_{Appearing in ethereal swaths of Gucci silk and Valentino lace because “they feel like they’re doing a performance of their own,” she enthralls devotees with her theatrical wardrobe as well as her soulful voice. The Pre-Raphaelite beauty credits “growing up around art history” (her mother is a Renaissance-studies professor) for her sense of artful drama, while Welch’s blend of British eccentricity—a mash-up of every era from the eighteenth century through the 1970s—flaunts a romantic unconventionality. “I like to imagine I’ll wear the things I’m buying now when I’m old and mad!” she says.}

Florence Welch for Vogue; Photographed by Norman Jean Roy