No Doubt Scrapbook

Hey, Baby

California dreamer Gwen Stefani has proven that she’s much more than “just a girl in the world.” Here the pop icon, new mom, and fashionista gets real about her baby, her band, and living in a bubble.

It’s Friday night in N.Y.C. when Gwen Stefani enters the conference room at the Ritz-Carlton, where I’ve been waiting for over an hour. There aren’t fireworks or rounds of applause or any big fanfare - actually, it’s not much different than when I entered the room, except that she’s Gwen Stefani and, well, I’m me. Her platinum hair is perfectly coiffed; her eyelashes are thick with mascara. She’s wrapped up in a long black coat that she seems to be getting lost in, and she’s holding her seven-month-old son, Kingston, who is decked out in a L.A.M.B onesie. It’s exactly what I imagined that scene would be like. Read the rest of this article »

The good girl

Gwen Stefani’s new single, “Wind It Up,” celebrates her lifelong obsession with Maria from ‘The Sound of Music.’ Yet the singer says her latest stylistic muse is Michelle Pfeiffer’s drug-addled bombshell from ‘Scarface.’ As she prepares to release her second solo CD, the new mom talks about the unlikely people, places, and events that have shaped her career, her wardrobe - and her yodeling. By Clark Collis. Photographs by James Dimmock.

These are a few of Gwen Stefani’s favorite things: ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘The Sound of Music,’ and, oh yes, ‘The Sound of Music.’ “I’m like a Trekkie, but for ‘The Sound of Music,’ ” says the No Doubt frontwoman and solo superstar. “The first time I ever went on stage, at a high school talent show, the dress that I wore was the dress that Maria wears when she sings ‘I Have Confidence.’ The drop-waist tweed dress. I had that dress. I made it.” Read the rest of this article »

Working Girl

She works hard for the money, and she ain’t no hollaback girl, but now that the world has embraced Gwen Stefani as the platinum bomb, will she ever find a simple kind of life?

The popular television series The OC and Laguna Beach have made Southern California’s Orange County and attitude like, totally rad. They portray the laidback lifestyle of perfectly aligned palm trees, lazy afternoons, and never-ending spring breaks. Meanwhile, the most famous OC girl of them all, Gwen Stefani, is quietly building her empire as the hardest working girl in show business. Last year, we saw her playing Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, and this year she is high off the phenomenal success of her first solo album - having already achieved worldwide domination as front woman of No Doubt - and summer anthems “Hollaback Girl” and “Cool.” She is also busy spearheading not one but two clothing lines: L.A.M.B (which shares a name with her Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album) and the newly launched Harajuku Lovers. Read the rest of this article »

Crazy Sexy Cool

When queen of cool, Gwen Stefani, scheduled downtime with CG!, we hit her with your must-know questions on guys, fashion and, erm, bananas…

I love your solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Would you have tried this kind of music if you were still in No Doubt? Louise, 15, Essex
What happened was we’d made made a record and after that we said, “We’re going on a break.” No Doubt had never taken a break in 17 years. So I said to Tony [Kamal, No Doubt bass player and Gwen's ex], “Wouldn’t it be fun to do a dance record while we’re on the break, the sort of fun songs we listened to in high school?” So the idea was to work with new people and then return to No Doubt, but I never thought my solo album would be this successful. Read the rest of this article »

She’s just a girl

Gwen Stefani’s rock’n'roll-meets-red-carpet style takes over the world. By Michele Sponagle. Photography by Max Abadian.

From where she sits, on top of the world, Gwen Stefani might now believe the lightening can strike in the same place more than once. In the past six months, she’s accomplished more than many artists do in a lifetime.

While she experienced much success with her band No Doubt (more than 30 million records sold), it seems that the turbo boosters of fame have pushed her to even greater heights, beginning with Love.Angel.Music.Baby. Her first solo CD has already sold more than three million copies, racking up three successful singles so far (including the current radio fave, “Hollaback Girl”). Read the rest of this article »

Gwen Stefani: “I’m a very different girl than I used to be”

Gwen Stefani’s own brand of sexy-cool has made her a style icon. With her first solo album and a line of clothes she’s designing herself, Stefani races into the future. Here, the songstress talks about staying true to herself through the firestorm of fame, her hope for a baby, and the real reason she wears those big, baggy jeans. By Susan Swimmer.

After years of fronting the Grammy-award-winning band No Doubt, Gwen Stefani decided it was time to branch out. She’s “on fire right now,” and who can argue? Her first solo album, a hip-hop inspired dance fest called Love. Angel. Music. Baby, was released in November 2004 and has already gone platinum; she’s just completed a European tour; the clothing line she designs, called L.A.M.B for short, is wildly successful; and a line of accessories and T-shirts called Harajuku Lovers - directly tied to her album - is set to launch this fall. It’s no wonder Stefani’s quirky sense of cool is now the backbone of her very own fashion empire - her sexy-sweet, gender-bending looks have inspired everyone from mall rats to rap moguls, changing the way the world thinks about style. For Stefani, life doesn’t imitate art, her life is her art. Read the rest of this article »

Everyone has a view on Gwen Stefani:

She’s a punk-rock pin-up, a female David Bowie, the new princess of pop, a style icon, a hip-hop superstar, a movie starlet, the red-carpet goddess, a cultural chameleon. Just don’t call her a faker…

“What I would say to those people,” spits Stefani in her helium-tipped Cali-purr, “is do your research. I was in a band with all guys since I was 16 years old. I’ve been in a fucking rock band touring the fucking world for eighteen years. So if you’re gonna try and erase that, then I’m gonna stick my finger right up in your face. ‘Cos you know what? I did it. And you try and be a girl and do that in 1987. Read the rest of this article »

Gwen cuts loose

The reigning queen of rock & roll is flying solo for the first time in her career, and life is pretty sweet. It’s also an emotional roller coaster.

The lobby of New York’s Mercer Hotel is a haven of downtown chic - all angular furniture in shades of eggplant, with oblong over-sized lampshades atop carved wooden posts. A wall lined with bookshelves displays volumes on Toulouse Lautrec, Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol alongside studies of designers Vivienne Ta, and Salvatore Ferragamo and anthologies on modernist architecture. The place is, as Gwen Stefani puts it, “super-frickin’ trendy cool,” the kind of hotel where everybody pretends not to notice when Nicky Hilton saunters past the reception desk. Read the rest of this article »

Gwen Born Again!

She’s hot, she’s the most beloved pop star in America, and now No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani is about to break out as a solo artist and Hollywood actress. Story by Jessica Hundley, Photography by Mark Squires, Styling by Andrea Lieberman.

She’s not the new Madonna. Sure, there are similarities - the platinum blond hair, silent screen vamping, the ever-evolving, always iconic style. But Gwen Stefani is defiantly her own woman. Rather than strained self-seriousness and ice-cool divadom, Stefani possesses the air of a girl midway down the first drop of a really badass roller coaster, an air of glee and triumph and just a touch of wonder, as if she still can’t quite believe she dared get on the ride in the first place. Read the rest of this article »