- Oh my gosh, okay.
I could be here all day.
I love talking about fashion [laughs].
[light music]
Hi Vogue.
Here I am, Gwen Stefani.
I am here to look back on some of my style,
some of my looks.
As you know, I'm very passionate about fashion.
This first one here is a picture of me
in some kind of satin leopard pants and a tank top,
'cause I pretty much only wore tank tops my whole life.
'Cause I don't know why, just think they look cool.
I had to be a little bit tomboy with a little bit glamor.
So from here down tomboy, from here up glamor.
And that was just kind of the vibe for myself,
what I always followed.
And this is from MTV, I wanna say, Awards.
Probably 1995.
I was just so unbelievably fascinated
by Indian culture in particular
because Tony Kanal, who was my boyfriend at the time,
he's the bass player of No Doubt, is Indian from India,
and I had never, growing up in Anaheim,
spent any time with anyone from India
and his mom would come down the stairs
ready to go to these India parties all dolled up
with a bindi and jewelry and these beautiful
fabric dresses and with patterns and gold and,
I would just be like yeah, I've never seen anything like it
and so she gave me a lot of bindis
and I was just like hey, what's up, boom.
Okay, this next photo is,
I'm on the red carpet
and I had just gotten home from tour
so people would send me free stuff.
I was like, what?
Free stuff! And somebody sent me this product
that was this gel that you put in your hair
and it turns your hair a color and it was blue
and it was like a paste and so I was like okay,
just really kid of inspired by Judy Jetson
from the Jetsons sort of in this moment
and I had met this girl through my manager
that made clothes and so she made this little skirt for me.
The shoes were just literally, somebody sent them to me
[laughs] and same with the bathing suit top,
the blue bathing suit top, fur, okay.
You would wear it too if it was free
and you've gotten home off tour so be quiet.
Pick a number next.
Ooh!
Okay, this is me at another award show.
So what happened with pink hair?
It's so true, like,
if you go through a breakup
or a really big change in your life,
sometimes you go ahead and change your hair
like to try to, I don't know,
wash whatever those feelings are out of your hair.
At that time, there was really only one brand
that you could get, it was like manic panic.
And I wanted my hair cotton candy, light pink,
and I would have this vision of what I wanted
and I ended up with fuchsia pink hair for like a year, so.
You know, at that time, too,
I didn't have any budgets.
I didn't have a stylist.
It was like literally on my own with all guys.
Kind of really started to get influenced
by Debra Harry like in her style.
I was really confused at this time.
I was 29 years old.
I was really confused about my relationship.
I didn't know who I was.
I'd come off a long, long tour.
I had gotten famous.
I got to buy a house.
I got to move out of my parents' house.
Like, so much had happened and I think
I had wrote this record called Return to Saturn
which is really all about assessing your life
so the pink hair and the braces
really like, yeah, that's who I, you know what I'm saying?
And the braces were me coming home and being like,
you see this money I got?
Boom, I'm gettin' braces, finally, ha ha!
We did this show.
It was like, New Years Eve show
and we did this song called End of the World As You Know It.
The song has 1,000 lyrics in it and it was live TV
and I remember I was trying so hard to memorize the words
and I had the braces on first the first time
and I couldn't sing, like,
literally, my lips were getting caught in my braces
and I came off stage and went into some closet in some room
and cried for the rest of the night.
It was New Years and looking back, I think about it
and everybody was kissing and nobody was even watching me
so I don't even know why I did that.
Yep.
[laughs]
Oh my gosh, okay.
So this is when I feel a little more proud of myself.
I feel like that's because
I finally got to work with a stylist
and I met my, like,
the New York Jewish street
cooler, way cooler, person
that kind of like I felt like was me
but the cool version of me [laughs]
and her name was Andrea Lieberman.
I knew exactly kind of what I wanted to look like
in the video and I got on the phone with Andrea.
