After the success of her first solo album, “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” Gwen Stefani set about making a follow-up. The result was 2006’s “The Sweet Escape.” Though not quite as popular as her debut, it spawned two singles, “Wind It Up” and “The Sweet Escape.” It also revealed that the former “The Voice” coach had a slight obsession with Michelle Pfeiffer. More specifically, she was fascinated with Elvira, the character played by Pfeiffer in the 1983 classic film “Scarface,” and copied her looks for the cover of “The Sweet Escape.”
Fast forward to 2025, and Stefani has two songs in the Pfeiffer-starring Christmas film, “Oh. What. Fun.” Nineteen years after she mimicked Pfeiffer’s “Scarface” style, she finally got to meet her in person at the film’s premiere.
Cool, Classy, Iconic: Stefani Reveals Her Deep Admiration for Pfeiffer
“I just think she’s so cool,” Stefani said about Pfeiffer during her December 4 appearance on “Today.” “I just think she’s a cool actress, and classy, and all of the stuff. Iconic.”
When they showed a picture of the “Rich Girl” singer’s cover photo from “The Sweet Escape” next to an image of Pfeiffer, Stefani called it “crazy.”
“I had just given birth to my oldest, and I did that record,” she continued. “I was really inspired, and I did a fashion show as well, all centered around that same, like, Michelle Pfeiffer look. So when I got to meet her, I was like, ‘By the way, just so you knew, I copied you. A lot.”
Stefani said that, though she expressed surprise, “She kinda knew. But she was like, ‘Thank you,” Stefani recalled.
The fashion show she referred to was for her label, L.A.M.B., which first launched in 2003. During a 2006 interview with Women’s Wear Daily (WWD), she described the spring line as “Eighties Michelle Pfeiffer meets Jamaican rude boy.”
Gwen Stefani: From 90s Uniform to Modern Femininity
While Pfeiffer may have been Stefani’s muse in 2006, the fashion chameleon’s style is constantly evolving.
“I had this uniform of things that I had to wear to make me feel like I could be me on stage,” she told “Harper’s Bazaar” about her 1996 style. “It had to be a cutoff shirt, and it had to be a certain length, it had to be a tank top, and I had to have men’s trousers.”
GettyIn 2019, she told InStyle (via E! News) how her relationship with Blake Shelton had affected her current style. “More feminine than ever before. It’s probably because I’m super in love and have a really manly man [Shelton].”
