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Pink floral blazer and pink floral trousers both by EMPORIO ARMANI, white cotton shirt by COS, white snakeskin brogues by CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN and ring by NOEMI KLEIN

A rattlesnake, a dense Texan wood and a pair of pale tits. Not Nymphomaniac’s surprise third part, but where Annie Erin Clark found an in-road to her fourth, eponymously titled LP as outré multi-instrumental solo project, St Vincent. “St Vincent” is 11 songs of danceable, experimental disco rock. It’s her Pop, her Flowers of Romance, her “Clapham Common”. Maybe she inhaled too much pre-dance floor hairspray in the late eighties and it’s finally catching up. Either way, Clark – who has replaced Hasidic brown curls for a glammy white bouffant – is cresting her most unapologetically accessible musical phase. Take it from lead single “Birth in Reverse”, a cocksure tune as tight and latticework-like in rhythm as it is lyrically breezy and existential: “Oh what an ordinary day,” she drawls, in the way only a true Southern States native can, “…take out the garbage, masturbate.” Elsewhere opener “Rattlesnake” is steered by Innervisions-esque modular funk and “Bring Me Your Love”’s treated, mutant beat swaps gleaming pop for broody synthedelica.

I met Clark in a strange, gated bourgeoisie enclave known as Kensington Village – the type of haunt you’d expect to have opiate-gilded oxygen pumping from its glass walls. Our chat journeyed everywhere from PJ Harvey’s back catalogue (we both think Is This Desire is a career high, and co-hum “Angeline”’s creeping bassline) to starting a black metal band together (Annie, if you’re reading this, I’d like us to be called “Exploding Breastplates”).

After all, Clark spent most of her youth perfecting Dimebag riffs in her parent’s house Tulsa, Oklahoma, before moving to Brooklyn. And you can hear it in her music: after stints in bizarre, stadium pop gospel choir The Polyphonic Spree and Surfjan Stevens’ touring band, and as one of Glenn Branca’s 100 Guitars project, she started work on her debut record, 2007’s Marry Me. But it wasn’t until the skewed, conceptual sophomore Actor that Clark introduced her patented brand of Tourette’s Rock; where sickly sweet Disney lullabies are broken in two by bolts of jagged, overdrive soaked Strat. Like the tar-thick, blackened overcast “The Nothing” in Neverending Story, songs like “Actor Out Of Work” and “Laughing With a Mouth of Blood” are seasoned with a generous dollop of shrieking, morbid blues instrumentation.

Navy blazer by MARGARET HOWELL and white cotton shirt by COS

She’s not in the mood to wade through old projects. The past is just that, and I agree – even if it does involve a collaborative album with Talking Heads ingénue David Byrne; 2012’s unhinged Love This Giant. In the main, we discuss her newfound mascot, the St Vincent rattlesnake.  “My friend has an old cattle ranch in far, far west Texas,” she explains, “and I went walking one night around the property, which is miles from the road.  Without the Internet, I know nothing about nature. I didn’t have a cell phone, either – I’m in the middle of the universe and I’m all alone. So I decided I was going to take off my clothes because there will be nothing tethering me to the universe anymore. And I was having this really mystical experience – and I am not a person who says ‘mystical experiences’. I’m not into Urban Outfitters spirituality,” she continues. “But what happened next sounds like a Creationist myth. I heard a sound and thought: “Oh, it must be a critter”. Then I heard a rattle and saw the snake. I ran as fast as I could back to the ranch, dropping everything I owned on the way.”

Shit, suit jacket and trousers all Annie’s own, left hand: gold chunky ring by NOEMI KLEIN and eternity rings both by RUTH TOMLINSON and right hand: silver rings both by NOEMI KLEIN

Her sense of isolation – an incident she now describes as “all very Cormac McCarthy” – prompted her analysis of Social Media-surveillance in “Digital Witness”. “In this day and age, there are millions of digital eyes, and that’s all of us.  And it’s almost as if the snake has eaten its tail. We feel like if we don’t show someone what we’ve done – or have a million digital hands clapping for you all the time – we feel like we don’t exist.” In fact, reminders of the fantastical reptilian encounter are at every turn: in its Tabula Rasa abandonment of the dark urban indie of New York contemporaries Deerhunter and Dirty Projectors for crisp, seventies dance, and in its a brooding sense of dystopia: “It’s a party record, but there’s a twist,” she says. “There’s blood on the piñata. It’s not a party record in the sense of: ‘Let’s get fucked up at the pub’ – but in terms of it being like an apocalypse that you can dance to.”

The album’s disco and Clark’s part Betty Davis part Jim Jarmusch hair steez, are her way of refusing to stick to a tried, quantifiable formula. It’s her, sprinting through the woods, ditching everything she possesses. “I think it’s so important to be a mythmaker in art – like Lou Reed, Bowie Polly Harvey, all these people who constantly reinvented themselves. That’s what this record is for me; I never want to look back, and I hate nostalgia. My hair doesn’t define me but a radical change is a good change. Always.”

