Karl Lagerfeld Your body is youth incarnate. I think, in fact, you are a very decent girl and well educated, you just like to provoke. What is more fun than to shock the bourgeois anyway?

Miley Cyrus I‘m pretty lighthearted. I was happy to hear you say that, because I know that I‘m not a pop pop dumb dumb. I know that I‘m not. I‘m a lot more than someone who just goes and shakes her ass onstage. If you ever listen to me speak, or watch me at more than just a VMA performance or video or anything like that … when you actually hear me outside of that character, there‘s a totally different side of me. You know, people are so afraid of sexuality and the way I do it, but I’m just joking in most ways, and in a kind of pop sense exploring what being sexual means. I don’t feel like I’m giving off the sex vibe. I’m not trying to be sexy, especially in that male-dominated-world kind of way. It‘s kind of just about being free. I think freedom is sexy. I think it‘s really fun to shock people the other way. Even a lot of people on my Instagram... I‘ve been posting the art that I’ve been making for Jeremy Scott‘s upcoming fashion show [where I am designing pieces for the set], and they don‘t know what it’s for. So when I put it up, they say, “You‘re an idiot, that‘s the worst thing,” and blah blah blah. Those aren‘t the kind of people you want to have around you as friends and fans. I don‘t want to have too many negative people, not even in my fan base. I am a real believer in moojoo-goojoo vibes and people not sending bad vibes your way. In my life, no matter what the media tries to make it seem, my real life is so happy and so peaceful that those angry comments don‘t really ever affect me. I’m just so happy in my life and those people make me kind of sad because there‘s just so much anger. You can‘t even read the good comments on what your fans are trying to say because they’re so polluted by the dumb people that just want to be angry and anonymously abusive.

KL To me, you‘re never going to be vulgar. Who inspired you to behave this way? Is there an influence?

MC There wasn‘t really ever an influence. You know, I grew up around Dolly Parton a lot. She actually has a song, called “Backwoods Barbie,” where she sings, “Don‘t let these false eyelashes lead you to believe that / I‘m as shallow as I look ‘cause I run true and deep.” It‘s part of what makes her Dolly. I think you can put Dolly Parton and Barbie in the same category of iconic female perfection, in a weird way. She‘s like my fairy godmother, but to the world she‘s the only country artist that looks like fucking Pamela Anderson. But even when she was younger she had the tits and she had the body, but her voice and what she was saying… She ‘s so deep and has done so much for the world, and that was always a constant reminder to me of don’t listen to what people think just looking at you or judging you. She is someone that is obviously one of the most intelligent people. She‘s almost 70 and you mention Dolly Parton to anyone, even a lO year-old, and they know who she is. I go play songs by the Beatles and people look at me like “Huh? I‘ve never heard this song before in my life.” I play “Jolene” and everybody sings along. My true core fans, they‘ve stayed with me from the beginning, and that‘s Dolly, too. She has fans that just love her and they‘re so loyal. It‘s worth the abuse to have these core fans that just love you and respect you for not changing who you are.

KL If you didn‘t play the part of a scandalous girl, would you have the success that you have had today?

MC I know this sounds whack, but I don‘t think I would be a household name if things like the VMAs or the Annie Leibovitz cover for Vanity Fair when I was 15 didn‘t happen. I truly think that was part of the reason I was discussed in every house, because it was almost like, “Okay, are we gonna let them watch this stuff? Are we going to let them buy her music? Oh God, what are we going to do?” Even when I was on Hannah Montana, shit was coming out all of the time. So it wasn‘t like all of a sudden I left Disney and became a wild child. It‘s like, did you guys forget about the 15 scandals that happened when I was on Disney? I was never pretending to be something else. My parents taught me to have a really good work ethic. So when I was there, I was on the company‘s time, I didn’t get fucked up. Every day that I went to set I’m sure people thought I was a fucking mess, but every day that I went to set I was so focused. There‘s no way I could be fucked up and do that Bangerz tour. It‘s insane. I‘m obviously not that far-out.

KL Do you want to show the world that you‘ve grown up, to forget that you were once a child star?

MC I’ve never felt the need to break away, because it just happened naturally. I didn‘t think, Let‘s make this transition. I just started doing it, and it kind of happened. I never felt like I needed to prove anything. I just felt like I needed to prove it to myself. Even in ways of, you know, there‘s good parts and there‘s bad parts. With the VMAs, people take it and they turn it, but that was just me showing how I was growing and maturing, and then I think doing things with Jeremy Scott, that‘s a whole other way.

KL Is that going to be announced beforehand?

