Gaga for i-D s/s 2011

Photographed by Mariano Vivanco.

The Manifesto of Mother Monster

Lady Gaga's music video for her already anthemic single 'Born This Way' has been released and it's a 70s sci-fi rock musical of wonder! Presenting herself as a God of a new race of being, with protruding temples, cheekbones and shoulder blades Gaga looks svelte and lean in her black bikini.

Being created, reminiscent of the Queen with a hundred heads in the movie 'Return To Oz'.

Gaga's famous for the warping of gender barriers and this video is no exception. My favourite look of the video is the Thierry Mugler inspired 'skull' face with long pink hair and a suit with powerful, strong shoulder pads, naturally.

Her last look is an almost outright homage to Madonna. The light on her face, the gap in the teeth, with all the controversy 'Born This Way' for resembling Madonna's hit 'Express Yourself' it is clear that Gaga is still playing the fame game, and eager to get people talking!

This video, quite simply, needs to be a feature length sci-fi musical.

Born This Way

I was going to do an entire recap of the best dressed at the 2010 Video Music Awards, but quite frankly there was no one else worth commenting on, and this outfit couldn't go unmentioned on my blog.

Gaga in McQueen. Lee would have been proud.

Spark My Nature, Sugar Fly With Me

i-D magazine's 30th Anniversary issue (with 3 covers - Gaga, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell) features a huge series of short interviews with some of the most influential people in the fashion, music, television and film industry. It also features an incredibly sharp and powerful editorial starring Britain's biggest supermodel exports, Moss and Campbell. The shoot is likely to become immediately iconic, the concept being Naomi, a black model, wearing white and Kate, a white model, wearing black.

In each interview the interviewee is asked which i-D cover in the 30 year history is their favourite, so I thought I'd share mine with you -

The P.Y.T. issue, September 2009

Chanel Iman, Sessilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Arlenis Sosa

The four beauties that grace the cover represent a sense of camaraderie. Making it as a model when you're of African descent isn't the easiest feat and doesn't happen to everyone. They are a success story, tall, beautiful, successful and black, and those of you who know me well, know that I love my black girls. In this issue, which was dedicated to the King of Pop Michael Jackson, there's a true sense of diversity. Fashion-forward cultural eclectica at its finest. I love the make-up, the colours, the styling, the editorials inside the issue and the feeling I got when I first read it. It is in fact one of the very few magazines that I've kept and still have it in my bedroom at my parent's house to this day.

My mother adores African culture and adores dark skin. I grew up surrounded by images my mother would show me of striking African women some models, some actresses, singers and some relative unknowns too. (I also grew up doing Cindy Crawford workout videos with my mother, but that's another story). The image below of Alek Wek has always stayed with me and always reminds me of my mother and her reaction of a gasp and "Isn't this beautiful?"

Strong, independent, ethnic and fabulously accessorised!

Snaps for Alek.

Bad Boy Meat

When seeing Gaga on the cover of VOGUE Hommes Nippon this month nude and covered in meat, my inexplicably encyclopaedic knowledge of America's Next Top Model kicked in.

I couldn't help but be reminded of the photoshoot contestants did in New York's meat packing district wearing, well... meat...

ANTM Cycle 10 winner Whitney Thompson wearing beef underwear in 2008

In the same publication Gaga also poses as her male alter-ego Jo Calderone.

Lady Gaga as "Jo Calderone"

Again in Cycle 8 of ANTM (2007) they had a Drag King photoshoot.

Tyra Banks posing as a man in 2007.

Mock ANTM all you want, you can't deny its influence. There's a reason it has been around for seven years, and it really is improving (with a little help from Andre Leon Talley, no doubt his involvement has had something to do with the show being taken more seriously, especially now since the winner gets a spread in VOGUE Italia rather than Seventeen magazine).

Cycle 15 Premieres on September 8th. Bring it.

Spirit

The latest issue of Visionaire, entitled "Spirit" is a dedication to the life, times and incredible talent of the late, great Lee Alexander McQueen. A true genius and a true visionaire.

Spirit features such contributors as Mario Testino, Nick Knight, Steven Klein and Queen of Everything Lady Gaga, among others.

Anyone have $295 to spare? I assure you I'm a very good cause.

Gaga The Grey

Gaga + Nick Knight + Nicola Formichetti

Am I dreaming?

The Gospel According To Gaga: Part I

"I'm a hard girl, loving me is like chewing on pearls."

"Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you any more."

"I'd sooner die than have my fans see me out of a pair of heels."

"A glamorous life is quite different to a life of luxury. I don’t need luxury. For years, I was practically broke but I was still very vain and glamorous. And I still am."

"I'm from New York. I will kill to get what I need."

"US Weekly putting me on the worst dressed list? I don't care. If Karl Lagerfeld called me an ugly hag, then I'd be upset. Because it's Karl Lagerfeld."

"I'm just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time."

♥

Don't Call My Name

She strikes again.  I love the Alejandro video. Her best yet.

Aesthetically it's raw and edgy, Gaga's made a clear effort to stay clear of the polished and glamorous. It's dark and dystopian, like if Tim Burton merged Edward Scissorhands and Lemony Snicket's A Serious of Unfortunate Events, with Evita and

a Madonna tribute act.

Even with breath-taking Haus of Gaga attire and custom made McQueen garments - it didn't blow me away. It is however, different from her previous work, further enforcing her status as a Queen of Transformation.

I may be slightly biased, as I will never have a bad word said against Lady Gaga (the new Queen of Pop) but there's no denying her creativity and innovation, so I'm expecting to see a lot more latex, black cloaks and bowl cuts around from now on...

...and that's just from the boys...