Mesh top by Christian Siriano, custom fishnet top by Natalie Joos, shorts by Marc Jacobs and shoes by Christian Louboutin. (Click to enlarge image)
It's no surprise that the woman who sang the 2007 hit "Like a Boy" ("Wish we could switch up the roles") likes to dress like one too. She butched it up in the video for the track -- a year before Beyoncé's ballad "If I Were a Boy," was released. But as evidenced by the pretty white dress she also donned in that clip, she certainly likes to keep people buzzing. Ciara has always represented a wonderful combination of gender-specific hot stuff and provocative androgyny. The slinky "Crunk&B" diva, who started out with her big brown eyes set on the modeling world, can rock men's and women's looks with equal aplomb. She's been photographed out and about in Givenchy menswear ensembles (she and designer Riccardo Tisci are pals) yet for this story was game to pose in some punk-meets-Donna-Reed looks.
"Tough yet pretty" might also describe Ciara, her fifth album, which exploded onto the #2 position on Billboard's Top 200 in July (right behind Jay Z, whom she toured with in '09). In its review, the Los Angeles Times dubbed her "one of R&B's most adventurous beat-seekers."
"The album is light and upbeat," says Ciara. "There's a lot of love in it -- a lot of heart and passion. It reflects the spirit and energy that I'm feeling right now. What people are hearing is my true self-expression and the energy I'm living."
She started creating the album, originally titled One Woman Army, two years ago. Gradually it came to reflect a very personal vision full of open feelings. And it turns out a lot of those feelings involve relationships, sensuality, and s-e-x. "I want my fans to get to learn more about me," says Ciara. "I've been very blessed with my success, but my music hasn't given a clear voice to who I am." The resulting album brims with attitude and sizzle; with the song "Read My Lips," you get an innuendo-laden invitation for a guy to go "down, down" on his "favorite dish." Even the gays will find this track delectable!
"I don't wear a dress regularly," Ciara tells me after the shoot, "but even if I do, you have to put some attitude into it. I like a leather skirt, which gives you some toughness, but a feminine touch too. I like the androgynous thing with a hard edge: I make things rock 'n' roll -- but still pretty." Similarly, the recording star's everyday look has taken on a certain no-muss directness. She's willing to just throw something on, whether it be a KTZ T-shirt, jean shorts, combat boots, or some combination of the above. Especially when she's hanging with the boys, putting her feet up on the coffee table for "football Sundays." ("I love the competitive energy and spirit of sports," she told me, sans affectation.)
"Tough yet pretty" might also describe Ciara, her fifth album, which exploded onto the #2 position on Billboard's Top 200 in July (right behind Jay Z, whom she toured with in '09). In its review, the Los Angeles Times dubbed her "one of R&B's most adventurous beat-seekers."
"The album is light and upbeat," says Ciara. "There's a lot of love in it -- a lot of heart and passion. It reflects the spirit and energy that I'm feeling right now. What people are hearing is my true self-expression and the energy I'm living."
She started creating the album, originally titled One Woman Army, two years ago. Gradually it came to reflect a very personal vision full of open feelings. And it turns out a lot of those feelings involve relationships, sensuality, and s-e-x. "I want my fans to get to learn more about me," says Ciara. "I've been very blessed with my success, but my music hasn't given a clear voice to who I am." The resulting album brims with attitude and sizzle; with the song "Read My Lips," you get an innuendo-laden invitation for a guy to go "down, down" on his "favorite dish." Even the gays will find this track delectable!
Checkered top and shoes by Missguided, custom fishnet top by Natalie Joos, skirt by Erdem and necklace by Marco Bologna. (Click to enlarge image)Another highlight is "I'm Out," a raunchy romp with Nicki Minaj, which celebrates ladies' sexuality with even more high-diva abandon. The video features Ciara and Minaj cavorting in white leather bodysuits as they carry on about things you won't hear mentioned on the Disney Channel. "She invited me to be on her album, Pink Friday Roman Reloaded: The Re-Up," says Ciara of Minaj, "and I invited her to be on mine. I didn't feel like there was any other person I wanted for that song. She came in and murdered the verse!" Not shockingly, the two had fun making the video, despite the exigencies of the shoot. "We didn't sleep," Ciara informs me. "We shot for about 25 hours. After a while, my body kept dancing, but my brain wasn't there. At the end, I joked, 'Now, I'm out.'"
But she's in when it comes to exploration and being more open to the public these days. Just like her music, Ciara herself is way less guarded than she used to be. "I thought it was better to be private," admits the 27-year-old. "But self-reflection helped me to say, 'You need to live more. If you worry so much about things, your head is going to explode. Just live. Something has to give.' I was holding back so much that I wasn't letting myself explore and live."