MC I think they‘re going to have to announce it a few days before, because I’m going to have to be there a few days before to set everything up. So I‘m sure people will start talking. It‘ll be good for me because it‘s just something I need to do. One day I even tweeted, “Dude I gotta start reading again because I just feel like I‘m a pop pop dumb.” I cannot be that. When someone asks me what I do, the depth of it cannot stop at I’m a pop star. That cannot be all I am at the end of my life. So I was like, “What do I want to be?” I‘m an artist to the core. I used to paint as a kid and had all these paints in my garage. It started as a therapy with shit that happened with my dog and stuff that‘s going on. It‘s a time to sit outside with a blank piece of paper and make some thing beautiful. That‘s honestly something I think Jeremy does a lot. He‘s someone that I think is the perfect combo of kitschy and couture in a way, and what he does with that kind of kitschy-ness is something I‘m inspired by. I have a dress he made me that’s literally a sack of Cheetos and I love it. He never takes it too serious. And Carlyne too. When I did my first shoot with V, that‘s something that I learned from her. I was like, Fashion can be so much fun! She‘ll put me in socks that are Trash and Vaudeville or Pat Fields, but then with this fur Fendi bathing suit. I started to get it a little bit. I think that shows a lot in my life.

KL Is it easier to be a grown-up singer who provokes than it is to be a child star?

MC I definitely don‘t think it‘s easier. I think it’s hard, and I don‘t think that because sex sells you‘ll sell a million albums. You‘ve gotta have more than that. It‘s definitely easy to make a splash being a woman, and if you throw sex in there, it all of a sudden becomes a headline. But I always use the example of Elvis. Elvis was the one who brought sex into the culture anyway. It should really be equal, but I think as a woman it’s easier to make news if you‘re using sex within your content, but it doesn‘t necessarily make it easier. You go to an awards show and the only thing that gets picked up is what a girl does and wears anyways. It doesn‘t matter what it is, even if it‘s the Grammys. You‘re not going to flip through a tabloid magazine and see Josh Groban at the piano. You‘re gonna see what Katy wore and what Rihanna didn‘t wear. Or what I did or didn‘t do. It‘s all that.

KL Could you have imagined when you were a kid that you would end up this way? If only you had known about this kind of thing!

MC Timing is everything. I think it can only be this way now because of my age. I feel like I did my time on the show of giving my fans what they wanted. I didn‘t get wild and not finish my show. I paid my dues, doing what I didn‘t necessarily want to do and love. So now I spend all of my time doing only what I want to do and love. Nothing else. I was in an industry that made a lot of money and now what I do is spend all that I make back into my show. It drives my team crazy. We‘re about to go to South America, and I‘m kind of a different person than I was on the first leg of the Bangerz tour, so I had to change a lot of it. I‘m in a totally different zone. I’m 21. I change drastically every two fucking months. It‘s been a year since we made this. I have to change some of it. Having money in my bank account isn‘t worth it to me. I want to know that instead of having money just sitting there-I want to just look at it. I want my fans to see it. I want to entertain them and have them enjoy it. Everything we make is so well made. We have so many amazing artists that work on it, like John Kricfalusi from The Ren & Stimpy Show. You know we actually have you in one of the pieces in one of the songs! In “My Darlin” there‘s a big Karl! I don ‘t feel like a pop artist, because I don‘t really live that way. I think you can see a lot of that from my Instagram. Those faces I’m making, I’m joking, but people are like, “Oh my God, she‘s so high she‘s gonna die.” I’m just making that face. I think it‘s kind of funny to mess with people and rile them up, because I’m actually the most chill person and it‘s funny to watch the world get out of their minds over things that are so irrelevant and don‘t matter. What I care about is being happy and being myself more than making money. And my true fans really know that. They can see it in my show.

KL Chanel and I are very happy to see you wearing the brand. You‘re one of the few that buys the stuff... what are your favorite cities for shopping?

MC I love this question. I’m a little bit of a hoarder and I collect a lot of things, like food clocks, like funny, big, giant clown sunglasses, piggy banks. Chanel is really just a part of that collection, and it just happens to have more value in that way. I actually just love my stuff because it‘s a part of my collection and the value of things don‘t really matter to me. I love my Chanel as much as I love my piggy banks. I just happen to be able to wear the Chanel stuff, which makes it great, because you can actually keep it forever.

KL Where do you put all of this?

MC I have a place in my room where all my Chanel is together. I’m also extremely obsessive–compulsive, so my entire closet is alphabetized by designer, because I’m really OCD. It‘s gnarly. That‘s how I know my stuff. I don‘t go, Oh, my gray jacket! It‘s insanely organized within each designer. And my shelves… I‘ ll actually send you a picture. It‘s kind of funny. They‘re just covered in piggy banks and giant sunglasses. Plus my gifts from fans. I love it because they‘re such treasurable things. I make things, and the fact that my fans made these for me, I know how much time it takes. I know how excited you are to give what you make to the person you made it for. I can‘t throw it away.

KL That‘s sweet. In a hypocritical world like ours, girls like you are very rare!