FASHION Magazine

By Leah Rumack

She may be rocking a cute 1940s pinup look, but Katy Perry’s sound is pure guilty pop, and her clever lyrics are 100 per cent tongue-in-rouged-cheek. The L.A.-based hipster favourite has been building her profile since her debut EP, Ur So Gay, was released by Capitol Records last fall. The title track is a hilarious kiss-off to a poseur ex, including this beautiful phrase for the ages: “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf.” Sometimes called a skinnier version of Lily Allen and a fatter version of Amy Winehouse, Perry says she doesn’t care who people say she’s like as long as they’re listening, and it seems they are. Her first single, “I Kissed a Girl,” from her full-length album, One of the Boys, was recently the number one track on iTunes for 18 days running. Perry (who is rumoured to be performing at the next Fashion Cares in Toronto) spun through town and chatted to FASHION Magazine about music, style and what it’s like when Steve Madden and Betsey Johnson decide they heart you.
 
Can you describe the sound of One of the Boys?
“If I can be so bold as to name a couple of records, it would be the spunk and fun of Tragic Kingdom and the lyrical content of Jagged Little Pill.”
 
You have a very specific look. How would you describe your style?
“My style is very spontaneous, but I feel like I’m the good girl with the pirate smile from the 1940s next door.”

Shoe designer Steve Madden has taken you under his wing. What’s that like?
“I just sang at the store in the Lower East Side, and a couple days before that I was allowed to go in and say, I need that and that and that in every colour you got. I was like, where are the cameras—this is too good to be true! I’ve been wearing a different pair of shoes each day. I probably got about 100 pairs.”
 
Tell me about your Betsey Johnson connection.
“Betsey Johnson has been a fabulous loaner of clothes and has given me a lot of really cool pieces. I met her during Fashion Week at her design house, and I literally walked away with her personal collection to wear that whole week—stuff she wore with pieces of paper that she wrote on in 1970, from her personal closet. Betsey Johnson is very wild and cool. Steve Madden and Betsey Johnson are not the big designer houses—I want to do business with them, too, of course—but I know my audience. They will go to the mall and get a Betsey Johnson dress they can afford and a pair of Steve Madden shoes and look like a million fucking bucks.”
 
Who is your audience?
“I write from a very female perspective, but a lot of people go beyond it. Guys like it. Gay guys like it!”
 
You recently appeared on an episode of The Young and the Restless.
“It’s a nugget. It is so camp—it’s like a scene out of Mommie Dearest!” (Check it out on her blog.)
 
And you’re having a doll made of you, too.
“It’s a very high-, high-end doll collection by this designer, Jason Wu. I used these dolls in a video I did for Ur So Gay. When I opened the package, they all had tiny black American Expresses on them. This isn’t Barbie—this is high-class, next-level shit.”

Your parents are Christian pastors, and your album has some pretty saucy lyrics and visuals. What do they think of it?
“Everyone is shocked, like: ‘They didn’t disown you?’ No, they’re my parents. They love me. They’re the only set I’m going to have. They definitely are not necessarily shocked—I’ve always been this way. I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve. I’m not trying to be rude or obnoxious. I’m just speaking.”
 
What’s next for you?
“I’m on the Warped tour this whole summer. There is so much black wear on this tour. I’m going to be the girl in pink bubble-gum dresses, and for sure I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb.”

Photography by Michael Elins

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