SCANDI RIOT GIRL: WHY THE COOL CROWD LOVES SIGRID

The festival-slayer singer-songwriter has gone from Norwegian cult act to darling of the front row and counting Charli xcx as a fan— Craig McLean finds her feet are still on the floor between red carpets

- Craig McLean

A drizzly Sunday in King’s Cross, the final day of the London Film Festival. It’s two hours until the closing night gala at the Royal Festival Hall, a screening of the elaborately costumed medieval fairytale satire 100 Nights of Hero, and here in musician Sigrid’s hotel room the vibe is exploding suitcases and movie premiere glitterbomb.

Sigrid — rushing after a delayed flight from her home in Oslo — is huddled in her bathroom at The Standard with her hair, makeup and styling team. The red carpet waits for no one, even if the star is only attending for fun, an amuse-bouche before the serious promotional business of album release week kicks in.

The dress code for tonight's event is, as the invitation has it, “smart” — with the caveat of “we welcome all interpretations of smart”. “Oops!” says Sigrid, beaming, as we survey the ruffled red skirt by Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen laid out on the bed. “I hope they think that’s smart. I do. I also think it’s a bit on-theme with the extra big skirt.” The matching blouse, however? Ditched for being on the see-through side of revealing. Sigrid — as her PR puts it, “never far from a T-shirt” — will instead wear a plain black top.

In an era of super-sexualised pop “girlies”, the 29-year-old is an outlier for twinning pop-forward tunes (Strangers, Sucker Punch) with what we might call a fashion-backward look. Jeans and a T-shirt have, brilliantly and consistently, been her standard look across the decade since she released her debut single, Don't Kill My Vibe, at 20. When its UK success helped her win the BBC's Sound of 2018 poll, she was the second-youngest winner of the award, beaten only by Adele.

As this down-to-earth, brightly engaging star says of her default style setting: “In practicality, it’s the Norwegian in me. You dress for the weather. You know it's going to be terrible, so jeans and T-shirt has been practical. And it’s one less thing to think about.”