GUEST BLOG: Caz on Roisin Murphy – the girl who fell to earth

I’m sitting here with bated breath, checking the fan blogs every day. I’m waiting on Roisin Murphy’s new video – the next instalment in the campaign for her Overpowered album, styled by Róisín and creative director Scott King. The campaign marries the extraordinary with the ordinary, and exemplifies the style combustion that THE LOOK loves so much.

To recap: so far we’ve seen Roisin in a jumbo-knit, noshing at a caff for the album cover; sitting on the loo in Gareth Pugh (Henry Holland style pun unintended) for the Overpowered video – THE song of 2007; down the shops in a Viktor & Rolf rigging dress in the artwork for the same song, and rrrrocking those Maison Martin Margiela shoulders on tour and in the Let Me Know video.

King, late of Sleaze Nation (and the man behind the infamous Cher Guevara cover) approached the campaign with the concept of Róisín as extraordinary pop persona, a “street-diva” – in ordinary situations wearing outlandish garb. He cites his inspiration as David Bowie, the ultimate rock alien, strolling the London streets in the video for the 1979 song DJ.

Roisin’s musings on fashion and performance were a key part of the collaboration. “I don’t wear that stuff in a fashion way” she told Clash magazine “I wear it like a performer. I wear it at a jaunty angle, thrown on with absolute irreverence and that’s they way it should be for me.” She’s a true fashion animal but it’s not something she waxes lyric about in interviews. She makes mistakes, she admits in the Telegraph, because she’s brave and self-styled. She’s incredibly modern but there’s always depth to her looks – references, puns, details.

The “conceptual fashion alien just landed in Kilburn” idea isn’t a world away from her previous stylings in Moloko, which always brought to my mind the glam-space-funk vibe of Labelle, Silver Convention or even Parliament. The Pure Pleasure Seeker clip is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Roxy and Bootsy via Whispering Bob Harris, and the space-flapper cum disco-ball of Sing it Back is pure Amii Stewart.

Whoever the references and whatever the occasion, Roisin gives great look every time.

//Roisin in Pam Hogg and Les Chiffoniers, styled by Kabir for the new Drama magazine//

The artwork for the forthcoming single You Know Me Better sees her down the pub, sipping a Guinness in another extra-terrestrial outfit by Basso & Brooke (Is it? I’ll ‘fess up – that’s a bit of a guess. Susie Bubble – can you help?!!?)

//The cover for the new single//

But who will she wear for the video? My money is on Balenciaga, or maybe Scott Ramsay Kyle. Whoever it is you can bet that poppettes everywhere will take note. Roisin’s fashion wake is resonating – witness Kylie in the Gareth Pugh “Overpowered” dress in her latest offering.

In a recent interview Roisin bemoans the fact she can’t persuade her friends to stay out dancing with her any more. Well I’m up for it. We can hit the town and dance all night to Supernature and Voodoo Ray, head to a caff for a fry-up on the way home and take our Jack Russells for a walk in the park – Gareth Pugh frocks de rigeuer.

Roisin performs live at the Roundhouse on March 8. You Know Me Better is out on March 31. The video for the song is imminent.

Caz Facey is a London-based designer.