Katy Perry Covers Elle Magazine
She's hit the big time—now Katy Perry is hitting the big top.
The pop star sports electric-pink lips and a bra-revealing, Technicolor green, blue and purple ensemble from Gucci's Spring/Summer 2011 collection—the go-to label of the moment for fashion magazines—on the March cover of Elle, which has her starring in a whimsical circus-themed fashion spread.
Lensman Carter Smith captures Perry in everything from a sci-fi-chic Pam Hogg catsuit to a ladylike Oscar de la Renta gown paired with a furry rabbit mask as she plays a knife thrower's assistant and a Lycra-clad lion in need of taming.
The singer also opens up about her style influences (it's a “Bettie Page meets Wonder Woman meets Doris Day meets Judy Jetson meets Natalie Wood meets Daphne Guinness meets Chloë Sevigny kind of look,” she says), too-hot-for-Elmo curves, career goals, and bad girl past.
“I was shaped like a square at one time," she says of her figure.
"I was! I’m generally around 130 pounds, which is totally fine for me. But when I was a kid, I was the same height and weighed more like 145. And I had enormous boobs that I didn’t know what to do with, so I wore minimizers, which were not cute. Those thick-ass straps! I got made fun of for the over-the-shoulder boulder holder … and all I wanted was to look like Kate Moss. Little did I know … that these things would come in handy someday.”
Photo courtesy of Elle
The singer goes Old Hollywood for Elle magazine.
The singer also seems to be enjoying her success, as well as married life to Russell Brand, with whom she says "there hasn't been a dull moment."
"I feel like I’m at a point in my life right now where I could potentially stick around," she tells the magazine.
"I don’t feel like a diva, but I think diva is a great and powerful word in the sense of what Beyoncé makes it. And maybe I can’t be Beyoncé, but maybe I can be Cyndi Lauper. I mean be like her, not be her. That would just be weird.”
Photo courtesy of Elle
Behind bars: Perry plays a leotard-clad caged lioness.
Of course, things haven't always been so rosy …
“I had two cars repossessed, and I was writing bad checks, but I gave myself a timeline," she admits. "I thought, OK, if I don’t make it by 25, I’m just going to get married and pop out some babies and do some crafts.”
Martha Stewart's loss is our gain, we suppose.
For more of Perry's interview and behind-the-scenes details, visit Elle online and pick up the March issue, on sale February 15.
