In celebration of newfound confidence and her recently released album, Revival, Selena Gomez appeared braless for a photoshoot in InStyle UK.
InStyle’s fashion director, Arabella Greenhill, described the shoot as having an “indie-film starlet on a road trip” style. And in the wake of her latest album’s release, Gomez is embracing the relaxed vibe.
Gomez’s decision to go braless came about as a response to online criticism of her weight. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, she opened up about her revealing album cover:
“At the end of the day, this is not going to be a subject once the album comes out. The music is going to take over because that’s how confident I am about it. You have to understand that I dealt with a lot of body shaming this year and I’ve never experienced that before. I don’t care about that stuff, but I did start gaining weight, and I didn’t really mind it…Man, [the body-shaming] hurt. That was really hurtful. Because I’ve experienced people who have tried to control that kind of stuff before, and I didn’t care. This is my time. I want to do it the way I want to do it… I’m not going to let them get to me. I can do what I want. I’m not doing that all the time. It’s beautiful. It represents that it’s bare.”
She told InStyle:
“I’m learning that you can be comfortable and still look beautiful.”
And discussions about Justin Bieber are off-limits. When asked by Seacrest about whether Revival would address her highly publicised relationship with the pop star, Gomez said:
“I think there are hints of it, but I think what I was really excited about was the title of the album and the rebirth of Selena. It’s just beautiful. It’s my chance to just feel like an independent artist and I worked really hard on it. So I guess that’s just the vision. It’s all about my journey. It’s not about anything specific.”
“I’m just tired of talking about it. I never intended for my life to become a tabloid story.”
But Gomez is happy to speak about her new album. She recently appeared on The Cruz Show, where she said enthusiastically:
“I really trusted people and they heard me. They were really understood that I was fed up with everything. I was crying in the studio. Then I was happy in the studio. I recorded the best songs of my career in the studio. It was such a time for me to explore who I am… That was really important. I think that’s why we called it Revival. It’s the first song on the album.”
As she told Seacrest, comfort and confidence are realms that Gomez is welcoming warmly into her life, as she covers new artistic ground.
“I’m not the best singer in the world, but I know how to translate emotion…I’m just finding my strengths now as an artist. I’m becoming a young woman and I’m comfortable with my sensuality. It’s just kind of not try-hard. It’s just perfect. I think, to me, that was exactly what I want people to see for the next chapter for me.”
All photographs © Jeff Hahn.
