Lady GaGa's Bags and Style

By now, you might have heard that Lady Gaga took over New York City earlier this week to launch a small, err, venture in conjunction with Barneys New York. You see, Gaga is a veritable product-generating machine, and from hair bows (and we mean that literally) to custom NARS lipcolor, there are apparently a lot of things we could all own to make our own lives a little more Gagafied. Surprisingly for Barneys, many of the things in Gaga’s Workshop seem to be more-or-less reasonably priced.

In order to introduce all of us to these products, Gaga showed up to Barneys in an enormous Chanel Haute Couture suit-cum-ball-gown, made especially for her by Karl Lagerfeld’s best minions. Err, couturiers. I meant couturiers. But doesn’t Karl Lagerfeld just seem like the type of dude to have minions? I mean that in a non-negative way, of course. I’d love to have a minion. Anyway, check out Gaga’s crazypants outfit in the gallery. View the Gallery →

Even though Lady Gaga is certifiably the wackiest dresser on the face of the planet, she always tends to go for luxury and tradition when picking handbags. We’ve seen her with a number of Hermes Birkins in the past, and now the paparazzi have spotted her on the way to Sting’s birthday party with a black Chanel Classic Flap. With gold hardware, even! It scarcely gets more old-school luxurious than that.

Gaga has a history of defacing (or “customizing,” depending on how you see it) some of her expensive bags in the past, so only time will tell if she decides to get crafty with her Chanel and add some spikes or rhinestones or dead bugs or something. Who even know with her anymore? But right now, her bag is beautiful and classic, and it does a good job of anchoring another eccentric Gaga outfit.

Bag Gaga’s Chanel Style via Chanel.com! View the Gallery →

Even though Lady Gaga is starting to annoy me on an aesthetic level (wear some couture, lady!), paparazzi pictures of her never cease to amuse me. They’re completely without context; we usually have no idea where she’s going or what her crazy outfit du jour might have been for. She’s just a pop star, wearing as many yards of leopard print as local JoAnn’s Fabric could sell her, walking through a completely nondescript parking lot. We know she’s Lady Gaga, but other than that, the scene is absolutely bereft of contextual clues as to why she’s there at all.

Another thing that we know about these pictures in particular is that the shoes on Gaga’s feet appear to be the much-sought-after Christian Louboutin Daffodile Platform Pumps in red velvet, carefully picked to match the red velvet gloves that she had her bodyguard go pick up at the local Frederick’s of Hollywood a half hour before. Gaga, what are we going to do with you?

Bag Lady Gaga’s Louboutin Style via Net-a-Porter! View the Gallery →

As I’ve said before many times, I’m an inveterate Lady Gaga fangirl. I’ve seen her perform live twice, I watched her HBO concert special several times, I own all of her CDs and enjoy her music quite a bit. I think she’s been good for pop music and is easily the most interesting singer to come along in quite awhile. I also think she’s immensely talented – she sings live at all of her concerts, and Gaga’s got a real set of pipes on her.

BUT ENOUGH ALREADY. We know you’re weird, Gaga. Most of us like a little weirdness. But the incessant posturing has started to become grating, and these pictures are an excellent example of why. Lady Gaga isn’t a young punk walking to an East Village bodega to buy a pack of smokes, she’s…Lady Gaga. So quit it with the crazy saunter and wear some crazy couture after which we can all lust instead. We’ll all like you better if you do. Even those of us who like you already. View the Gallery →

Ok, we know we’re late. We intended to do our coverage of the 2011 Grammy Awards last week like everyone else did, but then it was Fashion Week and both Megs and I got horribly sick and things just…spiraled out of control. But we have the pictures and we want to hear your thoughts on the fashion spectacle that was this year’s Grammys red carpet, starting with Lady Gaga and her bizarre Hussein Chalayan egg, flanked by a bevvy of scantily clad men and supermodel Anne V.

Gaga wore Thierry Mugler once inside, but her entrance was made entirely inside of Chalayan’s translucent nacre egg. On the one hand, Gaga has painted herself pretty far into a corner, as far as silly publicity stunts go. On the other, watching Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic try to ask serious questions of an egg was utterly priceless, because it only further underlined what idiots they both are when it comes to talking to people at awards shows. So even though the egg stunt made me roll my eyes, I’m still going to give Gaga credit.

In 2010, no other celebrity epitomized the pop culture zeitgeist quite like Lady Gaga. In terms of curiosity and strong opinions, Gaga generated more than any other star in recent memory, and she did so while selling millions of records and selling out concert after concert across the world. Don’t like her? Too bad. She’s not going anywhere.

