New Eggspectations

Indian are enamoured of the cultural phenomenon called Lady Gaga. “I think she’s highly original in the way she thinks about her image,” says graphic designer Maya Shah,“she’s crazy like rock stars once used to be. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her.” Emerging from an egg– the act was created by British/Turkish designer Hussein Chalayan–the provocative songstress sang her new single,Born This Way ,from her second studio album which will release sometime this year. The performance was a promotional tool designed to grab eyeballs and it did that; just like every other move she’s made since she shot to the top of European dance charts with Just Dance .

Gaga’s craziness which channeled through her style – she wears leather and studs and shredded stockings and doesn’t care that she meets royalty in a red latex dress. She’s dared to customize a classic Hermes Birkin bag with studs and got Armani Prive to design clothes for a Dali-esque nightmare. But she still manages to land a Vogue US cover and that,writer Avni Patel thinks,is because Gaga dares to subvert fashion norms. Each one of her outlandish costumes seems to have some thought behind it. “She’s really challenging the norms of what a woman should look like. She’s not at all attractive in the way she dresses up: she’s too provocative,bares too much flesh and isn’t afraid of talking about her sexuality. She’s encouraging women to accept themselves for who they are and not try and fit into any mould.”

Some see it as gimmickry. Architect Arun Patkar says he enjoys Lady Gaga’s music but confesses he’s not a fan of her ‘persona’. “To me,it all seems too contrived. I think she has immense vocal abilities,but to stand out she created this whole new person who wears crazy costumes and is always trying too hard to look different,” he says. Writer Ravi Kamath is equally censorious. “Madonna was also outrageous in the ’80s. But I think its too early to call Lady Gaga this generation’s Madonna. So far,I don’t see a point to her stunts and costumes. Arriving in an egg at a awards ceremony will of course get you headlines and that’s exactly what she wanted.”

Her public persona–and the fact that she’s always Lady Gaga and never Stephanie Germanotta–is the subject of furious debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Is she commenting on animal rights when she wears a meat dress to the MTV Video Music Awards? Is she making a statement about female sexuality when she wears a flame-shooting bra to the Glastonbury Festival or a chastity belt when she’s out shopping in Milan? Are the masks she wears merely designed to hide the lack of genuine talent? Questions,questions but ones that cheerfully engage everyone.