These are photos of Rita Ora’s street style over the past few days. She (or someone else) puts a ton of effort in what she wears on her pap walks. She’s a pop star, and the paparazzi help create a pop star’s image. The symbiotic relationship between stars and the photogs cannot be denied. Rita’s style is questionable, but it’s all about grabbing attention.

Rita has a new interview with the UK’s Evening Standard paper. She really thinks she’s arrived in the music industry. Has she? Rita is under Jay-Z’s label, but all of her hit singles have been duets or engineered by someone like Calvin Harris. Speaking of which, she sort of addresses the bad blood over her and Calvin’s bitter breakup. I think Rita’s full of nonsense, but she talks the talk. There’s something admirable about that. The journo comes out and calls her a name-dropper, which is funny. Some excerpts:

The intro: She tells me I can ask “what the f— I like.” She doesn’t “give two sh-ts about anyone’s opinion. This is who I am. Eat it.”

On fame: “It’s pretty lonely sometimes. It goes from being hectic, and then suddenly you’re in a hotel room, alone and all of a sudden it’s silence — and you’re like. ‘Hello? Helloooo?’” She’s been a fixture at celeb haunt Chiltern Firehouse. “It was a pretty nice gesture to be the first member. I was chuffed.”

She’ll name-drop happily: She starts a sentence: “I was talking to Beyoncé the other day.” And another: “Prince gave me some great advice but he wouldn’t let me steal any of his clothes. He’s surreal. He walks around in this floating prance.”

Rita’s in control now: “When I started I was only 17. I was overwhelmed with the power of men in the industry and the thinking that you have to fulfil somebody’s image. Obviously I love my record label. [My first album] was an amazing success but I wasn’t completely satisfied because I’d listened to a lot of men. I accepted tracks [they wanted] because, you know, it was a ‘legendary writer’ or something. This time, I feel more comfortable in my skin. I’m 23 and I’ve experienced a bit more. I’ve actually had fights about tracks that were not being approved by the label. Now I’m like, ‘I don’t care who wrote it’. And when someone says, ‘no this isn’t right,’ I say, ‘no this is f—ing right because it’s my album. That’s me being brutally honest.”

On the Calvin Harris feud: “Obviously the obvious happened. We broke up. But ‘I’ll Never Let You Down’ was made in such an honest space, even after we went our separate ways. It still represents what I was doing when I created it with him. It was a lovely summer song. It was the first time I’d written something really honest without anybody else’s input. Just his. It felt really liberating. But the songs that we did together didn’t make sense musically with the album because we did them a while ago.”

She’s image conscious: “There are bigger queens in the selfie world than me but I’m up there. You get to control your image. You take it out of other people’s hands. That’s why social media is amazing too. I put up the finger to other people’s opinions on my life: I love going out.”

She’s a feminist “in the Beyonce mould”: “That’s the perfect description. I am a woman, I’m outspoken and I support other females. I love what men do in the world but women have equal power.”

She gives the paps tea & sandwiches: “They’re all right. And we’ve created a little deal — certain times they need to leave me alone. Maybe at night-time.”

[From Evening Standard]

Do you believe Rita really doesn’t care what people think about her? Girlfriend feeds the paparazzi who follow her. No one does that without caring if and how they’re photographed. And no one dresses like this unless they want to be talked about. Maybe Rita honestly doesn’t care what people think about her … as long as they ARE thinking about her.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN