Frances Bean Cobain, 19, is lovely and tatted up in new portrait
Frances’ mother Courtney Love has of course chimed in. She quipped “I don’t know how the entire f’ing news media has my phone number. It’s like when Amy Winehouse died — everyone called.” Then she bragged about herself randomly and ultimately said she was proud of her daughter, but didn’t realize how many tattoos Frances had. Frances hasn’t seem her mom in ages obviously, and that’s surely the best course for her.
We get requests occasionally to cover Frances Bean Cobain, the 19 year-old daughter of batsh*t crazy Courtney Love and the late great Kurt Cobain. I think it’s because we covered Frances’ suicide-themed sweet 16 party after she posted the photos on MySpace. It was dumb and arguably insensitive to have a “suicide” party, given how her dad allegedly died, but Frances was just a kid and you would expect her mother to tell her “no,” which obviously did not happen.
Anyway it’s a few years later and Frances is older and hopefully wiser. She’s been estranged from her insane mom for some time, and now she’s ready to step back into the spotlight. MTV’s style blog and Stylecaster have run two series of photos of Frances by photographer Hedi Slimane. Frances is wearing her own clothing and styling. She looks stunning. In one series she’s a little rough around the edges and looking rock and roll. The Angelina Jolie comparisons are obvious. In another that was just released she’s elegant in vintage-style clothing and looking a little like Evan Rachel Wood. The NY Times called the first set of photos “one of the most anticipated comings of age in recent pop cultural history.”
These are beautiful photos, but they feel wrong to me somehow, like she shouldn’t be out in the public eye like this. She’s old enough though at 19 and she looks so self-possessed here. This is a young woman who can definitely hold her own. Frances has a Twitter account where she doesn’t post much and comes across well when she does. She writes that this photo is her favorite:
Frances’ mother Courtney Love has of course chimed in. She quipped “I don’t know how the entire f’ing news media has my phone number. It’s like when Amy Winehouse died — everyone called.” Then she bragged about herself randomly and ultimately said she was proud of her daughter, but didn’t realize how many tattoos Frances had. Frances hasn’t seem her mom in ages obviously, and that’s surely the best course for her.
