Lady Gaga: A (Red Carpet) Star Is Born

When Lady Gaga was in her The Fame Monster days (2008-2010), she was one of the red carpet’s most unconventional dressers. The wildly adventurous popstar would wear towering wigs, massive face-obscuring sunglasses, and tiny frocks with origami-like growths sprouting off them. Later on, when she was in the throes of Born This Way and Artpop notoriety, her red carpet looks took a turn for the truly controversial.

No one will ever forget her infamous “meat dress”, the bizarre look she wore made from clusters of Kermit the Frog dolls, her frightening costumes made from coiled vinyl tubing, or the time she arrived at the Grammy Awards fully encased in an egg and held aloft by a group of alien-like egg-bearers who looked like they walked straight off the set of Star Trek. Her fashion ambitions were lofty, aimed to frighten, inspire, and provoke. She was as unpredictable as it got, but as her star rose to stratospheric heights, her red carpet looks underwent a massive overhaul.

Gone were the strange proportions, head-scratching pop culture references, and exotic materials. Instead, Lady Gaga started to embrace red carpet finery that flattered her figure and made her look downright elegant. It was only when she went fully mainstream – when she released a jazzy album with crooner Tony Bennett called Cheek to Cheek in 2014 – that she completely revamped her look with classic Old Hollywood gowns. And such an extreme genre pivot demands radical reinvention. In 2015, around the time she started acting in American Horror Story, she wore a lot of dramatic 1980s silhouettes, draped gowns, and looks that were punched up with blood-red accessories and elegant capes.

Gaga continued climbing higher and higher on the best-dressed lists from that point. But over the past two years, the popstar arguably surpassed her peers when it came to the red carpet, appearing memorably in a voluminous, feathery pink Valentino Couture gown at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. She wowed again at the UK premiere of A Star Is Born in a Victorian-inspired Alexander McQueen gown before charming the masses at the 2019 Golden Globes in a powder-blue Valentino look, complete with matching hair.

From time to time, the old Gaga shines through, like when she wore a stunning tribute to David Bowie to the 2016 Grammy Awards, which occurred right after his tragic death. Not content to be one of this generation’s best singers, musicians, songwriters, and actresses, she’s also gunning for the top of the red carpet charts. Today, in honor of her 34th birthday, Savoir Flair is taking a look back at her absolute best red carpet moments since she overhauled her look. Welcome to Gaga 2.0.