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.”
“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.