After months of magazine covers and photo shoots featuring Miley Cyrus in her underwear — or fully nude, as on her Marc Jacobs “Protect the Skin You’re In” T-shirt — the most shocking sight of all might be the 20-year-old singer’s new spread in the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The pictures, taken by famed photographer Terry Richardson, show the usually scantily-clad starlet fully-clothed (for the most part, at least) in gorgeous high-fashion frocks.
In one shot, set in the driveway of a stately brick mansion, the Disney Channel alum stuns in a Giorgio Armani Prive blush couture gown with all-over ruffle detailing and a floor-sweeping train. It’s old Hollywood glamour at its best, complete with a classic car in the background.
Cyrus also strikes an edgier note in the spread, donning a strapless Atelier Versace black dress with sheer paneling across her midriff and down her hip and thigh. Perched atop a motorcycle against a darkened sky, she looks like a punk rock pinup model.
Speaking with the magazine about her style evolution through the years, the “We Can’t Stop” singer says she lives and breathes fashion and often falls asleep reading blogs about the latest trends. “It’s kind of just been like an organic thing,” she explains of how her personal brand has developed.
“I take more control of my life, people are following that, and I think people are inspired to see someone young and taking control of what they know that they like,” she continued. “And I think people are wanting to see more of that right now, are wanting someone with a real clear vision of who they are.”
Cyrus’ problem, she has said, is that who she is doesn’t necessarily line up with who people thought she was. “I think people forget what it feels like to be 20,” she said in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “People just evolve and that’s all that’s happened to me. But people think a mad scientist somehow cooked up this potion and turned me in to a different human, which it wasn’t. All I did was get a haircut and buy some clothes and everyone thinks that I am made into a robot that changes with what’s popular every 10 years.”
“I think some people kind of fall off and they end up going crazy because you don’t give yourself time to go crazy,” she explained. “That’s what you’re supposed to do; you are 20, you are supposed to be a mess because you haven’t figured it out yet, and 10 years from now I am supposed to have it all together.”
