Taylor Swift talks Kanye West, dating mistakes to 'Vanity Fair'

Taylor Swift's style icon status is officially set in stone -- or, at least, print.

The singer covers the annual style issue of Vanity Fair, and in the accompanying story (excerpts of which have been released online), Swift opens up on everything from Kanye West to the importance of her girlfriend squad.

Of West, Swift explained that new pal Jay Z was the impetus for friendlier feelings. "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 told the magazine. "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."

Swift also discussed her views on streaming, and how she couldn't believe her open letter to Apple -- which she read to her mom first -- provoked the reaction it did. " My fears were that I would be looked at as someone who just whines and rants about this thing that no one else is really ranting about....Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about," she explained. "And I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine."

On her pals that regularly show up all over her social media (and on stage with her!), Swift explained, "We even have girls in our group who have dated the same people. It's almost like the sisterhood has such a higher place on the list of priorities for us. It's so much more important than some guy that it didn't work out with."

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"When you've got this group of girls who need each other as much as we need each other, in this climate, when it's so hard for women to be understood and portrayed the right way in the media. . . . now more than ever we need to be good and kind to each other and not judge each other-;and just because you have the same taste in men, we don't hold that against each other," she says.

Speaking of men, Swift doesn't discuss boyfriend Calvin Harris specifically, but she does share what her mindset has been over the past year when it comes to guys. "That was the way that I decided to go on with my life," she explained of the new era of Swift. "Not looking for anything, not necessarily being open to anything, and only being open to the idea that, if I found someone who would never try to change me, that would be the only person I could fall in love with. Because, you know, I was in love with my life."

Hear more from Swift -- including why she idolizes Oprah and Angelina Jolie -- over atVanity Fair.

This article originally appeared on Billboard.