So this is the point at which I should probably report on the Pre-Fall RTW collections that were shown in the various fashion capitols over the past few weeks.
Well – whatever.
They were so boring I couldn’t even be bothered to sigh about them.
Instead, I’m going to tell you about the most exciting thing going on right now in our little known universe.
No; it’s not the Hadron Collider, 570 ft beneath the Franco-Swiss border, going about the tricky business of figuring out how we all got here in the first place, and it’s not the delicate negotiations taking place at the Climate Change summit in Copenhagen; nor is it the start of the new season of ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ that just aired on US TV on Sunday night.
It’s not any of those inconsequential creations or events (Pre-Fall collections included.) It’s a little Lady called Gaga.
Whatever you think about Lady Gaga, you can’t deny that she has had the biggest impact on the worlds of art, fashion, music and entertainment in the last 365 days. Whether you love her, hate her, don’t get her, don’t have an opinion either way, don’t even know what the hell I’m going on about – however you feel and whatever your opinions are, energy, persistence, and undeniable presence in 2009.
Obviously, not everyone’s a fan:Antonio Berardi recently refused to work with her on a collection of clothing– because he cited her music as being ‘meaningless’ and couldn’t see ‘what impact [it would] have in 20 years to come.’ I like Antonio – I think he is one of the most talented, exciting and sophisticated designers working today, but it disappointed me no end to read that this was his opinion of someone who I consider to be a true fashion phenomenon.
YES! IT'S HER! Before she was Gaga: Stefani Germanotta performing at Sacred Heart School, NYC
3 years ago, Lady Gaga was Stefani Joanna Germanotta – singing and playing piano in dive bars like ‘The Bitter End’ with her own 3-piece soft rock band. Watching a YouTube clip of her and the rest of the guys doing a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘D’yer Maker’ and – (after getting over the initial shock of her general appearance: no leotard, no crazy sunglasses, no crystals, no lace, no paper mache-based head gear or sparkler-shooting brassiere; just black leggings, top, and long dark brown hair falling over her face,) I listened and enjoyed a really heart-felt, energized rendition of a much-loved rock classic.
She has a strong, melodic, catchy voice, and is clearly a very talented and accomplished song writer. That’s a given. But you have to admit – even if you’re an absolutely head-over-heels-in-love-starstruck-breathless-at-the-thought-of-her fan – this girl with a big voice and a meagre back-up band is just One of Many. You could be watching anyone play the piano and pour their heart out to a Led Zep track – hundreds of girls doing exactly the same thing right now.
Gaga performs 'Paparazzi' at the MTV VMA's; The Lady meets HRH The Queen; Gaga performing on her 'Dali Elephant Leg' piano at the Royal Variety Show
Well, this particular girl Made It.But how? How on earth did someone like her, with her fantastic yet somewhat controversial product slip through the net, against all the obstacles? I guess you could put it down to sheer determination and hard work, but it was also a combination of luck, fate, faith – whatever you want to call it. Because, assuming the ‘Gaga’ business model did not yet exist, if Stefani G went up to the boss of Interscope records today she would be laughed out of the office after proposing her plans for Pop-World Domination: An aggressive plan of attack that included faking a bloody death on stage at the MTV VMA’s, songs about dangerous and deeply disturbed love affairs with accompanying music videos set in futuristic russian bathhouses, and a performance on Ellen DeGeneres in a Frankenstein-style shoulder-padded jacket and crystal encrusted eye sockets. Not to mention meeting the Queen of England whilst wearing a red latex dress with a 20ft train. Forget about it! First of all, she would have been stopped at reception and told to put some clothes on before she even announced who she was and what her business was turning up there without an appointment.
From Lollapalooza DIY; to Restaurant cabaret; to wearing full-on McQueen in her new 'Bad Romance' video
So how did she persuade people that someone like her should exist and be given the chance to entertain and become the Lady that she is today? Well, it sure as hell didn’t happen over night. She crawled on her belly through crummy bars filled with bored NYU students and private parties in L.A. restaurants; she slithered into and out of DIY bejeweled underwear and ripped stockings; never turned down a gig; never stopped working, writing, singing, dancing…And then finally someone heard her sing in the right place, at the right time because she’d made damn sure that she was there when they were. Then she harnessed the power of the Internet and social networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, the lot, and made appearances EVERYWHERE in the most eye-catching and sometimes unbelievable outfits; making sure that both her and her music got maximum exposure. Literally, I don’t think this girl said ‘no’ to anyone or anything. If speaking to a particular person or performing at a particular event provided another opportunity for people to hear the music, see the fashion, here the story, it was worth doing. Her rise has not been accidental – it was calculated, carefully created, thrown out there and attacked through every communicative medium in existence, until you couldn’t ignore her even if you wanted to. Now she’s wearing head-to-toe Alexander McQueen in her new music video; gracing the cover of every magazine that’s still worth printing; appearing on Saturdaynightlive in skits with Madonna, and performing on a sell-out Monster Ball Tour.
Lady Gaga on the cover of Elle Magazine, January 2010 issue
If you are disagreeing with everything that I’m saying you’re probably about to stop reading and fob this off as another fanatical ‘dear Gaga from afar’ love letter. But before you do, just understand this:The very fact that Lady Gaga has got to where she is today should put the faith of all the gods combined back into you that we’re not living in a society where the whole of pop culture is being PG-rated and spoonfed to us via X-factor, American idol, The Hills, The City, and all of that other teen-idol-perfectly-pink-botox-filled-vomit-inducing bull-Ish.
Lady Gaga describes herself as being a ‘liberator’; and that she most certainly is. She couldn’t put it more perfectly. Her music tells you it’s ok to dance in the dark; to do your hair, gloss your eyes, touch yourself till you’re alright, and to be obsessively opposed to the typical.
She liberates all of us – fans or haters – from all of the humdrum, run of the mill, ordinary, mass-market forms of ‘entertainment’ that we are supposed to buy, consume, and then enjoy. And on that note – when Gaga performed on The X-factor in the UK, in front of the mastermind of tacktastic popculture – Mr Simon Cowell, it only demonstrated further what a dramatic contrast she is to all of the aforementioned entertainment options, of which Mr Cowell is responsible for some of the very worst. Lady Gaga went on that show well aware of what it was and what it represents, and she stuck two gloriously glamorous fingers up to the whole thing. Has there ever been a more perfect, grotesque, yet contradictory union in pop culture history?The top contestants and winners from the X-Factor will achieve fame – but begrudgingly. It’s almost as if they are ‘celebrated’ for none other reason than that the general public doesn’t have a better choice. Well now they do. Instead of choosing the grey, dreary, auto-tuned teenagers that come rolling off the SyCo production line every 6 months or so, they can choose Gaga.
I really hope that the Psycho-Syco era is coming to an end, and the King of light entertainment will be overthrown by the Queen of all things Magic, Monstrous and Magnificent.
Gaga in all her many Guises
“My goal is to use music as a way to bring all sorts of communities of people together; to blur the lines and say music has NO POLITICS, music has NO RELIGION, music has NO COLOUR PREFERENCE, music has NO SEXUAL PREFERENCE, MUSIC IS FREE.”
- Lady Gaga
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