If you know me, then you’ll know that nobody has shaped my understanding of fashion—and by extension, myself—like Lady Gaga. My bookshelves are lined with biographies of the photographers and designers behind her vision; my walls are covered in my illustrations of McQueen ensembles and posters of Nick Knight photos; my wardrobe is bursting with spikes, fake blood, sparklers, and a collection of carefully groomed wigs and embellished shoes—a growing archive of annual Halloween endeavors. (Luckily, there are more than enough costume options to last my lifetime.)
In the past fifteen years, Gaga’s discography has ranged from electronic pop and glam rock to opera and old Vegas jazz, her expertise from records to film. But through all the reinventions, fashion has remained a constant medium. An unwavering force of expression through her battles with mental and physical health and experimentation of self, it has taught me and embodies the way fashion can speak as a nonverbal vehicle for exploration and advocacy when words and even music don’t suffice.
Capitalizing upon possibility and virality, Lady Gaga’s extensive wardrobe spectacles—ranging from battling a life size monster with her weapon of choice, a flame-shooting pyro bra, at the Monster Ball to emerging from an egg (in which she supposedly incubated for three days prior) in a nude latex number at the 2011 Grammys—has helped shap pop culture. From streetwear nudity to a camp red carpet striptease, the stadium ledge to the Seine, Gaga finds opportunity for the world to be both a runway and a stage (especially in the coming weeks, as she transforms into Harley Quinn on the big screen and launches her long-gestated LG7 album). But beneath the shock factor of her wardrobe theatrics are personal, political statements of social subversion that redefine the discourse between written and visual lyricism. “She’s a fashion designer as much as she is a singer, a songwriter, a performer, and an activist,” says creative director Franc Fernandez, a longtime collaborator and the mastermind behind the Meat Dress. Her fashion, makeup, and costume are a tangible extension of her music and her mind—and through collaborations with luxury and emerging designers alike, imbue her narrative with dimension and depth.
Ahead, five of the stories behind five of Lady Gaga’s most iconic looks.
Paparazzi Costume by Haus of Gaga, VMA’s 2009
Fashion has been one of Lady Gaga’s linguistic mediums since stepping on stage for her first award show performance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. A twenty-three-year-old Gaga—dressed in a lacey white cut-out bodysuit that emulated the silhouette and embellishments of many of her signature stylists from The Fame era—began bleeding amidst an increasingly tortured and emotive performance of “Paparazzi.” She designed the look along with her team (known as the Haus of Gaga) to convey the inner dialogue in an artist’s rise to fame and the lethal relationship between fame and mental illness, a lasting battle she has explored throughout her discography. “I wanted to say something about how the celebrity sort of has this inevitable demise that we love to watch,” Gaga said to MTV in 2009. Ending the show hanging above the audience with glassy eyes, the blood-soaked Gaga left the audience in shock, galvanizing media traction and social criticism. As Frank later commented on the meat dress, “People were always annoyed by her drama, saying she was looking for attention. People didn’t get it. But making real art elicits hatred before indifference—because ultimately hate is still passion. And real pop is fleeting yet powerful in that it creates waves of novelty that change the status quo. It changes what will never be the same again.”