I didn't really know who she was at all
and having Andrea as a stylist
was a way to take like double the talent
so it was like my ideas
and I just remember saying,
I want to have a visor,
kind of like Chrissy from Three's Company,
but then this, yeah, I had this whole thing.
And when I got to the fitting for the e-video,
she had literally had like a truck.
I'd never seen so many clothes in my life
and everything, every idea I had
she had taken it to a whole other level.
She had made custom pants.
I'd never had anyone really make me custom pants
that actually make me look skinny.
I was like, what?
She was definitely my soulmate when it comes to fashion
and she taught me so much
because I wasn't schooled in fashion.
I didn't grow up in New York.
I didn't even know who Vivienne Westwood was.
Like I didn't know she did punk. I didn't know any of that
'cause I just wasn't exposed to it in Orange County.
But I definitely feel like working with Andrea
and having a stylist to have access
to stuff I didn't even know existed
was just taking me to another level
as far as being able to yeah, express myself.
Okay yeah, this is the cover of Vogue.
This is my first Vogue cover.
Never thought that would happen.
Can't believe it still that it did happen.
And this was a while ago.
So they would do a shoot for a whole weekend
and you would do a two-day fitting before the shoot
so it was like an event
and the way it made me feel was like,
I was used to having so much control over my look
and what I did and really was quite anti-fashion magazine
growing up because I think as a kid,
I just felt like I was alienated.
It was like, you can't get that stuff.
That's for rich people.
That's for, those things aren't real.
Of course I was just naive and I didn't know,
but what I love about Vogue
and what I love about being able to do the cover of Vogue
and be able to collaborate with so many talented people
along my journey is to learn about art,
you know, art through fashion
and I think that this was that experience.
Steven Meisel at this time
was this really super-duper famous photographer
and I was super naive 'cause I had like heard the name
but I don't know about that world,
so I was just being really honest, like I just didn't know.
He had not been working for a while
and he's very eccentric and he had kinda come out
of hiding to do this shoot.
And I also got to work with Pat McGrath
who is this famous makeup artist
and I had always done my own makeup, my own hair,
my own styling so I felt scared
that everybody was taking over and I had no choice.
Like you're gonna do your makeup in front of the camera
and Steven's gonna watch
and Pat's gonna put the makeup on
and then you don't even get to see it
and I had just done the Aviator movie
and I think that makeup was influenced by that,
the way that the eyebrows were,
and I look at the photo, I'm like I don't know,
who is that? I don't even think it looks like me at all.
Interesting they put me in the stripes
which is something that's been a signature of mine
along my journey and still is so,
it was an incredible experience
but when the weekend was over,
I was like relieved.
It was, an Orange County girl just didn't belong there.
It was like, what am I doing here?
But it was awesome.
I love you, Vogue, so much.
Okay, how about we talk about The Voice?
So, I am a coach on The Voice
and this look is something that I begged for.
You know sometimes when you're working in stuff
you gotta be creative within a budget
so that gets frustrating,
especially when you get really spoiled
like I am at this point.
And I remember I really wanted this corset
and there's an amazing designer called The Blondes
that do a lot of these beautiful corsets.
I worked with Rob and Mariel
and they are an incredible team
that I've got to work with over the years
and when I stopped working with Andrea
'cause she started her own line, I cried for like two days
'cause we weren't gonna work together,
but Rob and Mariel have been incredible to work with
and they just really get who I am.
They actually begged The Blondes to make this outfit for me
so that I could have it for a performance
that I did on The Voice, so.
There it is, so beautiful.
[light music]
I look at it like,
I'm always gonna be the same person
and I'm always gonna like the same things,
but you can't help but be, like, your eyes are opened
as you travel and as you get
to collaborate with different people
and see things through, you know,
whatever lens they're looking through.
And even up until now,
there's things that I never thought that I could do
or makeup I didn't think I would be able to wear.
Every single day is a new day
and yes, I think that my style is gonna always evolve
and style definitely reflects
your personality, your mood,
and where you're at in your life.
And it makes you happy.
[light music]