Bohemian Fashion Muse

“I was wearing this amazing vintage bright pink Christian Lacroix dressing gown, which was kind of ideal to receive news like that,” Ms. Welch said in a recent phone interview, sounding tired after a lengthy recording session. “It has these incredible shoulder pads, and I sometimes wear it with this feather headdress — it’s like the cowboys and Indians flimsy kind — that my sister made. It makes me feel like I’m in ‘Gone with the Wind.’ ” Ms. Welch, who is 24, almost six feet tall and model-lanky, has emerged as a refreshing new fashion muse on the music scene. Unlike so many of her young contemporaries (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry), who are groomed so glossily that they could double as Comic-Con characters, Ms. Welch wears her hair disheveled and favors loose peasant blouses and billowing cape-sleeved dresses. (Children of the 1970s might be reminded of Carly Simon’s look on the cover of her album “Anticipation.”) “I’ve always been attracted to romantic secondhand clothes,” said Ms. Welch, who has a strong jaw line, long nose and gray-green eyes that turn down at the corners. “But my style developed as I started going to these strange raves where everybody had these very definitive costumes.” Ms. Welch was raised in London and developed her bohemian style playing dress-up and “fishing around in secondhand stores.” She and her school friends would pool their lunch money and use it in turns on thrift-store shopping sprees. She later studied art at Camberwell College in London before pursuing a music career. “I like the idea of taking off like a bird,” she said of the cape sleeves that are part of her signature look. During a December performance of her uplifting single “Dog Days are Over” at Don Hill’s in West SoHo, as the models Karen Elson and Jenny Shimizu shimmied on the banquettes, Ms. Welch worked with the exaggerated silhouette by lifting and twirling her arms in hippie-child ecstasy. “It’s this romantic idea that the music could literally lift me off the stage,” she said. Fashion companies have been quick to capitalize on this gypsy-like allure. Shortly before the 2009 release of Florence and the Machine’s debut album, “Lungs,” the fast-fashion retailer Topshop approached Ms. Welch about designing her stage attire for the Glastonbury Festival that year. “She’s a born showgirl,” said Topshop’s head designer, Jacqui Markham, who collaborated with Ms. Welch on three costumes, including a bodysuit with dramatically fringed neckline and sleeves. “She has a natural playfulness and innate quirkiness about her.” Noticeably, since the album became a hit, Ms. Welch’s wardrobe has accelerated to considerably more luxurious looks, including the Roksanda Ilincic asymmetrical black silk gown with lace detailing she wore to the 2010 Brit Awards last February; a peekaboo Chanel black chiffon dress with embellished panels at the 2010 V Festival in August; and a gold floor-length gown with leaf embroidery, by Elie Saab, at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Then there was the stunning long-sleeved Givenchy fall 2010 couture gold lace gown she donned for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, which some online commenters deemed too sophisticated for the event.