Words Jack Mills
Fashion Editor Francesca Turner
Hair Christian Wood at The Wall Group
Makeup Riona O’Sullivan using LANCÔME
Nails Ami Streets at LMC Worldwide using CHANEL S 2014 and BODY EXCELLENCE HAND CREAM
Photographic Assistance Andrew Davis and Alex Franchini
Fashion Assistance Samantha Lockwood
Production Seona Taylor-Bell
Thanks Charlotte Cassidy

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Styled by fashion editor Karl Templer and shot by Mikael Jansson at the Rockefeller Centre New York, Daria Werbowy perfectly embodies the effortless, sexiness of the DVF SS14 woman in a bold zebra print all in one and classic DVF wrap dress, which this NYFW celebrates its 40th anniversary. The campaign also features the iconic Sutra bag in novelty finishes such as laced canvas and Zebra patchwork leather.

Moreover to celebrate the anniversary of the wrap dress Diane is collaborating with American Express for New York Fashion Week, live streaming the digital front row view of the DVF FW14 collection on AmexUnstaged.com and DVF.com. The event will also feature an exclusive performance by St. Vincent, who features in the latest issue of Wonderland out now.

Watch the campaign video at DVF.com

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When, where and how did you happen up Ana Lola Roman“>Ana and her work?

Ana is multi-talented. I actually became aware of her through her photography work a few months ago through a Facebook photo network and that lead me to her music.

What was your immediate reaction to it?

The first track I heard was Klutch on Amazing Radio BBC and it was just one of those music moments I love where you’re stunned because not only is it great music, but you haven’t heard anything like it.

Did you know you wanted to collaborate with her from the get-go?

Absolutely. She has such an expressiveness. I was immediately drawn to wanting to photograph her.

What do you tend, accidentally or not, to bring out in her character during a shoot?

She’s got a sharp sense of humour. But really, I think the greatest thing was that when I was shooting a recent rehearsal, it was as if I wasn’t there even though half the time I was up in her face. She’s not posing or even noticing me, it’s just Ana being Ana.

Name your favourite music photographers.

Neal Preston for his shots of Led Zeppelin. I never get tired of those. Jim Marshall is legendary. He photographed everyone so well.

What will “the day in the life of Ann Lola Roman” shoot entail? Will you be following her every move for 12 hours, for instance?

That’s the basic plan – to just follow her around and capture what goes on. I think it will be a great, candid series.

What is it about her music, and look, that stimulates you?

Again, there’s an amazing expressiveness to her, both in her music, and even when she is just standing there saying nothing, she is conveying this powerful energy and emotion. Her music has this quality that says “I don’t want you to just listen, I want you to be a part of this experience.”

Words: Jack Mills
Ana Lola Roman

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Ask any composer/band member/philosopher worth their salt and they’ll tell you that the spaces in between the music are just important as the music itself. Seeing as all of us who couldn’t make it to Coachella this weekend (<3 u, recession!!!) we've been reduced to watching multitudes of sweaty haters grind about to our ex-favourite bands via grainy videos on YouTube, Wonderland decided to take this musical precept to its logical extreme. So, here they are, the dramatic (and entirely speculative) moments you may have missed if you were actually there… Thank God for us!

Laura Marling’s much-tested guitarist – let’s call him Clive – has been touring with the blond folkshell all summer. He plays the same chords as her but she gets all the credit. Cue burning, hateful fantasies of a hostile takeover that, when you look closely, become painfully visible as she raises her eyes to the ceiling for a soulful moment and he glowers over her gut-wrenchingly perfect, pretty little shaky strumming shoulders. The correct internet meme caption here is “SOON”.

So poor old St Vincent never got the memo that when you go to the chocolate factory, you do what you’re told and avoid the three-course-dinner bubblegum. Otherwise you end up turning into a blueberry, which is bad enough when you’re just a spoiled 12-year-old girl with doting parents to watch over you while you get juiced – but even worse when you’re a hooting indie goddess that has to subsequently play a show to thousands of screaming fans at the summer’s Kewlest Festival ®. Props to Annie Clark though for styling it out though, as if turning bright purple is something she does every day.

After dolefully trudging through “I Predict a Riot” for the seven-millionth fucking time, the Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson finally loses it, Jack-Nicholson style, and does what he’s always wanted to do anyway: scream really loud, long fly fishing anecdotes until his vocal chords finally give up and indie rock music (and student bar playlists) are destroyed for ever.

Crowds defy the central imperative of britpoppers James’ 90s hit, “Sit Down”, instead clambering on stage to take part in an impromptu Zumba session, replete with bizarro Jazzercise costumes. Or is this just what James fans wear?

Naturally, the obvious thing to do here is to rag on this super-into-it Korn fan because, hah!, he’s got glasses and reddish hair. But we can see much deeper than that. Of course many have been wondering for a long time how the dreadlocked nu-metallers (now with a dubstep flavour, courtesy of a few farty basslines strapped by Skrillex to the tracks on their latest, pretty vile album) continue to produce such emotive, pain-filled music despite all the money dribbling into their current accounts. And we can now reveal that this little guy is key – think of him as a sort of angsty antenna that’s beaming hateful vibes and misery to the bored fat cats on stage. Kind of like a reverse Care Bear.

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