The fashion rumor mill is once again, well, milling. Karl Lagerfeld is said to be in talks to feature fifteen-year old Frances Bean Cobain, offspring of Kurt and Courtney, as the face of the next round of ads for Chanel. I have two antithetical thoughts on this, and they are at absolute odds.
What better way to rep this mood than with the version 2.0 of the quintessential 90’s alt rock superstars, the frontman for Nirvana and the perpetually newsworthy, slightly off-kilter Courtney Love, she of askew tiara and ripped baby doll dress fame. The idea is inspired, and yet something about it clashes more than a buffalo plaid flannel paired with a floral mini and Doc Martens.
My opposition can be summed up neatly: the offspring of a celebrity are not in and of themselves a celebrity. It should be one of Newton’s laws.
The degree of tragedy Francis Bean has endured has been widely publicized. Losing her father at a shockingly young age to a drug overdose, and having her mother in and out of her life more times than she’s been in and out of rehab are wounds that do not heal easily. I do not minimize any of that, but in the spirit of Rumor Willis, I have to ask, what other than the fact that the young Cobain was born to two famous parents, even one thought of as the voice of an entire generation, makes her notable?
