Scrapbook: Yuna Flips Through Her Old Photo Albums

Yuna performing "Fallin'" live on Kimmel.

Yuna Zarai is kind of an anti-pop star. Her genre-skipping music—which has notes of R&B, electronic, and folk—is bright and bubbly even when she tackles weighty themes like the dark side of fame. She’s worked with Pharrell Williams and received production help from Rhye/Quadron mastermind Robin Hannibal and The Neptunes’ Chad Hugo on her excellent Nocturnal album, which she released last year. And she’s a pretty big deal back in her home country, Malaysia. But in spite of these bragging rights, Yuna is for the most part unchanged by her success. “I’m pretty much the same girl I was 10 years ago, except I’m a little bit more wiser now and more comfortable with who I am as a person,” she says over the phone.

Unlike other could-be pop stars Yuna doesn’t glamorize fame in her music. To the contrary, she’s hypercritical of it. “People talk about fame in an extravagant, larger-than-life way, like, ‘I’m able to drive all of these expensive cars and have all of this jewelry and huge mansions’ and all of these exquisite things in life,” she says when talking about one of the album's standout tracks, “Lights and Camera.” “It’s not about being like, ‘I’m a musician now. I should only wear expensive things’.”

One more thing that distinguishes Yuna from other pop stars is her thrifty style which mixes bulk textiles she picks up from LA’s fashion district nearby her loft, wearing them as headwraps, with the occasional indulgence in a cool thing that lasts forever, like her Alexander Wang bag.

About those headwraps: If you’ve seen Yuna before, you’ve probably noticed her flair for scarves. “I started wearing scarves when I was 19 and it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m Muslim and cover up,” says Yuna. “But I also like fashion a lot so, within the limit that I have, I try to have a lot of variety in my clothes and style.” She also puts her great eye for patterns towards her own scarf line named for her birthday, 14NOV, which she models for. “Right now, the scarves for 14NOV are cotton with gold foil printing and a splatter of pink. It’s really simple but it looks really good and it can be worn daily. I’ve been wearing that a lot and I have them in all colors.” We asked Yuna to dig through her old photo books and talk about how her style has gone from tomboy to pattern-mixing queen.

Yuna: I was in a baby napkin in this one! I thought I'd send this photo because my hair looks crazy. Obviously, at this time, I had no idea how to not be in a photo with a diaper and cover that messy hairdo up. Shame on me!

I love how my mom used to dress me up in a lot of colors other than pink. I rarely see baby photos of myself wearing pink. I was a bit of a tomboy growing up, so I think I look pretty cool in this photo sitting next to my neighbor. He was my best friend and probably why I grew up to be a little bit of a tomboy.

I never used to like dresses but I remember I used to love this dress a lot because it had a strawberry on it. At the time I was listening to a lot of Kylie Minogue. I had her cassette and used to play “The Loco-Motion” all the time.

This is my favorite photo as a kid. These girls were my cousins and we were at a water park in Kuala Lumpur. I’m pretty sure I chose this outfit for this outing. I loved wearing denim shorts as a kid. I think by this time I had mastered the art of posing in photos.

This was a photo taken from my lookbook. My first designer handbag was Alexander Wang because I’ve always been a huge fan of his stuff and I could finally afford one so this was the bag I got. But I’m not the kind of person who wants to get every new bag because it’s a lot of money. I still have it and use it all the time! As you can see, I was standing in front of a Fleet Foxes poster. So I was listening to a lot of folk music at the time… Sigur Rós, Bon Iver, and Fleet Foxes.

I picked this outfit for New York fashion week two years ago. It was January and it was so cold. On the day, it was pretty sunny though, so I chose a tribal print black and white scarf, a leopard print chiffon top, skinny jeans, a leather jacket and my Dr. Martens shoes…and of course my favorite handbag.

This was for an Adidas shoot. I loved the pants and thought I should match them with a bright pink necklace I had with me and the two scarves I had. I wear the scarf everyday and try to come up with creative ways to do them with different colors and styles, which is why everything else that I wear has to match to my scarf. I was listening to a lot of R&B and electronic music like Little Dragon and SBTRKT.

Everything that I was wearing for that shoot was stuff that’s in my wardrobe. For example, the scarves I found in LA in the fashion district. I get all of my scarves from the textile district. That’s one of the reasons I love living downtown—it’s so accessible and cheap. I can just walk around and everytime I do I see something there. I used to be so colorful but black, grey, and white have always been the basic pieces that I have and I always go back to that stuff. I think I’m going through that right now, just being mature. I’m becoming more of a woman right now. I still love colors, but I think I’ve toned it down a little bit.

Marissa is a wonderous writer live in LA - @marissagmuller.