Which means Ciara is now open to talking about her relationship with the avant-rapper Navydius "Future" Cash, who is an executive producer of the album and collaborated on the first single, "Body Party." It's a sultry act of musical seduction ("My body is your party, baby/Nobody's invited but you, baby"). The video imagines the couple's first meeting, where their flirty banter culminates with a seal of approval from Ciara. "He reads," she says, as he walks away.
"He's very understanding," she tells me, "and he's my best friend. It's important to have a feeling that you can talk about anything and know a person's going to be there and support you. When we're together, it's not about who we are. I feel very normal, very safe and loved.
"Being able to speak about it is a whole different thing for me," she goes on. "I'm not thinking or caring too much about what anybody has to say anymore. Once you start over-thinking and worrying, you start getting close to insanity. I want my sanity and a life and happiness." (It's partly for that reason that Ciara won't crank out bitter songs about ex-lovers. "It'll come to light," she says. "Whatever energy a person gives you, they'll have to deal with that. I'm not necessarily going to be so direct in a song.")
Which means Ciara is now open to talking about her relationship with the avant-rapper Navydius "Future" Cash, who is an executive producer of the album and collaborated on the first single, "Body Party." It's a sultry act of musical seduction ("My body is your party, baby/Nobody's invited but you, baby"). The video imagines the couple's first meeting, where their flirty banter culminates with a seal of approval from Ciara. "He reads," she says, as he walks away.
"He's very understanding," she tells me, "and he's my best friend. It's important to have a feeling that you can talk about anything and know a person's going to be there and support you. When we're together, it's not about who we are. I feel very normal, very safe and loved.
"Being able to speak about it is a whole different thing for me," she goes on. "I'm not thinking or caring too much about what anybody has to say anymore. Once you start over-thinking and worrying, you start getting close to insanity. I want my sanity and a life and happiness." (It's partly for that reason that Ciara won't crank out bitter songs about ex-lovers. "It'll come to light," she says. "Whatever energy a person gives you, they'll have to deal with that. I'm not necessarily going to be so direct in a song.")
Bra top by Jeremy Scott, custom fishnet top by Natalie Joos, skirt by Christian Dior and boots by Daniele Michetti.She talks a lot about her "energy" and her "journey," but don't dim your chakras worrying about it: the woman has a giddy side too. In fact, she can be extremely playful, trying on different accents to entertain herself while gently throwing people off with her charm. "You're the Meryl Streep of hip-hop," I joked when Ciara launched into an unexpected bout of Cockney on our first meeting. But beneath the poses, Ciara gets things done with maximum efficiency, willing to go the extra mile in her combat boots.
Ciara Princess Harris was born in Austin, Texas as an only child to two parents in the military. She grew up on army bases from here to Germany. "I'm what you call 'love rich,'" she relates. "We didn't have all the money in the world, but I had all the attention. I grew up spoiled with love.
"I wasn't trained to sing and dance," she adds, "but I knew I had something special and decided to explore it. I've been growing in front of the world, and I want to keep growing." Dad helped by regularly gliding around with her wherever they happened to be living. "He taught me some of my moves," Ciara beams. "Some mean footwork!"
She initially considered going into modeling -- a no-brainer -- but music beckoned. Her triple-platinum debut album, Goodies, came out in 2004, when she was just 18. The title song was a sort of anti-"Body Party" that hinted at abstinence, announcing that "the goodies ... stay in the jar" -- an ear-catching change from all the other hooker-y stuff out there. "I was young," remembers Ciara, "and wondered, 'What do I want to say to the world for the first time?' Every other song was about, 'Money makes the world go round.' But it has to take more than that." Indoctrinated by fire into the biz, Ciara learned from Missy Elliott, who wrote and performed with her on the Goodies hit "1, 2 Step," an electro-inspired mid-aughts party anthem whose video helped Ciara establish her individual style. She wore a gold cross chain dangling over her exposed navel offset by boy-cut jeans and sneakers.
"I wasn't trained to sing and dance," she adds, "but I knew I had something special and decided to explore it. I've been growing in front of the world, and I want to keep growing." Dad helped by regularly gliding around with her wherever they happened to be living. "He taught me some of my moves," Ciara beams. "Some mean footwork!"
