How "unique" is Lady Gaga?

Here comes the love/hate relationship I have with Gaga, again. She's always on the spotlight and this time she is on it because of her new video Telephone featuring Beyoncé. We all have seen the video and I think it's good or fun, I haven't decided yet. I love the fact that she's wearing Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, plus Viktor & Rolf.

But here we go again, causing controversy is not everything you gotta do to sell. She is good playing piano and also her voice is not that sucky. But what bothers me the most is the fact that everyone's calling her "unique" and "original" when she's not. She and her Haus of Gaga have been "creating" things without authorization from the designer, copying things that in some cases are extremely obvious. She says it's a homage to the designer work, but I think that's plagiarism!

This is a continuos discussion with most of the people I talk, most of them agreed on how copying one thing from a famous designer is a tribute to his work, but in my opinion is NOT flattering at all. I would hate to see someone copying one of my designs and besides that, trying to steal all the credit and that's what Gaga do sometimes. The most annoying example is when she was promoting Poker Face and she's wearing a bubble dress and she never said who made it. For those who love Hussein Chalayan, we noticed inmediately that it was a knock off. And she's being doing this all the time.

I think that what makes a designer or a brand special is the fact that he or it proposes something new, something that we have never seen before. Is very different to get inspired by someone's work and another extremely diffrent thing is to copy someone's work. Inspirations and copies are two completely different words and I think many people needs to sit and think about the meaning of each of this words. I think the least you can do if you're copying a piece is give the proper credit to the right person.

And maybe this time I'm the one who's gonna cause controversy, but that's not my intention. The thing is that as a designer, and respecting the work of everyone who's a creator, we need to stand up and defend what's ours. Since the time of Charles Frederick Worth, knock offs have existed and we have to fight this as he did. This is something that happens everywhere and sometimes it happens in countries like Costa Rica, where not everyone's aware of the things that are being shown in fashion weeks or anywhere and it's easy to copy a dress or details on clothes without getting noticed. But the problem is that you're fooling your potencial customers and also yourself.

I found this pictures months ago and maybe it makes clear what I'm trying to say. I would love to show many knock offs that I've seen here in Costa Rica, but I guess I would just create lots of controversy and that's not the point of A la mode, a la mort... let's leave that to Perez Hilton or the Superficial.

Pictures from the Idolator.

Of course the knock off shows her crotch!

The original bubble dress made out of Swarovski plexiglass, from Hussein Chalayan 2007.

Lady Gaga at the Brit Awards 2010

Lady Gaga and I, we have a love/hate relationship. When I'm starting loving her, she comes out with something that makes me hate her. So I guess is just the way our relationship works.

I was looking forward to see her presentation at the Brit Awards, specially after I saw her outfits and the headpiece. On stage, wearing a body suit by Alex Noble and a Marie-Antoinette-like wig she performed Telephone on a piano mixed with some of her hit songs. The sculpture of her was amazing, it had the armadillo shoes and also she named Alexander McQueen on the lyrics, saying: "We miss you so bad, Lee" :'(

This presentation is for my, her best so far. She sounds good and also she's wearing pieces I like. A lil' bit too much but OK for stage. Maybe I'm just liking her because of the fact that she made a mini tribute to man I most admired: McQueen.

Here's her performance at the Brits and please make sure not to miss the sculpture.

WTF #2

Before doing my review from the Grammys, there's something else I need to post and I know it's gonna bother many people... but I say what I think (and you can also say it by making comments if you feel I'm wrong).

So I saw another WTF on Sunday's red carpet and of course it's Lady Gaga. I know everyone loves her and I know she's the trendiest person alive and blabla... But let's be real! There's a limit for everything, there's a fine line between being avant-garde and being a clown.

It's not that I hate her a lot but I think she's just trying to get all eyes on her and she's focusing on her fashion. And I think that's not bad, but like I said: there's a line. And she needs to know how to dress properly for each ocassion. Being on stage is one thing and being on the red carpet and in the crowd is another. With her absurd headpieces and pointy things she might have killed someone. And showing your crack and camel toe is not sexy and flattering at all.

For making a statement on fashion you don't have to be an alien or a clown dressed with glittery stuff. That's just the way I think and everyone has a valid point of view so I'm just sharing mine. I'm not attacking and I don't to be critized and attacked. But I just thing that there's a place for everything and you need to know that.

She has worn some amazing things like the Margielas or the McQueens. But this sci-fi thing she wore for the Grammys was a fail for me. Plus that bodysuit/wig/leggins/second skin... And the things on her eyes were TOO Bowie-ish.

Lady Gaga looking like a christmas tree from the Jetsons. Plus the christmas ornamentent stolen from Mall San Pedro.

AMAZING shoes!

WTF with that wig!? :S

Marilyn Manson!?


Ugh! I can barely see after this... blindness!

"Sitting near Lady Gaga has its ups and downs. If you're behind her, you won't see a damn thing. If you're next to her, she'll scratch you and make you bleed. However, all these unfortunate souls probably had terrific cell-phone reception to tweet the living daylights out of the good fortune they had of sitting next to her". Taken from The Cut.

"And then she turns around to reveal a the most glittery tush in all the world, while bringing new meaning to the word cheeky. But this was the perfect dress to end the night on — it gave all those people who awarded so many Grammys to Taylor Swift an opportunity to kiss Gaga in just the right spot". From The Cut.