Taylor Swift Covers Vanity Fair's September Issue

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In today's September cover reveal, Vanity Fair picked Taylor Swift for a surprisingly grown-up, Hollywood-themed cover. Mario Testino, royal family photographer extraordinaire, shot the cover and the accompanying editorial, in which Swift sheds all traces of crop tops and high-waisted skirts.

In the interview, Swift explains just how tight her girl squad is ("It's so much more important than some guy that it didn't work out with") and the story behind the unexpectedly influential letter to Apple Music.

One of the best parts, though, comes when she explains how she cemented her friendship with Kanye:

"I feel like I wasn't ready to be friends with [West] until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me, and he wasn't ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me—so it was the same issue, and we both reached the same place at the same time," Swift says. "I became friends with Jay Z, and I think it was important, for Jay Z, for Kanye and I to get along. . . . And then Kanye and I both reached a place where he would say really nice things about my music and what I've accomplished, and I could ask him how his kid's doing."

Finally, we can rest easy knowing that Swift can ask Kanye about North without things getting weird.