Dannii Minogue on accepting herself: 'There was nothing wrong with me - I was just petite'

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Dannii Minogue has admitted that she spent many years questioning whether her body was weird.

The Australian singer was speaking on White Wine Question Time about how, in her early 20s, a conversation with a seamstress who was altering her clothes, changed her perception of herself.

“I said, ‘I don't know what's wrong with me that I have to do this every time I buy something,’” Minogue recalled.

“And she said ‘There nothing wrong with you… You're petite. So the measurements of your neck is shorter, your torso is shorter, your legs are shorter, your arms are shorter, your shoulders are narrower. Everything's different, so much so that you have to start with a different pattern!”

Listen: Dannii Minogue talks about the time her and sister Kylie surprised their parents – on stage at The Royal Albert Hall

The former X Factor judge said it was the first time that she realised she wasn’t alone, and that others like her had similar problems while out shopping.

“I could have cried. It was this penny drop moment, this lightbulb, when I was like, ‘There's nothing wrong with me!’" the singer told podcast host Kate Thornton.

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Despite being selected as one of Vogue’s most stylish women in the world, as a 20-something Minogue struggled with shopping as nothing available would fit her.

“I'd walk into the stores jealous as anything!” she laughed.

"Right, there's regular clothes, there's maternity clothes and there's plus size — and I still don't fit into anything. I don't exist, I'm not represented.”

This lack of available clothing led Minogue to create her own petite clothing range in Australia six years ago. It was another emotional moment for the star, particularly when she commissioned a petite mannequin to be made.

“When I went to the guy who makes mannequins in Australia, he said, it's the first petite mannequin I've ever made,” she recalled.

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“And I thought, ‘Well, I will cry when I see it because I'm sick of shopping in the kid’s section and I've never ever walked into a store in my life and seen a mannequin that I feel like is me. So it was very emotional.”

The star, who resides in Melbourne, is now bringing a petite range to the UK. Available via QVC, it’s taken two and a half years for the range to be launched, and it’s been a real labour of love for the singer, who has been fully involved with the design process.

“I've had these beautiful moments with people that work at QVC that are also petite,” she told Thornton.

“We're in meetings and we've been teary, because we had that moment where you know, that experience of feeling wrong or not good enough. Or you've got to wear a dress to a meeting and you're going to be embarrassed because it's going to slip off your shoulder if you haven't had time to go and get it altered.

"Or you’re secretly in the toilet, like with a safety pin pinning it up, because that's all you can do in that moment to make it work. I've done it all, and that connection with other women who know what it is magical.”

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Her one big hope for the range, which goes from size 6–22, is that women in the UK can understand that they’re not alone and can finally find perfect outfits for those important experiences in their life.

“I hope that now, by bringing the petite clothing to the UK, I can give a whole bunch of women the confidence to know you're not alone,” she said.

She continued: “There's nothing wrong with you. You're not weird. You're just petite… And that's it. It's not just another clothing range, it's not a celebrity range, it's a moment, it's a space for people to come together and just really celebrate themselves.”

Dannii Minogue’s Fashion and Jewellery range for petite women is available now exclusively at QVC UK

Hear Dannii Minogue talk about what it’s been like working on The Masked Singer in Australia during the pandemic on the latest episode of White Wine Question Time. Listen now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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