Bad Romance: Such a good look

Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance video premiered today and it is nothing short of marvelous. People give her flack about her attitude/demeanor but, let’s be honest, no one at this very moment can deliver as much as she does. Let’s break it down.

First, that opening tableau. I mean, c’mon. Gaga sits on a porcelain throne, covered in Alexander McQueen, while the entire video’s cast–including the great dane–poses like some futuristic robot entourage in a Dolce & Gabanna ad campaign. It’s magnificent and absolutely everything that Gaga is about. Drama, fashion, excess.

And the McQueen references keep coming. The white latex jumpsuit with protruding spine and rib cage is reminiscent of the Samsonite Black Label line he did. Three of his dresses and five of his Spring/Summer 2010 shoes make cameos: the black carved porcelain platforms, the white carved porcelain platforms, the rusty bronze platforms with scrap metal heels, the black platforms with scrap metal heels paired with this black dress with leather shoulder details, and (of course) the “lobster claw” platform along with the entire finale outfit of that collection.

Some pieces unintentionally reminded me of other designers. The crystal mesh top was very much like the chandelier tops in Miuccia Prada’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection and the latex dresses seemed to be the female cousins of the latex rubber coats she made for the men’s line for Spring Summer 2009.

Gaga also utilized an amazing blonde bat headdress by Shinji Konishi (she wore an elephant one by Nagi Noda earlier this year) and a minimal red strap ensemble that she commissioned from Alex Noble. The Matthew Barney Cremaster and Stanley Kubrik A Clockwork Orange undertones can’t be missed, either.

There is so much more eye-candy in this video. I can’t even process it all. If the image of her in lace underwear, half-covered by a polar bear coat, standing in 12-inch porcelain McQueen heels in front of a burning bed under a wall-mounted gazelle head in a stark white room isn’t some sort of postmodern pastiche/schizophrenia commentary or simply imagery overload, I don’t know what is. Video under the cut.

To quote a comment on some random blog “She has made celebrity, drag culture and pop music into beautiful performance art and I seriously think she can do no wrong.” My thoughts exactly. Bravo!

PS: Please pay attention to the short scene starting at around the three-minute mark where she’s surrounded by a group of hungry men and dressed in black lingerie, dripping with oversized crystal necklaces and rosary, while posing like a window mannequin at Neiman Marcus (or a saint/goddess/queen) amongst a curtain of spinning diamonds while the camera circles 360 degrees. I gasped. It’s a total upgrade from her similarly composed “disco stick” scene in Love Game. Easily my favorite shot!!!