style.com: beauty icon, bjork

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Björk
The pop landscape, not to mention the fashion scene, is always a duller place without Björk. So we’re happy to report that the iconoclastic vocalist is back with a vengeance. After a four-year hiatus from touring (during which she spent quality time with her artist boyfriend, Matthew Barney, and their young daughter, Isadora), the Icelander is headlining this month’s bigger-than-ever Coachella Music Festival. What’s more, the Indio, Calif., concert coincides with the release of her much-awaited new album, out May 8. On Volta, she pairs up with hip-hop producer and hit single wunderkind Timbaland, promising tracks as catchy as Justin’s but branded with Björk’s taste for the bizarre. At times, she’s backed by a ten-piece, all-female brass band.

Björk’s striking appearance is as singular as her sound. While her East-Asian features and face-framing jet-black hair led to taunts of “China Girl” as a child, her atypical looks are now part of her impish appeal—as is her eccentric taste in clothes. She’s famous for collaborating with fashion rule-breakers like Alexander McQueen and Jeremy Scott, and we seem to remember an incident involving the Oscars and a swan. Like we said, things haven’t been half as fun without her.

— Alison Baenen

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A 10-year-old Björk, photographed on the brink of her music career.

Singing lead for the Icelandic rock group the Sugarcubes in 1986.

A studio portrait in 1995, the year she released her second solo album, Post.

As Selma in her award-winning role in Dancer in the Dark.

In Marjan Pejoski’s iconic swan dress at the Academy Awards, March 25, 2001.

Performing at Belgium’s annual four-day Werchter music festival in 2003.

In Alexander McQueen, with the designer, at Fashion Rocks in London, 2003.

The cover of 2004′s Medúlla.

Performing Oceania at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Her dress unfolded to reveal a 10,000-square-foot map of the world.

In New York with her partner, Matthew Barney, and their daughter, Isadora, March 2005.

A still from Drawing Restraint 9, a 2005 film written and directed by Matthew Barney.