She initially considered going into modeling -- a no-brainer -- but music beckoned. Her triple-platinum debut album, Goodies, came out in 2004, when she was just 18. The title song was a sort of anti-"Body Party" that hinted at abstinence, announcing that "the goodies ... stay in the jar" -- an ear-catching change from all the other hooker-y stuff out there. "I was young," remembers Ciara, "and wondered, 'What do I want to say to the world for the first time?' Every other song was about, 'Money makes the world go round.' But it has to take more than that." Indoctrinated by fire into the biz, Ciara learned from Missy Elliott, who wrote and performed with her on the Goodies hit "1, 2 Step," an electro-inspired mid-aughts party anthem whose video helped Ciara establish her individual style. She wore a gold cross chain dangling over her exposed navel offset by boy-cut jeans and sneakers.
Mesh top by Christian Siriano, custom fishnet top by Natalie Joos and shorts by Marc Jacobs.
The gold and silver kept dangling as her second album, Ciara: The Evolution, hit the top slot on the Billboard 200; the subsequent Fantasy Ride provided "Love Sex Magic," a smoky duet with Justin Timberlake. "Every girl loves to dig in and pull out their inner sexuality," Ciara tells me, "but I don't believe you have to force it." One reason she likes the tomboy look, in fact, is that by covering things up she exudes more sexuality than by going the more obvious route.
But then came a rare misstep for the golden girl. Not so sexy was the commercial failure of her 2010 album, Basic Instinct, which went back to R&B basics. The artist started to realize that she deserved better marketing to match her slick moves. In February 2011, she penned an open letter to Jive Records on Facebook, bristling at the lack of promotion and asking to be let go of their arrangement.
When I ask Ciara to elaborate, she cites "creative differences," the need to try new things and the fact that the company was reconfiguring. "Jive inherited me," she says. "They didn't discover me or know me. I was very fortunate that they let me have a go pass, to be able to have a new home." Her release reunited her with her original mentor, L.A. Reid, who then signed her to Epic. "He's the reason I'm here in the first place," she says. "He gives you a strong level of confidence."
As the Epic album keeps growing, Ciara is preparing a tour, but she says it won't all take place in huge arenas. She wants an intimate experience for her fans, to mirror her new, more open-for-business attitude. "I'm making choices I feel good about," she says, glowing. "It definitely feels good to get love from my fans. I work so hard. I'm hoping to share with other young girls, and even men, to never give up.
"And I feel like my journey's just beginning. On this journey, there's much I haven't done. I still feel like a little kid. I still have my youthful energy and spirit. I'm super excited by my future." You're not the only one, princess.
Check back on papermag.com for more photos and a fun, dance-filled behind-the-scenes video with Ciara.
Styled by Natalie Joos / Hair by Cesar Ramirez using Kerastase / Shu Uemura at Dew Beauty Agency / Makeup by Yolanda Frederick using MAC Cosmetics for Goldfinger Creative Agency, Atlanta.
Producer: Stephanie Porto / Photographer's Assistants: Jeff Allen and Jordan Zuppa / Stylist's Assistant: Yety Akinola / Props: Chris Stone / Digital Tech: Justin Chan
Shot at Fast Ashleys Studio
Carey: We begin this week with Teresa teaching a cooking class at a vast store in a strip mall called "Chef Central." Oh, right! Chef Central, you know? I buy all my central chef things at Chef Central! I guess Teresa brokered a deal with THE preeminent kitchenware emporium where she gets paid to cook some kale shit in front of a bunch of people they found milling around the parking lot while looking for their cars. As Teresa starts cookin', Cousin Kathy is seen walking up. She's wearing this large fur coat, and has this strange smile on her face, as if she doesn't remember how she got there. Kathy sits down to watch; Teresa sees her and is kind of like, "Oh hey" and keeps cooking. When Teresa is finished, she says, "I'm gonna let the (lone) man try first!" and Kath shouts out, "So old school, Tre" and everyone in the class laughs and laughs. Afterward, Kath and Tre-Tre recap the incident at the Milania Hair Care party, where Jan and Penny got into it with Melissa, and Teresa ran around screaming "I'm on a high!" after Penny (questionably) confirmed that the lady with the 2-inch forehead had NOTHIN' to do with the Melissa Gorga cheating rumors swirling around like toilet water. After Teresa rehashes, Kath asks, "Who the f*** is Penny?" We still don't know. But there's NO time to find out who Penny is! Da crew needs to get ready for ARIZONA! The desert! They're going to the desert for Melissa's birthday/group healing! "I've been to Arizona once," Caroline explains. You see, Caroline spent 100 years in the desert one time. She ate snakes and bathed in cactus water and screamed at the blood orange dusks and sauntered around bellowing "My family, my family." She's excited to go back! They all pack up their collective 800 pieces of luggage and head out to Georgia O'Keefe country.
