Lady Gaga Covers Harper’s Bazaar, Talks Alexander McQueen
Don’t be fooled by those pointy bones protruding from Lady Gaga’s face and shoulders in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar—the singer insists she was born this way.
“I have never had plastic surgery, and there are many pop singers who have,” says Gaga, who sports pink hair and wears a cutout black Versace top on the cover. “I think that promoting insecurity in the form of plastic surgery is infinitely more harmful than an artistic expression related to body modification.”
Speaking of which, Gaga has a point to make about her angular new appearance.
“Well, first of all,” she says, “they’re not prosthetics. They’re my bones. They’ve always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am. They come out when I’m inspired.” In fact, the performer adds, “We all have these bones! They’re the light from inside of us.”
Photo courtesy of Harper's Bazaar
Lady Gaga goes Liberace in Harper's Bazaar.
Okaaay …
As for the criticism that she might be encouraging fans to undergo similar body modification procedures, Gaga maintains a thick skin.
“I am an artist,” she says, “and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.”
The superstar does just that with her Bazaar photo shoot, for which she posed for photographer Terry Richardson in a series of eye-catching ensembles.
In one, she makes like the Statue of Liberty, raising her arm to a chandelier while wearing a flowing sheer black Tex Saveirio dress with leafy appliqués. In another, she reveals her tattoos—and almost everything else—in a skin-colored Kiki de Montparnasse bra, Levante fishnets, and Alexander McQueen booties.
She also dons McQueen for a striking portrait in which she is seen in a giant black-and-white butterfly mask with a gorgeous matching dress.
Though Hussein Chalayan, the “incredible mind and genius human being” behind her Grammys “vessel,” is her current fashion favorite, Gaga says McQueen will always be her hero.
“I think he planned the whole thing,” she says of his February 2010 suicide. “Right after he died, I wrote ‘Born This Way.’ I think he’s up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing.”
She backs her claim by pointing out that the single was released on the one-year anniversary of McQueen’s death. “When I heard that, I knew he planned the whole damn thing,” she says. “I didn’t even write the f—ing song. He did!”
Now those statements are sure to stir up some controversy ... just how Gaga likes it.
For more of Lady Gaga, visit Harper’s Bazaar online or pick up the May issue on newsstands April 26.
