With festival season in full bloom, get ready to expand your musical repertoire with these chic music mavens.
Taylor Momsen
In case you hadn’t noticed, Taylor Momsen is little Jenny Humphrey no longer. The former “Gossip Girl” star didn’t just grow up — she started a band, the Pretty Reckless, and adopted the kind of look that sends Upper East Side types into a tizzy. Not that the 20-year-old New Yorker should care. Her band’s second album, “Going to Hell,” drops Tuesday, and its second single, ‘Heaven Knows,’ just hit No. 1 on the Active Rock chart. The Pretty Reckless play the Music Hall of Williamsburg next month.
What do you like to wear onstage?
“I have been designing my own stage clothes for some time now, and my go-to outfit currently is black leather pants and the “Going to Hell” cross-tank dress that I’ve handmade.”
Is fashion important to your performances?
“I think that fashion and music are very much intertwined, and image is one powerful way to express yourself. Our songs are honest and raw, and my stage clothes represent how I’m feeling. They’ve got to allow me to move and both look good and be functional.”
Any style icons or influences?
“Generally, yes, but not really in a specific way. There are people whose fashion sense I admire, but I’m more influenced by my own taste.”
Do you like the style scene in New York?
“Fashion is synonymous with New York in my eyes. I’ll be honest, and it might surprise you, but I don’t actually love shopping, but when I do, I have my favorite stores around New York that I always have to visit — Trash and Vaudeville and places like that. They’ve really supported my music, and I’m glad there’s still some rock and roll in NYC . . . it will be back.”
What’s the best article of clothing you’ve ever bought or been given?
“My leather jacket. It goes with me everywhere.”
Oh Land
Oh Land is 28-year-old Nanna Øland Fabricius, whose invigorating pop single “White Nights” you probably fell in love with at the end of the epic Season 1 warehouse party episode of “Girls.” The colorful, Copenhagen-born singer lives in Williamsburg, and has worked her fearless style in the pages of glossies like Elle and Marie Claire. Her third and latest album, “Wish Bone,” is out now.
What do you like to wear onstage?
“My onstage style is not too different from my everyday style. I like flamboyant elements paired with really grounded things like sneakers or men’s shoes. My fave at the moment are my Nike Air Max glow-in-the-darks.”
Is fashion important to your performances?
“It doesn’t make music sound better, but it is interesting to look at. You get your war paint on, and you are ready to go out there and slay! I can’t wear onstage what I’ve been wearing all day; there needs to be a change involved — it’s ceremonial.”
Do you like to shop?
“I do a lot of browsing, but I rarely buy. I mostly shop via eBay. I find secondhand pieces that are unique and full of history. The last piece I got was a Japanese silk bomber jacket from the ’70s.”
Any favorite designers or stores?
“I think my favorite store in NYC is Opening Ceremony. It’s so colorful and edible, and all the clothes look like really expensive candy!”
Do you have any style icons or influences?
“When I was younger I loved the styles of Lauryn Hill and Björk and John Lennon. My friends called me John Lennon because I wore those glasses. I think now I’m mostly inspired by people I see in the streets who have great style — mostly old ladies.”
How would you compare New York fashion to Copenhagen fashion?
“New York fashion is more black and minimal, with a rock ’n’ roll edge. And a bit masculine. Danish fashion is usually more playful and colorful — lots of prints with a more feminine softness.”
Say Lou Lou
Say hello to twin sisters Miranda and Elektra Kilbey, together known as Say Lou Lou. They’re 22, half-Swedish, half-Australian, and 100 percent retro glamour. The siblings split time between Stockholm and Sydney, and last month, V magazine put them on the multi-cover spring music issue (Haim, below, also scored a spot). Following a year of seductive singles — the latest, “Everything We Touch,” is a true gem — and dreamy videos, look forward to their debut record of melancholic electro-pop due this September.
Could you describe the differences, or similarities, in each of your styles?
Miranda: “I’ve always been slightly more androgynous-looking than Elektra. I’m like the mutated boy-girl twin. And since I was a kid, I’ve always preferred boyish clothes. I’m a trousers-and-shirt type, either wide suit pants or black cigarette pants. Elektra and I share pretty much all of our clothes, but we match them differently; she makes the garments look more feminine and glamorous somehow.”
Elektra: “I’m also a pants kind of girl, and I like button-downs and loose-fitting tops. But [unlike] Miranda, I love wearing boots and heels — maybe that’s the thing that makes me more feminine? Big hair is also kind of my thing. Also, I absolutely adore dresses and skirts, and think they are so romantic, but have a hard time finding ones that fit me.”
Is fashion important to your performances?
Miranda: “Feeling confident and comfortable is what’s most important, so what we wear is definitely a variable. We try to get stuff that we feel we look good in — that’s simple.”
Elektra: “Nothing too tight or any sticky synthetic materials or uncomfortable shoes if we’re doing a long performance.”
Any favorite designers or stores?
Miranda: “We usually buy our clothes secondhand.”
Elektra: “We tend to fall in love with collections rather than designers and brands. We love whoever does the best flared suit!”