Eli: What was your secret Arizona life, Caroline? Did you live in the desert for years off of occasional flowers and agave nectar? Did you shed layers of your own skin across the desert floor while becoming attuned to the natural vibrations of the universe? Or did you run a smuggling ring, moving quantities of drugs throughout the Southwest, eventually even moving on to human trafficking and a bit of light coyote work before realizing you were in too deep and staged your own death? TELL US CAROLINE. WE PROMISE NOT TO TELL. Contact PAPER for our e-mail addresses, all strictly off the record. We just want the straight dope, Car-bear. Regardless, to the desert! It seems like this season the Housewives of Jerz are doing a bit of globetrotting to various places of "healing." We've been to the lake, now the desert, so I'm guessing the next will have to be the deep forest. Perhaps they're secretly going to all these places to recover shards of an ancient artifact, which, when reassembled, will give them all complete control of the elements. Each couple gets a different element. Teresa and Juicy Joe, with the power to control ice, and freeze objects. Joe Gorga and Melissa, fire. Jacqueline and Chris have control over plants and growth, while Caroline and Al gain affinity for earth magic. Rich and Cathy have the power of wind, and Rosie has the power of HEART. The ancient artifact, as prophesied, also will give them all lucrative book deals and spin-offs. Whatever their motivation, they're all headed out to Miraval, which is basically a group of nice hotel rooms in the middle of a desert. I've never gotten why people vacation to hot places. Sure, there's a pool, but it's basically a puddle in a landscape of burning hot sand and concrete, which seems more like an exile than a vacation. They're also all constantly commenting on the "claustrophobia" and "lack of storage" in their rooms because in case we forgot, they all got BIG houzez back in JERZ, bro. The trip there is even a little rocky, with Chris, Jacqueline, Al and Caroline stuck at the airport after "their plane broke." Jacqueline squeals and rolls around like a little child (that's had extensive plastic surgery) while Al and Chris eventually just say they're gonna "grab a bite" and walk away. Unbeknownst to Caroline or Jacqueline, the two of them went back through security, and purchased two tickets to Rio de Janeiro, away from all this horseshit, and sat in silence for a moment. They held the tickets tight in their clammy fists, imagining what could be. They could fly away, start up a little food cart with Al's cooking experience and Chris's management. Spend the afternoon slinging American-style fare to hungry workers off on their lunch breaks, and spend the nights in their twin hammocks on the roof of their apartment, listening to echoes of the hectic street life below. They could never truly do it, though, and they knew that. But the delusion was nice. They tore up the tickets and threw them away. Al looked at Chris and shook his head softly. "We almost made it this time," he chuckled. "Yeah, almost," replied Chris. His phone buzzed as Jacqueline sent him emoji after emoji. They wheeled their luggage back to where Caroline and Jacqueline were waiting. "What'd you guys eat?" asked Caroline. "Nothing much," grunted Al. "Just a little Brazilian," Chris chuckled.
But YEAH! They join the other cast members inside, and everyone gets drunk and complains about the rooms, and genuinely appear to be having a good time. There's a moment where a bat flaps around the hallway, and Albert tries to swat it down and everyone screams. Then everyone gets drunk again and eats dinner and gets drunker and Melissa is like, "Bee Tee Dubs, an energist is coming tonight!" Energists have become a common thing in the Real Housewives franchise. Everyone has an energist. I'm going to just say I'm an energist from now on. I'm an energist! You're an energist! 
It's the shade equivalent of a nuclear strike. We all knew Rosie deserved a spin-off, but only know do I finally realize what it should be: "Rosie and the Energist." A lovely odd-couple sort of show between the outspoken, enchantingly lumbering Rosie and the undiagnosed schizophrenia of Tina the energist. I'd buy a DVR just to make sure I didn't miss a second. But eventually, Tina's scatter-shot queries hit, and she manages to convince the crew she's connected to the Otherworld, and then she makes everyone cry and cry and Rich cries a lot and then Kathy cries a lot and Tina breathes a giant sigh of relief that her reputation as an energist hasn't been eviscerated by a group of drunk Jersey couples.
