinking About You.”
But although she’s now known as a superstar singer with an outspoken personality, the 29-year-old says she still has trouble finding her place within the fashion industry.
In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Lifestyle, Rexha, who is gearing up to go on tour with The Jonas Brothers, explains the difficulty of learning to love yourself in an industry that is hardly even capable of dressing her size 8 body.
“I kind of felt that pressure from the industry for a while because things are usually made in sample sizes,” the New York-native says. “But there’s a difference between a sample size and a size that doesn’t even fit your arm. Like a sample size that my forearms can’t even fit in.”
Rexha says even when she was “super, super, super thin” she was still doing fittings where “almost nothing” fit. While she tried to shrug it off as the nature of the fashion industry in the past, Rexha finally hit her breaking point during the lead-up to the 2019 Grammys.
The twice-nominated singer took to her social media to address the devastating rejection that she faced from designers who refused to dress her for one of her most important red carpet appearances to date. “If a size 6-8 is too big then I don’t know what to tell you,” she said in the video, which was captioned with the hashtag #LOVEYOURBODY. “I don’t want to wear your f***ing dresses.”
Rexha explains that the video was posted during a moment of frustration just after she had gotten another call from a designer unwilling to dress her. “I was kind of scared when I did it,” she admits, “but the response was amazing. I mean, people were calling me up being like I’ll help you out, different designers. The support was incredible.”
Even after the “I’m a Mess” singer stunned on the red carpet in a custom Monsoori gown, she acknowledges that she still sometimes struggles with her body image. “Some days you wake up and you don’t feel so good...and that’s a totally normal feeling,” she says. “I know that it’s inevitable to feel that way. But if you’re feeling insecure then I would just say wear something that makes you feel better.”
These days, Rexha says she’s working with one of her all-time favorite brands bebe on a campaign that empowers other women to embrace their bodies — despite society’s limitations. The Fall 2019 campaign, called “BEBE LOVES BEBE,” was created to celebrate loving and accepting yourself, inspired by Rexha’s unveiling of the injustice in the fashion community before the Grammys.
“It’s incredible to be part of this bebe campaign, it’s not only about me loving the brand, but more importantly about me loving myself.” Rexha says. “I hope to inspire and empower women all over the world with this message of self-love, I believe it is super important.”
And if people can learn one thing from the campaign, which debuts with the launch of Vogue’s September issue, Rexha hopes that it teaches both men and women that there are no rules when it comes to feeling good about yourself.
“Forget all the stereotypes and all these rules of what people think that women should look like to wear certain things. You might as well just throw that out the window and wear what makes you feel good. Cause if you feel good in something, it doesn’t matter,” Rexha declares. “I feel like there’s no rules, like whatsoever. Just wear what makes you feel good.”
