Katy Perry Revisits Her Life in Looks, Including Her Best Met Gala Moments

I do this pose called Doll Eye.

I can close one eye at a time

and still like maintain all function.

I've sat in a hair and makeup chair for 15 years.

If they're putting eyeshadow on this eye

and someone's putting my hair up into a French twist,

I want to give notes in real time.

[upbeat music]

Hi Vogue.

It's Katy Perry here and this is my Life in Looks,

so far, dot, dot, dot.

[book page turning]

Oh, goodness gracious.

Woo, here we are

on the set of California Girls Music video,

Johnny Wujek, we came up with this concept together

but these shorts are actually diesel jeans

that were cut and then bedazzled.

Funny story behind this

is that I look super tan here, right?

Hmm, rarely do I get spray tans

and typically you're supposed to get them

the night before, right?

Well, I just didn't have time,

so I got them the day of my music video.

When you get a tan the morning of your music video,

your color changes gradually throughout the day,

so I just kept on getting

like oranger, and oranger, and oranger.

We had to spend so much extra money

on color grading this music video

because in one part of the music video,

I'm like this color orange

and then I'm this color orange.

In the next part of the music video.

Kids just a little tip,

fake tans, night before.

[book page turns]

Aha, this is my very first Vogue cover shot

by Annie Leibovitz.

It was so beautiful.

I felt like Snow White.

I felt like Elizabeth Taylor.

When I first started cultivating my own fashion

I was 13.

I was shopping at thrift stores and vintage stores

and I would find these unique pieces

from the forties and fifties

and kind of look like a pinup girl

and that's how it all started.

And then I had the opportunity to wear really nice clothes.

I was just like so appreciative.

I was letting, you know,

the stylist and everyone just lead

because of course they knew best

and they could take me to the next level.

Can I just say the hair and makeup on this

was so beautiful and I didn't really appreciate it

at the time because I just wasn't used

to wearing less and now I know less is more.

Although we might see another cover in the future

that is a little bit more, let's go.

[book page turns]

Okay, wow.

This look was made by Versace, inspired by Britney,

her denim look with Justin Timberlake at the time.

I know you guys all know it. It's an iconic look.

It lives on forever.

I went with Riff Raff, he wore a Versace.

I wore Versace.

I stepped out of a Lamborghini.

My red carpet outfits, they vary,

depending on what I'm going to, or what it is,

or what the theme is

but I kind of go two different ways.

I either go OTT weird and fun, and wild, and wacky,

or I go elegant, evolved, designer, gorge.

Ready and,

[book page turns]

okay, here we are at the Super Bowl.

It's really a ceiling for performers.

Playing the Super Bowl was

really the most intense feeling ever,

but I was like,

oh this must be the feeling before you give birth

or when you're on the edge of death.

This was a collaboration for the Super Bowl

with Jeremy Scott, with myself, and Johnny Wujek.

It takes after the classic primary color beach ball

you see during summer and at the beach.

Erin Laro, she is my go-to Bedazzler

and so she put a little sparkle here and there.

She just threw it and it stuck.

Ooh la la, Prada.

Prada at the Met.

Oh goodness, this dress was heavy.

The funny story about this

is the opportunity for growth for me

is always being on time.

I was running a little tardy

because in the middle

of getting my hair and makeup done,

I was like, you know what?

I'm just gonna bleach my brows.

Derek Blasberg was actually my date

and he's like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We gotta be out the door in 20 minutes.

I was like, No, no, no, no, no, no.

Just slap on the bleach.

Everybody you know was furiously typing on their phones.

I could feel the energy shift and I was like,

Don't worry, it's gonna be super fashion

and it's gonna make the look.

And actually I feel like it kind of makes the look.

This Met Ball's theme was fashion in the age of technology.

I felt a little sci-fi,

like I was like in the Fifth Element or something.

I did have a Tamagotchi,

if you can see it on my belt right there.

That was my technology, cause Orlando had one too.

It was so hard.

I think it was like some weird drug deal

an hour away in a parking lot,

I've got a Tamagotchi, really.

It's legit from like early two thousands,

and we're like okay, well we need it now.

Something like that.

[book page turning]

My OTT Vogue cover.

OMG I absolutely adored this shoot.

It was shot by Mert and Marcus, who I love so much.

It was all COMME des GARCONS.

I was able to wear art pieces.

It was at a point

in my career where I was really shifting my style.

I had changed my hair from black to blonde.

It was influenced by one of my favorite models at the time,

which was Agnes Dean.

She had that short, blonde, bleached pixie cut,

her and Annie Lennox.

[book page turns]

Ooh, here I am at the Met wearing Maison Margiela.

I loved it so much.

I felt like I belonged in fashion, finally.

I used to feel like a fashion outsider

because like I always was really kind of true to myself.

I didn't wanna wear something

that was designer just cause it was designer.

I only wore it if it spoke to me

and if it helped represent who I was at the time.

And I was really this at that moment too, I felt like,

wow, I'm in sync with fashion and who I am, and I loved it.

This was when I was really involved with the Met.

I was asked to be a co-chair.

