Ellie Goulding preferred "men's style" when she was growing up.

Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding

The 32-year-old pop star has opened up about her own personal style and how her wardrobe has evolved over her long-running career, and the 'Hate Me' songstress insists she always "loved fashion" and would copy Courtney Love and Gwen Stefani's signature "grunge" styles because she thought it "looked cool".

She said: "I loved Gwen Stefani. Brody from The Distillers, Courtney Love. I loved a grunge look. I think I preferred the men's style. I copied guys in bands, like Incubus. I did love fashion, but I knew I wouldn't be seen dead in a dress. I just wanted to look cool."

The 'Sixteen' singer also recalled wearing "big flared jeans" and "hoodies" when she was growing up in Herefordshire, England, because she would go to raves in the countryside where everyone wore the same clothes.

She shared: "I grew up in the English countryside, and I grew up on a mixture of folk music and a bit of rave music because out in the countryside, we didn't have country music, we just had rave music and dance music and we'd have these raves out in the countryside, in the fields and forests and stuff.

"We did wear hoodies, but we also wore big, flared jeans. We wore these sort of '70s jeans, but it was very grunge. Everyone just copied each other, and everyone copied their idols and bands. Punk bands and stuff like that."

Since then, Ellie's style has become more refined, and she has praised her new stylist, Nathan Klein, who worked on her 2018 music video 'Close To Me', for having such "amazing visions".

Opening up about the visual, Ellie told W magazine: "That's my new stylist, Nathan, who is a genius. He's a wizard, he's an artist. He comes up with these amazing images and visions for me, and everything he puts me in I just love.

"Sometimes it's hard to find the right stylist and he just appreciates me as an artist, and really wants me to shine through what I wear. 'Close To Me' was his first project with me."