Style lessons from grazia’s BEST DRESSED 2018
We went gaga for… gaga
WHEN LADY GAGA attended the Venice Film Festival in August, walking the red carpet for the worldwide premiere of A Star Is Born, there was no meat dress. Rather, there was a different kind of showstopper: an haute couture, bubblegum pink Valentino ballgown. Elegant, epic, extravagant. This melodrama of tulle and feathers was pure fantasy, of the unmistakably Hollywood variety.
So had the ultimate provocateur gone polished? It certainly looked like it. What followed was a succession of stellar red carpet looks from Lady Gaga for the film’s press tour: silver Givenchy couture, princessy Dior tulle, white Victoria Beckham worthy of Marilyn Monroe. The gospel according to Gaga? Glamour is back. But these scene-stealing, divaworthy looks also marked the beginning of something bigger. Lady Gaga, movie star.
‘I love how Gaga keeps reinventing herself for each stage of her career and it’s exciting to see her explore her capabilities as an actress,’ says Browns womenswear buying director Ida Petersson. ‘ This is a woman with a plan! Everything she does is planned to a T, including her wardrobe.’
But while she might have gone fullthrottle glam, Gaga’s outré, experimental spirit lives on (note the Elizabethan Alexander Mcqueen gown or the black widow veil for an Armani Privé look). She’s a woman who knows how to keep things interesting. ‘ There is a sense of timelessness surrounding her style, the essence of old Hollywood glamour offset with a modern twist, giving her a unique edge,’ notes Tamara Ralph of Ralph & Russo, whose ruffled black dress Gaga topped off with a jaunty hat at the Toronto Film Festival. ‘Gaga adds the perfect amount of drama to her looks that makes them current and also her own,’ says stylist Avigail Collins.
What makes Gaga’s look so powerful is that she is unapologetically dressing for herself. Attending the 25th Women in Hollywood celebration, in a rallying cry for empowerment, she eschewed a dress for an XXL Marc Jacobs suit. ‘ This was an oversized men’s suit made for a woman. Not a gown,’ she said. ‘In this suit, I felt like me today. In this suit, I felt the truth of who I am well up in my gut’.
With awards season lurching into action in January and Gaga hotly tipped for an Oscar, as well as her marriage to Christian Carino next year (now that’s a dress we can’t wait to see), the spotlight doesn’t show any sign of waning. Like all good performers, she’s left her audience wanting more. A Star Is Born? She’s already arrived.