California dreamer: Our cover story with Katy Perry
Katy Perry is taking her brand of high-energy, high-camp, high-gloss pop on the road.
By Dennis Hensley
VIDEO: The FASHION team discusses the style evolution
of our cover girl Katy Perry »
Katy Perry is trying to find a delicate way to describe a nightmare she’s been having lately. She’s singing in front of thousands on her massive California Dreams 2011 World Tour when she suddenly discovers that the audience is getting more of a show than she had intended. “I don’t have part of my costume that I need,” she says cryptically, “so I feel exposed.” We get it, Katy; you’re flashing your fans. She laughs. “And then sometimes I dream that I put on my guitar and I don’t know how to play anymore. It’s like I don’t know how to do anything!” The California-born pastor’s daughter lets out a nervous giggle, then sighs. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
Indeed, she does. Since storming the charts with her breakout single, “I Kissed a Girl,” in 2008, Perry has become an international pop sensation. Her two albums, One of the Boys and last year’s Teenage Dream, have earned her six Grammy nominations and have sold over 10 million copies worldwide. She’s also managed to squeeze in the launch of her fragrance, Purr by Katy Perry, a movie role (she’s the voice of Smurfette in the upcoming The Smurfs) and—oh, yeah—a lavish wedding in India, where she married outspoken British comedian Russell Brand. But it’s the tour that’s filling her days and haunting her nights. “I feel like I’m training for the Olympics,” she says. “Every day, I wake up, I eat a healthy breakfast, then I go work out, then I go to music rehearsal, then I go to dance rehearsal, then I come home and deal with the different details and emails concerning my tour, and then I go to sleep. So there’s a lot of self-control and building stamina.”
Perry’s been doing her homework, too, studying concert footage by everyone from Queen to Tina Turner to Madonna. On the quirkier side, she loves the Scissor Sisters and also the “left of centre” approach Björk takes. Perry was particularly knocked out by Pink’s Funhouse Tour, so she hired that show’s director, Baz Halpin, to help bring her California Dreams to life. “The show has a storyline that’s loosely based on my life, but in a very cartoonish way,” explains Perry, who hints that she plans to cover her favourite ’80s karaoke song in addition to her hits (at early Europe dates, she’s performed a spirited version of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”). “It’s going to be fun and fantastic, like you can’t believe that it’s happening, but I also hope you’ll walk away inspired.” She’s particularly jazzed to bring her road show to Canada in June and July. “The Canadian people made me number one even before my own American people,” she says, “and I feel indebted for the support.”
Fans of Perry’s whimsical style will have a lot to take in. “I’m changing my costumes 13 to 15 times!” she exclaims. No wonder she’s dreaming about wardrobe malfunctions. “I feel like I’m outdoing Cher.”
But this pop star doesn’t limit her outlandish outfits to the stage. “I have a weird, off-centre sense of humour, and you see that in my fashion sense,” says Perry, who showed up at the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac Fall 2011 runway show at Paris fashion week sporting a blue wig and holding a red fan emblazoned with the words “Air Conditioning.”
“I just wake up and whatever mood I’m in, I like to emulate in my clothes,” she says. “Especially when I’m touring—I don’t get to meet and shake hands with every single person, but they get a vibe from the way I present myself. Usually, that’s in a fun, kind of hilarious manner, and people smile. I think that’s my job: to make people smile.”