What’s the best thing you’ve ever purchased or been given, fashion-wise?
Miranda: “A pair of gold woven flared pants our mum bought in the ’70s and passed on to us.”
Elektra: “A pair of black leather knee-high lace-up boots from a market in London. I wear them every day.”
Do you have any style icons or influences?
Miranda: “People who stick with their style [with] effortlessness and confidence. Bryan Ferry and Charlotte Rampling are icons.”
Elektra: “I like glamour as well, like models in older Guy Bourdin photography or Jerry Hall.”
What do you think about NYC style?
Miranda: “So mixed. In one way, it’s very urban and almost a bit hippie, which I like, but in another, [it’s] quite posh and preppy.”
Elektra: “People seem to dress like they are always going somewhere interesting!”
Alexis Krauss
Greenpoint’s Alexis Krauss, 28, is the female half of Sleigh Bells (the boy in the band is Derek Miller), and if you’ve seen “Spring Breakers” or “Premium Rush,” you’re already familiar with their high-octane sound. Sleigh Bells’ latest album, “Bitter Rivals,” hit in October, but don’t be surprised if the band busts out “Crown on the Ground” (the hyperactive tune Sofia Coppola chose for “The Bling Ring” trailer) when they perform at Coachella next month.
What do you like to wear onstage?
“I usually only wear Keds onstage. They’re super classic. But I love to take really basic pieces like a pair of denim shorts and customize them. Every record cycle, I love having a custom statement piece. It sort of makes each tour feel unique to me, and also to my fans, because each record represents a different aesthetic.”
Is fashion important to your performances?
“It’s very important in the sense that when we step onstage as a band we are representing something unique, and by unique I mean a specific aesthetic. What [my bandmate] Derek and I are wearing reflects the music. The music comes first — everything is inspired by the music and the record.”
Do you like to shop?
“I do, but pretty much every piece of clothing that I wear comes from somebody I know. Either we designed it together or they have given it to me. There is an intimacy involved in the process, and it’s less about having money and going to buy all these clothes and more about carefully crafting pieces that are important to me, and that come from direct relationships that I have with designers and friends.”
Is there anyone in particular that you’d like to name drop?
“There’s a great label called Obesity and Speed. [New York-based designer] Liz Olko is a great friend of mine, and I’ve supported her collection for a while, so she has done a lot of stuff for me.”
Any style icons or influences?
“For this record, we were listening to a lot of early Janet Jackson, specifically ‘Rhythm Nation,’ which is such a fierce song and record. Her styling is great. It’s just a perfect balance — tough but feminine.”
What are your thoughts on NYC style?
“I’ve traveled all over the world at this point, and I still think that New York is the best city for fashion. There are just certain basics that everybody knows, even if it’s a black tee, black leather jacket and black boots. It has this simplicity about it that I love. It never feels like it’s trying too hard, and I think that’s definitely been an inspiration.”
Angel Haze
Angel Haze is a sly style devil. Since putting out her first EP in 2012, the 22-year-old rapper, born Raykeea Wilson in Detroit, has gone from relative unknown to sitting next to the likes of Kanye West at Givenchy shows. Download her debut album “Dirty Gold,” which dropped back in December. Although originally scheduled for release this month, she leaked it herself — devil-may-care, indeed.
What do you like to wear onstage?
“I like to look either very gaudy or very dark and goth-y. It has to be breathable because I do a lot of running and jumping and air guitar and dancing in the crowd. So it has to be tough — so tough that it can’t be ripped — but still very fly for me. For festival season, I wore a bunch of whites, taupes and grays onstage and a lot of [designers such as] J.W. Anderson and Alex Mattsson, who made a whole mesh outfit for me.”
Do you think that fashion is important to your performances?
“Of course. If you go out onstage in sweatpants and a hoodie no one is going to want to take pictures of you.”
Do you have any favorite designers or stores?
“Rick Owens, Raf Simons . . . I love Givenchy’s Riccardo [Tisci], Versace, a lot of the pieces from Helmut Lang and Phillip Lim. I just have so many different people that I like to mix and match from that it’s crazy.”
Are you a shopper?
“I love to shop. I just went to Skingraft yesterday, this boutique in LA, and I bought a whole outfit to come to New York. So unnecessary, but necessary at the same time.”
Any style icons or influences?
“I used to idolize Grace Jones and all the females who are very avant-garde and masculine. I love [model] Willy Cartier. He looks amazing in everything he wears, and it’s always very feminine and masculine at the same time. So anyone who is androgynous.”
Do you have any thoughts on NYC style?
“Well, now everyone looks so cloaked and layered and grungy. Everyone is wearing black and Pyrex and goth flannel T-shirts with the little fedora hats. It’s cool, I enjoy it.”
And you live in Los Angeles now?
“Yeah, I live in Los Angeles now. Everyone is a lot more colorful here. Everybody tries to be different, actively, whereas if you go to New York, you know who the fashion kids are because they all dress the same.”
