Gaga-Byte

For her F1 after-party performance at the LAP lounge erected at Greater Noida’s Jaypee Integrated Sports Complex,she cut up Tarun Tahiliani’s saris into a bikini-dress. Only she can get away with this fashion crime,as when she got on stage,she declared TT “the best eff-ing designer in India” and all her costumes looked so boring in comparison. I doubt Tahiliani has had a wink of sleep since Sunday night.

Lady Gaga didn’t change,wasn’t too outlandish,sang only five songs and played a contrived sitar. But the tables cost Rs 10 lakh each and the 2000-capacity party room was full.

Gaga began her career as a songwriter for artists like The Pussycat Dolls,Britney Spears and Akon. It was Akon who noticed her songwriting skills and pushed her to make her own music. She faced little success in her original avatar,nee Stefani Germanotta,an atypical Manhattanite wearing leather boots,bangs and hoops and singing at bars.

Then she hit upon a simple idea; one that would not only launch her as an artist to reckon with but would also change the notion of celebrity-watch forever. She went outré. She dressed to provoke a reaction. She hid her pretty face and flaunted her taut body in trapeze artist-style costumes and feigned androgyny. She used clothes to make comments and rework traditions.

Of course,she is talented. She has the instantly attractive voice of a contralto,like Madonna and Gwen Stefani. She sings ‘safe’ music,Euro-pop of the 80s and 90s,with lyrics that talk of boyfriends and telephones and dressing up in Armani. But her kind of success doesn’t come to the talented,it comes to the ingenious.

Despite her multiple Grammys and her albums selling to multi-platinum statuses in most countries they are released,Gaga has often been called a social media success. She is one of the very few to amass a billion views on YouTube. She also has over 30 million likes on Facebook and is the most followed celebrity on Twitter.

It is her choice of wardrobe that’s made her a performance artist and a social phenomenon. At shows,she wears metal orbs encircling a metal suit,caution tapes and hair bows. Her black leather bandeau bra with a one-sleeve black body suit and a face-covering wide-rimmed hat is a comment on the private lives of public figures. Her meat dress,made by Argentine designer Franco Fernandez last year,made Indian PETA activists ask her to wear a lettuce dress while in Delhi. And my favourite: a Hussein Chalayan-inspired bubble dress that proved she knew the transient nature of her job.

She will wear a beautiful black Armani gown but add a Mohawk on it. And while shopping at Dilli Haat,she wore a spectacular jacket and fur-trimmed skirt by Azzedine Alaia (the same recluse who refused John Galliano’s hot seat at Christian Dior for fear of being overworked),that any one of us would like to own.

Gaga influences in mainstream fashion are tremendous. She’s brought architectural styles to the runways,a pronounced sleeve,an expanded shoulder,tiny waists and bustiers.

Gaga Germanotta isn’t the big cheese because she relied on her talent and destiny alone. She is one because she understood originality and stoked our collective imagination. She knows only too well that ‘packaging’ of damned-good goods is never just that.

It’s especially momentous that the most famous person in the world is a fashion queen. More so,because she is so famous because of her fashion sensibilities. namratanow@gmail.com