My Style: Little Boots

(Abbie Trayler-Smith)

Occupation: Singer
Age: 24
Personal style: Cosmic disco doll

James Sherwood: In the 1920s you'd have been called an "It" girl. I haven't even heard you sing but I know you have the charisma to fill stadiums.

Little Boots: I started playing the piano when I was five, started to write in my early teens, then studied classical music. You have to understand the rules before breaking them.

JS: What do you bring to British pop?

LB: I don't think anyone else new has my sense of drama and epic-ness: where's the next Kate Bush or David Bowie?

JS: So you're not a fan of Duffy or Lily Allen?

LB: I'm not interested in music that reflects normal life: 'I've got spots and my boyfriend hates me' kind of lyrics. I'm more drawn to Bowie arriving on stage riding a giant spider.

JS: Yet you'd don't dress like Cher.

LB: I tend to wear Studio 54 disco dresses on stage. I'm also into magic and fantasy: T-shirts printed with dreamy images of noble beasts.

JS: Like the one you're wearing?

LB: Yes. You have to go to really grungy second-hand shops to find T-shirts with prints I like – badly drawn unicorns and winged horses. The fringed top I'm wearing is vintage, too, and it moves when I do on stage.

JS: Is "Little Boots" a Bowie-style alter-ego like Ziggy Stardust – and where does she get her boots?

LB: No, it's a nickname, and the boots are from Office; they look good with black jeans.

JS: The nickname's presumably because you're a cute pocket Venus with a nice line in kinky boots rather than anything to do with the psychopathic Roman Emperor Caligula [a nickname itself, meaning "Little Boots"].

LB: Correct. Little Boots isn't an alter ego. I am more dramatic on stage but it's me up there.

JS: Are you touring this year?

LB: I'm working on a show right now. Sadly, I can't come out of a volcano in a stadium... yet. The studio is a creative place but playing live is how you make – and sell – music now.

www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic

Get the pop pixie look

Boots, £100, www.office.co.uk

Ruffled bolero, £75, www.frenchconnection.com

Trousers, £45, www.topshop.com