Sky Ferreira: This Summer's Girl

With her debut album set for release in the coming months and a campaign for Saint Laurent already under her belt, get the lowdown on why Sky Ferreira is the cool girl to watch this summer...

Sky Ferreira: If you don't already know the name, you may recognise her bleached blonde hair and moody pout, but this summer it will be hard to ignore her.

Signed to a record label at the tender age of 15 and touted as a ‘Britney-meets-Lolita’ (in her own words), the singer first tested the musical waters by releasing several singles in 2010 before switching labels and working on new material with producers behind the likes of Solange Knowles and Fiona Apple.

Now, her long-awaited debut album is complete and ready to be unleashed onto the masses, jam-packed with electro-tinged future hits and softer acoustic numbers, including the brilliant Everything Is Embarrassing, the remixes of which have been taking the clubs by storm.

But it’s not just Sky’s music that’s been catching our attention. Her style and the way she’s been embraced by the fashion set are also creating a certain amount of buzz around the 20-year-old. Even über-hip Hedi Slimane, creative director of Saint Laurent, whose new direction of the famous fashion house is as much to do with music as it is about fashion, clearly believes the hype, selecting the young star to front the lookbook pictures for his pre-fall 2013 collection, which can be seen dotted throughout this feature – her LA grunge aesthetic a perfect fit for his rock ‘n’ roll-inspired look.

Superstar fashion photographer Terry Richardson regularly posts pictures of Sky to his blog and has directed the music video for the track Red Lips, adding extra street cred to her reputation, while high street giant H&M and the NME have picked the singer to perform a set during an in-store gig in London later this month.

The Venice Beach native has also starred in ad campaigns for Calvin Klein's CK One fragrance and Adidas Originals, further cementing her burgeoning fashion darling status. For Ferreira, the sky’s most definitely the limit.

Buy the July issue of Marie Claire now to read our interview with Sky Ferreira and to see more pictures from the Saint Laurent lookbook. Got a tablet? You can now download the mag straight to your iPad, Kindle (just search the store for Marie Claire magazine), Nook or Google Nexus. Sky’s debut album, I Will, is out later this summer. She will perform at Scala in London on 26th June with tickets still available to buy through the Scala website.

Pictures: Saint Laurent