I performed.

I had my album coming out.

I had just done a Vogue cover.

I felt really in the family

and I wanted to put my best hooved foot forward

and I felt like I really, really gave it my all.

Especially with the performance.

When you're performing at the Met,

you're essentially performing in front of all of your peers.

They know what it is to perform

and what you can do, and what you can't do,

and what kind of magic you can bring in that room.

And I really tried to recreate it

and I was really, really proud of it.

[book page turning]

Okey dokey.

Here I am with my Annie Lennox hair

at the Chanel show while Karl was still with us.

I love Karl so much.

He'd always sketch little pictures of me

when I would see him.

So I have all these like cocktail napkins.

Karl Lagerfeld had the most wicked, sarcastic,

dark sense of humor, which is my flavor as well.

[book page turning]

Oh, here we are.

I am a Versace angel.

What you don't know, I was in the middle of tour.

I had just flown in from Mexico.

I had like one day off.

When you go to the Met, you really wanna like do it up

and you wanna give yourself a little break

for the next day just in case you do it too much,

cause it's a big fun party

and you're seeing all your friends.

I knew it was a heavenly bodies themed at the Met

and I wanted to be a heavenly body, legitimately.

My stylist at the time, Jamie Mizrahi,

put together with Versace.

These wings were not light,

heavy as the head that wears the crown.

I also like to put some emphasis usually

into my arrivals to the Met

because you're kind of arriving for a while.

There's a line.

I arrived in a vintage Rolls Royce standing up.

I've always thought off the beaten path, but you know,

that was definitely something, it was something.

[book page turns]

Okay, here I am

as my favorite Met Ball outfit, costume dress.

The cheeseburger was my secondary outfit.

I was a chandelier to arrive

that had tricks to it, and it lit up,

and it was created by the lovely Jeremy Scott,

who I love so much.

He also created this cheeseburger,

wearing my own cheeseburger shoes

from my Katy Perry collections,

which I had a bedazzled a little bit.

And I've always had this approach to fashion, which is like,

it's one of two things.

It's either OTT fun, wacky, humorous,

or it's like super glamor, fashion satire esque,

satirical, actually.

I was going to some after parties

and I bumped into, literally, Celine Dion

and she like grabbed me and happened to be grabbing me

where my meat patty part was.

So Celine has grabbed me by the meat.

[book page turns]

Oh, here I am with my love Orlando.

So I was actually being honored this evening

as a powerful woman and for the work that I do

with my foundation, Firework Foundation.

And I was wearing one of my favorite lines, Shiaparelli.

I just felt glamorous,

and old Hollywood, and very proud that evening.

[book page turns]

Okay, here we are.

I am wearing one of my costumes

designed by Zaldy,

who is an incredible costume designer.

I've worn many of his creations in the past.

I'm wearing this trash recyclable can number

for the section in my residency

that's based on being dumped like in a literal trash can.

I do this pose called Doll Eye.

I can close one eye

at a time and still like maintain all function.

People started going like, Oh, she's a robot.

Or Oh, she needs to really detox,

just like all this crazy like conspiracy esque type stuff.

I've sat in a hair and makeup chair for 15 years.

If they're putting eyeshadow on this eye

and someone's putting my hair up into a French twist

I want to give notes in real time.

[book page turns]

Here I am.

This is my latest Met outfit

my first with my new stylist, Tatiana Waterford.

When we heard the theme, we go, Hmm Gilded glamour.

People are gonna go like, maybe with like,

a lot of metallic or gold or whatever.

And I wanted it to be more Victorian,

more lace, when lace was everything.

Got to collaborate with Oscar de la Renta

and do this very chic, all about the silhouette.

This outfit represented,

maybe what the underpinnings

during the turn of the century could have looked like

if you were to have X-rayed a woman at that time

and seen all the contraptions.

I kind of underplayed this,

cause I had just came as a cheeseburger and a chandelier

and I was like, don't try and do that again.

Go in a more sophisticated, you know, elegant, evolved way.

And that's how I felt that evening.

Last looks, last looks.

[book page turns]

Oh, this was like last week.

Here I am the G'day USA Gala

for Australians that are represented in the arts,

in film, TV, music, et cetera.

I went there dressed in Zimmerman.

You go, Where am I going tonight?

I'm going to an Australian event,

so I'm gonna wear an Australian outfit, of course.

And I went to honor my good friend

and co-parent Miranda Kerr.

She got an award for all that she's done with charity

and also with all the different things she's contributed.

We are a blended family, a modern family,

and we want to help destroy that old narrative,

ex-wives and new wives don't get along.

That's not true.

We are strong, powerful women and we need each other

and we really are there for each other.

That's my last look

because that was literally like a couple weeks ago.

And here I am in Alaia.

Huh, that's my last look, honey.

[Katy clicks tongue]

All right, Vogue.

That is my life and looks thus far.

Thanks so much for coming along.

[book page turns]

I'm gonna sign this for you

but you should really keep a few pages

because we do have a few couple looks coming up.

[writing on page]

[upbeat music]

[book closes]

There we are.

[Katy claps hands]