Taylor Swift Channels Lady Gaga On New Vogue Cover

Is that you, Taylor Swift? Appearing on her second solo Vogue cover — she shared one with model Karlie Kloss last year — the singer sports a bleached-blond bob, a bright red lip, and clothing seemingly inspired by Lady Gaga. In sheer and sequined dresses from Marc Jacobs, Vetements, Proenza Schouler, and Michael Kors, paired with high platform heels and boots, the country singer turned pop star embodied a persona entirely different from the sugary-sweet one she has cultivated throughout her decade-long career.

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Yet just because the magazine was able to get Swift to ditch her crop tops and skater skirts for a photo shoot, it doesn’t mean her interview portrays her as anything other than the hometown-girl-gone-celebrity. In fact, the writer Jason Gay followed the 26-year-old back to her hometown of Reading, Penn., where Swift served as her childhood friend Britany Maack’s maid of honor recently.

He even got to hear her toast, which could be lyrics heard on her next album. “Real love doesn’t mess with your head,” the 1989 artist said. “Real love just is. Real love just endures. Real love maintains. Real love takes it page by page.” Gay also accompanies Swift and her mother, Andrea, on a visit to their old home, a Christmas tree farm, where the current owners confessed they had only learned of its famous former resident through the pizza delivery guy.

But don’t hold your breath for a single moment about this excursion down memory lane, because as Swift admitted, she’s currently on a break. “I just decided that after the past year, with all of the unbelievable things that happened … I decided I was going to live my life a little bit without the pressure on myself to create something.” But don’t panic! “I’m always going to be writing songs,” she said. “The thing is, with me, I could very well come up with three things in the next two weeks and then jump back into the studio, and all of a sudden the next record is started. That’s an option too.”

In the meantime, while she’s not in the studio — she’s getting to relax for the first time in 10 years — she does have a list of short-term goals to meet such as learning how to make a cocktail (she’s a fan of old-fashioneds), becoming certified in CPR, and how to change a tire. She has also been enjoying her “magical relationship” with DJ Calvin Harris, also known as Adam Wiles. She said of their partnership, “I want it to be ours, and low-key … this is the one thing that’s been mine about my personal life.”

Despite inviting the Vogue reporter to share in such personal moments in her life, she doesn’t divulge many details about Harris. This mainly has to do with her past treatment in the media. “You know, I went out on a normal amount of dates in my early 20s, and I got absolutely slaughtered for it,” she explained. “And it took a lot of hard work and altering my decision-making. I didn’t date for two and a half years. Should I have had to do that? No.”

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The experience did teach her how to shake it off. “If they say you are pregnant, all you have to do is continue to not be pregnant and not have a baby.” On her girl squad, which is the current target of online hate, she maintains a similar philosophy. “If the rumor is that you have fake friendships, all you have to do is continue to be there for each other,” she described. “And when we’re all friends in 15 years and raising our kids together, maybe somebody will look back and go, ‘That was kind of ridiculous what we said about Taylor and her friends.’”