American superstar Katy Perry has been shocking audiences since her debut in 2001. The “Queen of Camp” is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, having sold over 18 million albums and 125 million singles worldwide. Over the twenty-some years of Katy’s tenure in the music industry, fans have seen a variety of looks and phases from the singer.
The “California Gurls” singer’s kitschy sound has become forever linked to her similarly campy style. Whether she flaunts a cupcake bra that can shoot whipped cream or a get-up that recalls a goddess from ancient Egypt, Katy never fails to make an impression.
While lauded for her originality, the style icon has also met her fair share of criticism. She shared with People Magazine about how social media has proved to be an endless supply of such criticism: “I gave up scrolling down on the comments. Fashion is a way to express yourself,” she said. “We can say we’re funny or romantic or serious or sarcastic just by how we display ourselves.”
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Given the star’s positive outlook, let’s take a look at her dramatic shifts in appearance throughout her stardom…
2002: The Very Beginning
Aged 17, Katy Perry, known as Katheryn Hudson at this time, smiles bare-faced at the camera during a portrait session in 2002. Katy was fresh off the move to Los Angeles from her hometown of Santa Barbara, in which she started her music career.
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The singer only had one album to her name, a Christian gospel album eponymously titled Katy Hudson. She would soon leave that name behind and become the starlet everyone knows and loves: Katy Perry.
2008’s Warped Tour
With two hit singles under her belt, “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n’ Cold,” Katy solidifies her presence as one of pop’s most promising, and most fashionable, new artists.
While embarking on the Vans’ Warped Tour in 2008, Katy looks like a doll decked out in a polka-dotted mini dress and her signature long black locks.
2010: The Teenage Dream Era
2011: Russell Brand
After a one-year relationship with English actor and activist Russell Brand, the couple tie the knot in 2010 during a Hindu ceremony in Rajasthan, India.
Pictured shortly before their divorce in 2011, Katy sports a vibrant pink hairdo alongside her dark and edgy husband. He soon informed her via text message that he was divorcing her. The two never spoke again.
2015: The Prism Era
After the end of her marriage, the singer experiences a dramatic sartorial shift with her fourth album, Prism. In an interview with Billboard, she said: “I know exactly the record I want to make next. I know the artwork, the coloring and the tone.”
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The artwork, coloring and tone proved to be wildly different from her typically bright and youthful look – perhaps indicative of a shift into a more mature and darker era.
2018 and the start of American Idol
Katy switched it up yet again after signing a 25-million-dollar salary to be a judge on American Idol in 2018.
The icon decided to lose the long locks and go back to her natural blonde, as pictured alongside her co-stars Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and Ryan Seacrest.
Baby Perry coming in 2020!
2024: A New Era
Despite a myriad of different looks throughout her time in the spotlight, Katy never ceases to surprise and amaze. The singer has taken yet another shift in presentation and began partnering with more severe designers like Rick Owens and Balenciaga. However, she has remained similarly fierce.
In an Instagram post announcing the single “Woman’s World” from her next album, 143, Katy poses in a Du Ciel bikini equipped with surreal bionic legs. In a statement about her new album, the icon said: “I set out to create a bold, exuberant, celebratory dance-pop album with the symbolic 143 numerical expression of love as a throughline message.”