Carey: Yeah, lots of crying. Good job, Tina. My favorite part was when she goes, "DO YOU WANT ME TO STOP, KATHY? DO YOU WANT ME TO STOP?" while Kathy is sobbing about her dead father. Please stop. The high emotions carry into the next morning, as the crew, minus a sick Melissa, is gathered up by a strawberry-blonde haired hiking guide named Conor Eldridge. Of course his name is CONOR! Blonde haired Conor! HEY CONNNNNNN. Conor leads them on a 30 foot trail. Melissa is back at the hotel with a sore throat, or as she says, "the worst pain in her life." Joe Gorga is like, "What about when you had three children?" To her credit, sore throats are bad. But it feels like Melissa is starring as Gwyneth Paltrow's understudy in Contagion. Bye, Melissa! Anyway, Conor brings them all to this clearing where some Shaman brunette whose name I can't remember makes them all write down something they need to let go and burn it in a small fire. UGHHHH I can't even bring myself to write more about this awful scene. Albert is like, "I don't believe in witchcraft" and sits it out. I love Albert. Then Teresa goes up and calls up all the people she's hurt in the past, AKA everyone, and they all hold hands as Teresa wishes reunion and joy for everyone. "I wish Melissa could be here" Joe says. Melissa is at home sunbathing and coughing. She doesn't give a shit. Anyway, they allllll cry cry cry. And Teresa and Jacqueline have a heart-to-heart about their friendship and worrying that it'll never get back to the same place hey were in. I've been watching this horror show since the beginning and I don't even remember them being as close as they say they were. Alas, we'll play along. Then Teresa talks about how she needs to set her karma right, because if she doesn't, it'll get passed down to her kids. Jacqueline, for whatever reason, takes Teresa's karma comment as a dig at her, implying that Jacqueline's wrongdoing in the past is the reason why her son has autism. Okay. I'm not even going to elaborate on that. No one wins. Everything is terrible. I'm going to go turn on a hot shower and sit in the tub with all of my clothes on till I pass out.
Eli: Burn your TV and breathe the smoke until the plastic fumes take you straight to Valhalla.
But still more than happy to give you driving directions. "Just take La Cienega to I-10 then take the third right on Pico." [via 
Amazing. [via 
Good Parenting 101. [via 
"Sites Renamed for the Reasons We Visit Them." Accurate. [
Our reaction to this flavor is exactly the same as the orange m&m's face on the bag. [via 
"Miley Cyrus Twerks On Famous Paintings." She can't stop. She won't stop. [via 
Us whenever we attempt to talk about the budget crisis or the policy differences between candidates in the New York mayoral race. [via 
Your Tuesday morning is brought to you by 2 Chainz's high school yearbook photo. 
Each week in our Chefs Off Duty series, we talk to some of our
favorite chefs and industry folk around the country to find out their
secret late-night spots where they like to grab a bite and a pint when
their kitchens are finally closed. Next up: Ford Fry, the chef and owner of Atlanta's 
Octopus Bar (left) and The Majestic (right)
Though money's not allowed when you get to Burning Man, there aren't any rules about how much change you drop before you head to the playa.
Good news: More leaked George W. Bush paintings! It looks like he's adding more kitties to his range. We much prefer 
Pappy Ray Cyrus weeps! Gonna start a Kickstarter to get this image painted as a mural in Paper's lobby. Donate! [
Sorry/not sorry. [
Oh Roger! I hope you're shooting laser beams of judgement and rage at us all from some dumb and annoying cloud in the sky. [
Meanwhile, EVERYONE has been hating on Hippocrates on Twitter. Can't a guy catch a break? [Mlkshk]
Cool new scrunchie-holder idea. [
In his definitive 
ADIDAS SLIDES
You will never be able to un-see "Zooey Davechappelle." Your nightmares will thank you. [via 
This is us every night at 11pm watching Orange Is the New Black and thinking, "I need to go to sleep...BUT I have to say how Red gets her revenge on Pornstache." [via 
Buck don't give a fuck. [via 
There there. [via 
Sure. [via 
"I'll Tell ya what." [via 
They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but holy shit, 
Hanna's wry sense of humor has long added an engaging layer to her performances and music. (Look no
further than Bikini Kill's anthem "Carnival," in which Hanna triumphantly yells, "I'll win that
Mötley Crüe mirror, if it fucking kills me!") "Kathleen is hilarious," says Kathi Wilcox of her longtime
band mate. "As a
performer, she can be funny. She's theatrical, and she's always
commenting about what she's singing about in her physical performance.
I also think some of how Bikini Kill presented ourselves was funny, the
way we'd sort
of wander around on stage between songs and trade instruments,
undermining the idea of the put-together band. We were serious, but we
didn't always take ourselves seriously." 
If you want a crash course on Zola Jesus, the alter ego of 24-year-old singer-composer-producer Nika Roza Danilova, skip Wikipedia and check out the three iterations of her song, "Sea Talk." Start with the one on her new album, Versions. Danilova's voice, at once vulnerable and strong enough to shake windows, is supported only by strings and minimal tech, the results of arrangements created by industrial producer JG Thirlwell during the singer's