.aesthetic talk
* Princess Gollum

written & interview Hannah Rose Prendergast
seen Kevin Amato / styled Turner Turner

Princess and Gollum have been joined together in holy matrimony since 2016. The persona is embodied by one Josephine Lee, a Korean-Californian model, and artist extraordinaire whose digital dwelling began a decade ago as @babyalmondeyes.

„My book is still unwritten.”

Growing up, she felt like an outcast, finding kinship in the “small, slimy creature” popularized by The Lord of the Rings. Over the years, she’s learned to own it, welcoming herself and fellow oddlings with open arms. In this exclusive interview with LE MILE, Princess Gollum shares her pearls of wisdom, feeling lost and found amidst the Y22K renaissance.  

Hannah Rose //
WWITHOUT QUEEN GOLLUM, THERE WOULD BE NO PRINCESS GOLLUM. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE MOST RECENT MEMORY YOU AND YOUR MOTHER MADE TOGETHER?
Princess Gollum //
My mother and I went outside for ice cream last Sunday, and a dream she had a while ago came back to her. In the dream, I was wearing a large bowl-ish hat filled with different types of ice cream. She said there were at least a hundred different flavors! One was bright orange and Pepto Bismol pink with greens, yellows, lavender, and a blue she had never seen before. I pulled two spoons out of my purse and made her try each one with me, and after every bite, we’d both go, “Mmmm...yummy!” I’m not sure why, but that story felt strangely so important to me.

WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES SOMETHING OR SOMEONE ‘NORMAL’?
Normal is a weird concept.

HOW DO YOU STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF IF ODDITY IS CONSIDERED THE NEW NORM?
I don’t think oddity is the new norm, but even if it is, I won’t change. I just couldn’t.
Perhaps in our fashion/beauty bubble, we’ve definitely seen a surge of the odd being represented and even celebrated. At first, it felt like a new renaissance – a true disturbance to the status quo, a real shift in attitudes about what’s been and cannot be or what works and what doesn’t – out of genuine intent to create better thought patterns for ourselves. I’m sensing from this question that maybe now it feels like a trend/exploitative, which is also true. When the pendulum swings all the way right, it’s going to have to swing back all the way to the left. It would be a shame to see all the work demanding and creating space for the representation of (other) shapes, tones, and sizes summed up to an era or a trend. But it’s human nature, and it’s 2022. In America, we’re headed into, if not already, a recession, gasoline is at an all-time high, crypto has crashed, skirts are the shortest they’ve ever been, dieting is back, and abortions are being criminalized; is this not Y22K?

Someone just reminded me of The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, and this book really covers what we’re talking about. There’s a group of Star-Belly Sneetches and a group without. When the group without started teasing the ones that did, they wanted nothing to do with them. Then an entrepreneurial character who’s been watching the conflict unfold brings the Plain-Belly Sneetches a machine to give them a Star-Belly, charging them a handsome price. When the original Star-Bellies realize this, they go back to the machine and ask for their stars to be removed. You end up with this really amazing visual of all the Sneetches lined up in a never-ending cycle of trying to be different only to end up being all the same. I just told you the whole story, but you should definitely read it sometime. It’s one of my favorites.

HOW ARE YOU STAYING SANE AT THE MOMENT?
Currently, I’m trying to find a balance to all the chaos in my life. I think some of us get dealt an unusual hand of situations out of our control, and my experience here has been finding my own way out of all of the things from my past that hold me back. A lot of this happens mentally. When people say your biggest enemy is yourself, I really feel that deeply. Losing my sense of balance takes me off path. Then you find yourself and realize you had to lose yourself. The process of rediscovery, adding all the new experiences and perspectives into the next transformation – that’s how I live my life.

YOUR TWITTER HANDLE REMAINS @WIFISLILANGEL. ARE YOU KEEPING THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION OPEN WITH YOUR PAST AND PRESENT SELF?
I actually didn’t get a chance to grab @princessgollum; someone beat me to it! I tried to reach out, but I don’t think I got a response. But as you said, it does feel like I’m bringing one of my older OG versions with me. On Twitter, I like to be a bit more cyber, emo, and sh*tpost, so I’m leaning into my early Y2K cyber health goth phase that later evolved into who we all know to be Princess Gollum.

YOU’VE RECENTLY VENTURED INTO THE WORLD OF NFT’S. WHAT’S THAT PROCESS BEEN LIKE FOR YOU AS AN ARTIST?
Chaotic.

CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT MORE ABOUT YOUR JEWELRY BRAND SPITSNOT? WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO CREATE IT?
Once upon a time, there lived a pair of evil twins, Spit and Snot. This is you and your alter ego; one’s a bit more commercial, and the other is high-fashion editorial. Their main objective in life is to wreak havoc wherever they go and cause the most ruckus. Plus, I’ve always loved hard metals, especially sterling white silver. Alex [Irani] from AI Studios helped me concoct the Paralysis Hair Swords. These mean a lot to me, from working with the team to learning the process and seeing how much love is put into the craft.

IF YOU COULD COLLABORATE WITH BJORK, WHAT WOULD THAT LOOK LIKE?
What if Bjork was an AI designer, and I had a team (Arca would definitely be the right-hand bot) of AIs supporting her to concoct looks for her army’s rebirth? There will be multiple wide screens where you can try looks on and off based on the bots' temperament and the things they daydream about. I would love to explore bugs, utopia, and flute fairies but also invite her to a darker side of it all. She gives each one special love and care, and we could get micro beauty shots of certain bionic parts growing out of the temples of our heads, breasts, and Achilles heels. Perhaps each one could play an instrument that also acts as a very detrimental weapon to combat the evils we face in the outside world. Once all the attention has gone to pre-creating, Bjork will birth us one by one and shower us with her love as we go out to fight in peace. I want to make a movie. It would also be fun to have one day where she dresses/styles me however she’d like, recreating it in the metaverse and then superimposing it IRL space. Role reversing where I get to dress/style her in a 2022 PG original look would also be a dream come true.

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT HALLOWEEN?
I love everything about it – the mood, the color palette, the fonts, and not to mention all the looks. But my favorite part of spooky season would be walking outside looking like my normal self and getting so many compliments on my “costume.” It just makes me laugh so much.

HOW IS YOUR BOOK COMING ALONG?
My book is still unwritten.

WHAT SONG PLAYS IN YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
Lately, I wish I woke up with a song in my head, but it’s been silence, birds chirping, then construction. The city’s always a work in progress.

WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT, PRINCESS GOLLUM?
This might not be a popular thing to do, especially if you are in Paris reading this, but I’ve been trying to cut down/quit smoking. It’s made me think about every single thing I do and feel each day differently. This is probably the trickiest and most frustrating personal project I’ve been working on that I had to get help with. Hopefully, soon I can share this in the best way, but for now, look out for a little big BLIP!