Decoding : All gaga of Lady GaGa ?

She is everywhere : on TV, on Internet, in every magazine, in the teenagers' minds, everywhere. She doesn't let anyone insensible : at the first glance, you like her or you hate her. Some see her as a monster, some as an icon. Her name is on every lips : Lady GaGa.
At only 24 years old ( almost my age ), this New York Italian girl exploded in the medias in 2008 with her debut singles Just Dance and Poker Face, soon-to-be international number-one hits. She has already released 2 albums, The Fame in 2008 and The Fame Monster in 2009. Her voice is deep, her music rythmed and effective, reminding that hits-machine that used to be Madonna.

But it's not her music that gives her such renown, it's her look. The young woman quotes David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Donatella Versace as inspiration for her out-of-the-common style. But, those artists seem rather pale in comparision with Lady GaGa, who literaly seems to go out from an ad of French brand Galeries Lafayette. Extravagant hairdos, like the Hello Kitty bow or the button one, Warholian make-up and spectacular, even outré outfits, those criterias define the visual identity of the pop singer.

Lady GaGa likes to play with her appearance, even hanging out half naked. She is hardly seen with pants on, and seems to have a very light sense of prudishness. Her imagery is sexually explicit, not ashamed to wear ambiguous and SM outfits, and she is sometimes considered as shocking by people. But do we have to stop to prejudices ? No. Is she even the very first one to have bizarre and outrageous looks ? Actually not. For example, her hairdos are not as extravagant as those of Marie Antoinette and aristocrat women of the 18th century. You have to think outside the box : it is rather Contemporary Art and Haute Couture than clothes. She is an artist, and her painting is her body, her sculpture her dresses and hair. There is something of Dali about her.

She is the result of a lineage of persons who tried to evolve in narrow-minded societies. She is what Visual Rock is to Japan, with a touch of Geisha. She is the heiress of the exuberant personnalities of the punk movement of the 1970's : drag-queen Jayne County, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, singer Siouxsie Sioux, Jordan the famous seller of Westwood and MacLaren's shop, Sue Catwoman the Sex Pistols icon, Klaus Nomi, Perry Lister, Nina Hagen, and singer Cherry Vanilla, who, in 1977, already launched the no-pants fashion and equivocal attitudes. These people too used bondage accessories and strange hairdos to make their own style.


Actually, there is something British about GaGa. She must have been raised watching serie AbFab and dreamed, as a little girl, to wear the spectacular hats of Queen Elizabeth ... She is a mix of Alice in Wonderland, Boy George, Elton John and Grace Jones, no more. Her look is vaudevillian, giddy, romanesque, epic, fierce, mind-blowing ! But it needs to, because if she doesn't want to disappear after 3 or 4 hits, she has to make an impact in people's minds. She needs to boggle, and her eccentric style is just "a way to stand out unique in a very crowded field", which journalist of the Star Trish Crawford perfectly explained with this statement.

For the Lady has got brains. Her references go to Queen ( her stage name was inspired by their song Radio GaGa ) to philosopher Rainer Maria Rilke. She is a complete business woman and even has got her own production team, Haus of GaGa, which creates most of her outfits.

Yes, she is wild, and yes she makes little girls dress in leotards and sing songs about adults relationships in reality TV shows. But her songs are well over the average pop soup you can hear on radio, and she brings back women fashion best accessory : the hat ! So, I have to say : GO, GAGA, GO !