Florence Welch: from wild child to Chanel's new muse

Florence - of the critically adored, monstrously successful Florence + the Machine albums Lungs and Ceremonials - is only 25. But she has the war stories of an ageing rock star. And in certain ways she comes off like one, too. She's more Sixties Rolling Stones than she is Adele. It's a mesmerising wildness that you don't see with groomed pop idols any more.

And yet Florence's joie de vivre coexists with a kind of well-worn pragmatism that comes with the weight of life and responsibility.

"I ended up deciding to drink less while I was touring," she says. "It was for my voice. It's really hard to sing and keep up the pace we were going at. It's okay for the first bits when you don't know where you're going. But now that I have more of an idea of the longevity of it, I'd like to have a career like P J Harvey or Björk, who are still producing albums and have these voices. I realised if I wanted to have a career like theirs, I'd have to temper my indulgences."

The vintage rocker side of Welch comes, in part, from her dad, who made his career in advertising but tried his hand at music when he was young. He introduced little Florence to bands such as Velvet Underground and Love and it paid off. He got to live vicariously through his daughter when he drove her tour van around Europe during the band's first tour. (Florence's siblings and step-family, whom she's really close to, often accompany her on the road and her sister works as her PA.) "We definitely didn't have to tone things down when he was around," she says.

Then there was her round of toasts with Beyoncé backstage at the Isle of Wight festival. Not quite a bender but a memorable party moment for Florence nonetheless. "I was on just before Jay-Z and she passed me and went, 'Ah!' And I went, 'Ah!' And she was like, 'It's such an honour to meet you!' And I was like, 'Oh my gosh, it's such an honor to meet you!' Then she, Kanye [West] and I went 'Cheers!'. It was so surreal," she says.

It's difficult to get to the heart of a person during a blind date interview hastily arranged at a south London pub. But seeing Florence light up when telling her stories, you get the sense that she's happiest when she's doing things and going places rather than sitting still. In a revealing moment before our chat, she looked especially vulnerable during a seated photo-shoot, which seemed to visibly tax her. When the photographer took the last shot, her demeanour collapsed, her shoulders slumped over, and her fingers, covered in chunky gold baroque rings, curled into a ball.

"Today has just been " she sighed heavily and slouched her shoulders even further to show what she couldn't say.

After becoming a global success very quickly with Lungs, which went platinum many times over, Florence reportedly had a bout with depression. But today she's not in the mood for self-examination. And she's not necessarily haunted by the demons and angels she sings about. "Though I do believe one can have them internally," she admits. And she couldn't care less whether her glass is half empty or full: "I'd rather drink the glass and figure it out."

Florence + the Chanel machine

The moment it all began
"I was at the Chanel show, you know the one at the Grand Palais that had the fountains and the pink feathered dress that looked like it was floating on air. And I was so hung over and had a cold and was wearing this beautiful bouclé Chanel jacket. And I remember this clearly because I got papped leaving the show and the papers were like, 'Florence wears no trousers.' And I was like, 'I was wearing a skirt!' But I met Karl, who was very nice and was like, 'Your skin is like porcelain.' I certainly didn't feel porcelain. I felt very rough. But he was really nice and attentive."

Working together for Florence
"Karl photographed my promo shots. I'd spoken about how I had been influenced by art deco artists like Erté and we just began scrapbooking together. It was the strangest situation I've ever been in, cutting and pasting with Karl Lagerfeld. He does it all himself, sticking things down and basically making a mood board. We took inspiration for the photographs from that."

Working together for Karl
"When I sang [What the Water Gave Me at the Chanel couture show] it was incredible. There was a moment when I was walking out hand-in-hand with Karl and I was like, 'What am I doing here?' I don't know how to walk. But it was a beautiful experience."

Being a fashion muse
"I do definitely pay more attention to the way I look. I'm more aware that I'm being scrutinised. But I haven't changed it drastically. And what's very nice is that I haven't felt like I've had to compromise in any way to be embraced by that high-fashion world."