FKA twigs on her new album and overcoming four traumatic years: 'I’ve had to learn to live in my body again'

In a chilly, oak-panelled boardroom in Sotheby’s auction house, deep in Mayfair, FKA twigs looks out of place. She is bundled in her uniform of a “worn, Japanese blue” dancer’s body stocking and enveloping, matching-shade knee-length, zip-up hoodie; it’s the colour she has been living in over recent months because it “says nothing” but “always looks good”.

The 36-year-old singer speaks softly, at 5ft 2in is diminutive in stature, and looks entirely otherworldly — her make-up-free skin glows and her head is shaved save for a ponytail of braids at the back, an ancient Egyptian style she adopted after her father (a musician who she did not meet until she was 18) informed her she was “part Egyptian”. She is quick to remind me, “I grew up in Gloucestershire” and “live a simple life in east London with my partner”.