Style Rider: Halsey Lives In Mom Jeans and Sambas

All photos courtesy of Halsey Since dropping a track called “Ghost” on Soundcloud last fall, Halsey has snagged a record deal, a hundred thousand Instagram followers, and a sold-out co-headline tour with Young Rising Sons. But she’s no one-hit wonder. Somehow her follow-up single, “Hurricane,” managed to be even catchier than her infectious debut, and she’s shown no signs of stopping that streak. Much of her charm is how bold—and often straight-up ballsy—she can be. Lyrics like “I went down to a place in Bed Stuy/A little liquor on my lips/I let him climb inside my body/And held him captive in my kiss” are not for the faint of heart, but nothing about Halsey, from her songs to her style, is.

With her tiny vintage Levi cutoffs, lace crop tops, and platform boots, she looks like she stepped out of a Nasty Gal catalog. (Nasty Gal doesn’t actually have catalogs, for the record, but if they did, Halsey should be their first choice as far as model castings go.) “I feel just as sexy in a bralette and shorts as I do in my father’s tee shirt and sneakers,” she says. “I dress how I write—comfortably, honestly, and provocatively. There's a serious 90s element in my attire and it's definitely attributed to the same thing that effects my music: my parents. I was raised with a black dad and a white mom in the 1990s. There's something Alanis Morissette/Nirvana meets TLC/Fresh Prince about how I dress, and there's something sonically hip hop meets alternative meets ‘God Only Knows’ about my music.”

In case you don’t already have a mad crush on her, she added, “I think a lot of people would say ‘God Only Knows’ about my fashion choices too.” So, yeah. On top of everything, she’s funny, too. Before you fall in love even harder when she comes through your town next month, we caught up with her to find out what she’ll be packing for tour.

“These are essential and comfortable. I always add a baseball cap as well. Androgyny is sexy.”

“I have this Levi's denim jacket I wear religiously. I wore it every day on tour. The back is ripping completely away from the collar. It's held together with safety pins.”

“I don't really have an answer for this one. I bought it cause it makes me feel fancy.”

“My nameplate necklace from The M Jewelers in NYC is pretty much the only jewelry I wear. It's a classic.”

“Overalls are important for when I need to feel like a DJ Tanner/Kelly Kapowski love child. Which, of course, is everyday.”

“They are the best sneaker. End of story.”

Casey Lewis does this every week. She's on Twitter.