Liza Thorn
It would be impossible to put shoegaze siren Liza Thorn, 28, and fashion in the same sentence without mentioning Hedi Slimane, the incendiary creative director of Saint Laurent who’s made her one of his rock muses. Following last year’s tour with Courtney Love (for whom she and Starred bandmate Matthew Koshak opened), the Bay Area native is busy working on an upcoming debut album, “Fall Into Light,” release TBD, which will be dedicated to one of her biggest idols, late rock legend Lou Reed.
What do you like to wear onstage?
“I like texture, fur, long things, fringe; I like things that catch onto other things, tight pants, you know, rock ’n’ roll anytime.”
Do you think that fashion is important to your performances?
“I don’t think about it, but clearly people think I’ve got something going on because I keep getting these phone calls. It’s like I stand out somehow ’cause I do it differently. Maybe it’s because I grew up on this hippie-commune-Buddhist farm, and I’d always go thrifting. The clothes you find at the thrift store are from some other era. Some dead person who died and maybe they have the same size shoe as you so you get all their shoes, and you got some other dead person’s fur carry-on and it starts to become kind of a look. That’s the root of it, basically. I wear a lot of Ann Taylor also, from the ’70s and ’80s.”
What does it feel like to be a muse?
“I don’t think of myself . . . I mean, I don’t know . . . you know? I don’t want to answer that question! I don’t view myself in that way. I’m an artist. We did a song for the Saint Laurent Web site that [Slimane] used just like any one of my other artist friends. I mean he’s great. I love Hedi, he’s a sweetheart, but I don’t think it’s something to mull over.”
Do you have any icons or style influences?
“Maybe unconsciously. I grew up idolizing punk rock, and I grew up in the ’90s. I was born in 1985, so do the math. All those kids in Riot grrrl and stuff. I wear what’s comfortable pretty much, and comfort is a big fur monkey coat right now [laughs].”
How would you compare New York style to fashion in the Bay Area, where you’re from?
“People in New York wear a lot of black [laughs]. People in California, especially in San Francisco, thrift-store shop, and wear less black in general. I think it’s just the vibe in New York — you feel like you have to be tougher. My friend gave me one of these [leather jackets] like, ‘You’re gonna need this when you move to New York ’cause you gotta be tough like the Ramones!”
What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought or been given, fashion-wise?
“All of my friends give me clothes. This [aforementioned fur] coat I’m wearing, Courtney Love gave to me as a present. It’s like we were ending the tour and she gave it to me as a goodbye — well not goodbye, because we live in the same city, but a present, so that was nice.”
Haim
Haim is the last name of LA sisters Este, 28, Danielle, 25, and Alana, 22, who’ve swept the blinged-out music scene with an easy, effortless style to match the home-spun realness of their music. The trio’s first album, “Days Are Gone,” topped many a year’s best list when it hit last fall. They play Terminal 5 in May, so catch them if you can — the two shows have already sold out.
What do you girls like to wear onstage?
Este: “I like wearing dresses, Danielle likes wearing black jeans and boots and leather vests with white T-shirts and Alana’s always wearing shorts, but it all comes down to what makes us feel most confident and comfortable. We’re all creatures of comfort, and we love a good leather jacket — our favorites are Acne.”
Do you think that fashion is important to your performances?
Este: “It is an expression of who you are, but for us it’s all about how you feel that day, and having fun with it and not really taking it too seriously, because we don’t really take anything too seriously — except for our music. But it would be remiss of me to say fashion doesn’t influence music, and I think music influences fashion. They have a very dialectical relationship.”
Do you have any favorite designers or stores?
Este: “We’re big fans of Acne and Chloé, and we love Isabel Marant. My savings account is literally dedicated to Isabel Marant. And then we were lucky enough to wear Saint Laurent to the Brit [Awards, last month]. It was an amazing moment for us. Saint Laurent is made for really confident girls who like to have fun. All the brands we like — there’s this effortless fun about them.”
Have you checked out the new Acne store in LA?
Este: “Yeah! We went to the opening, it was amazing.”
Danielle: “It’s exactly what LA needed. It’s right in the middle of downtown in an area where things have just now started to pop up, so I really think they’re ahead of the curve. We love their clothes — simple with a little bit of edge.”
Do you have any style icons or influences?
Danielle: I’m a huge Amelia Earhart fan. All the leathers, the goggles — everything that she wore was definitely menswear-inspired, but she made it her own in a feminine way. I love looking at old pictures of her.”
Este: “I’m really inspired by Selena. I love her bustiers, the flowy skirts. Everything she wore she could dance in, and I think that’s really important — feeling free in the clothes you’re wearing.”
What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought or been given?
Este: “I was on tour, in Kansas I think, and in a teeny, tiny thrift shop, I found a Chanel leather jacket. Well, I don’t know if it was real or not, but the label said Chanel. It was a motorcycle jacket with a bunch of gold beads all over it. I think I paid 70 bucks for it. Literally a week later, I put it down at a show, and someone swiped it! But honestly, the way I see it, something that’s that magical shouldn’t just belong to one person — it needs to be shared.”