Nikki Yanofsky, the 15-year-old singing sensation, is riffling through a rack of clothes at a WWD shoot and immediately spots a pink-and-white tie-dye tulle Candela dress.

“This is the one,” she shrieks. “It’s so bohemian; it’s so me! I want it!”

After trying it on, the Hampstead, Quebec-based singer twirls around the room, totally at ease. But, Yanofsky is decidedly less comfortable in heels as she hobbles around in studded L.A.M.B. stilettos.


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“I don’t really wear them yet because I’m not 16,” she says.

This genuine naïveté is an example of the up-and-comer’s desire to be “age appropriate,” a term she uses repeatedly over the course of an interview.

As she tries on a sheer tank, she continues, “I always think, ‘Would Selena Gomez wear that? Would Miley?’ Well maybe Miley isn’t a good example because she dresses old, but you know what I mean.”

Deciding the tank is too sexy, she trades it for a more covered-up T-shirt look. That kind of modesty is definitely unexpected, especially compared with today’s good-girl-gone-bad teen celebrities, but the petite star isn’t angling for a tarty, pop success story.

Her mother, Elyssa Yanofsky, who serves as her stylist and manager (along with her father, Richard), accompanied her to the shoot. “Nikki never wears anything over-the-top or that isn’t her,” she explains. “If anything, she says to me, ‘Mom, you’re too old for that!’”

While Yanofsky plays up her youthfulness in the fashion arena, there is nothing immature about her sophisticated, soulful voice reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald. Her debut studio album, tentatively titled “New to Me” (Decca), hits shelves in March. A refreshing alternative to mainstream music, the jazz-pop-blues record, produced by Grammy winner Phil Ramone, features the chanteuse’s renditions of old greats such as “God Bless the Child” and “Circle Game.” It also includes Yanofsky’s own original songs, like “Thinking of Someone,” which was inspired by her first heartbreak, and “Cool My Heels,” based on slowing down when life is going by too fast.

Although she acknowledges that a jazz record isn’t necessarily expected of someone her age, she thinks the genre has helped her become a different kind of artist.

“A lot of mainstream music today is very one-dimensional, and I think jazz has made me more intriguing,” she says.

Her musical influences include Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, but her main inspiration will always be Fitzgerald. “When I first heard ‘Airmail Special’ and ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket,’ I was like, ‘Whoa! How does this girl do that?’” she says. “She introduced me to jazz, and I owe her so much.”

Further evidence of her old-soul mind-set: Yanofsky switches off Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” on set in favor of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman.” That’s not to say she doesn’t follow top 40 hits. She has collaborated with a range of artists, including Will.i.am, Wyclef Jean and Feist.