It’s only fitting that we here at BagThatStyle close out the year with a photo set of the most important celebrity of 2010, and as with any images of Gaga, it’s hard to say what she’s doing here, other than letting her butt hang out. She appears to be in Paris, but she’s not wearing anything that I can identify (and hardly anything at all), and it looks as though she might be shopping, but does Gaga shop? I can’t imagine that she shops. Oh well, another Gaga mystery. Maybe we’ll solve it in 2011. View the Gallery →

When seeking to navigate down steps in platform stilettos, it’s best to have your wits about you and focus on balance. Even more so when you’re as famous as Lady Gaga – not only would a momentary shift in your attention cause what would surely be an epic faceplant, but said faceplant would then be documented by an entire horde of photographers and passed around the Internet until the end of time. Not to mention all the joke ammo it would provide to Gaga-haters everywhere…

That’s why, like any sensible pop star and international icon, Gaga prefers to leave the heavy lifting to the professionals. This time, the man on double Hermes Birkin duty appears to be a bodyguard of some sort, although I suppose it’s possible he’s just another Gaga wrangler of indeterminate variety. Either way, he’s got nearly $20,000 worth of Hermes in his left hand and he should probably be careful with it. As far as why Gaga might need two Birkins at once, I shall give you the eternal Gaga fashion answer: why not?

Bag Lady Gaga’s Hermes Style via Hermes.com! View the Gallery →

This is no the first time that Lady Gaga has taken to a Hermes Birkin and used it as an artistic outlet. I am not so sure I like the idea of anyone, be it Lady Gaga or some other fashion icon, doing anything but loving and taking oh so good care of their Birkins.

But, no matter what I say, Lady Gaga has altered one of the most coveted handbags out there, a Hermes Birkin. Gaga didn’t just add a little something here and there. Oh no, that’s not what Gaga would do. She went over the top and adorned her bag with very abrasive looking studs. And as you can see, I don’t mean little studs here and there, I mean like, spikes, very pointy and potentially painful spikes. Again, not something I’d do with my Birkin, but hey, nobody can hold Gaga back.

Shop Hermes via Hermes.com! View the Gallery →

Do any of you think that Lady Gaga ever thought she was going to be such a mega sensation? I mean, I am sure most celebs hoped and prayed to get to where they are today, but Gaga is, like, HUGE.

You know you are huge if you are covered on the hit tv show Glee. And yes, of course I saw it last night and yes, I thought it was brilliant. So, not only is Gaga all over the radio and television, but of course she cannot step outside of her house without being photographed left and right.

Here, Lady Gaga was swarmed by fans and paparazzi as she entered Carnegie Hall in NYC to rehearse for the Rainforest Concert. In typical Gaga fashion, she wore a very eccentric outfit: custom Calvin Klein Collection black needle punched silk taffeta seamless bustier dress. She made a wardrobe change once inside, but this number certainly turned heads. I’m not digging her hair color – it looks a little too gray for me, but I know Gaga doesn’t care what I think.

Shop Calvin Klein via Nordstrom! View the Gallery →

At this point, I am fairly certain you’ve seen the several different outfits Lady Gaga wore at the 2010 Grammy Awards Show. When it comes to Lady Gaga and what she wears, it’s not about how avant guard her outfits are, it’s about how she carries herself in those outfits. It is amazing what kind of looks she is able to pull off and actually make me think twice about how I really feel about them.

Here she is after the Grammys in her custom made Giorgio Armani dress. The dress is fierce, her head piece is certainly something out of this world and her makeup is perfect. The other thing that I love about Gaga is the facial expressions she has with different outfits on. It is as if she fully embraces the clothes she puts on her body. Could you imagine any other celeb being able to look so confident and beautiful? I dare you to try.

Let’s get one thing straight about last night’s Grammy Awards: Lady Gaga was ROBBED. Taylor Swift may be cute in an aww-shucks kind of way, and she might have some passable ripped-from-my-teenaged-diary type of songs, but no one has done more to make popular music interesting (and FUN) again in the last year than Ms. Gaga. Where’s Kanye West when we need him?

I don’t begrudge the teenager her Grammys, but just like Avatar shouldn’t have won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, I think that the people that voted could have made a better decision. What Gaga will always win, however, is the red carpet – despite not capturing the major awards for which she was nominated, pictures of her wearing this fantastic Giorgio Armani creation, made just for her, have been the lead in every article that I’ve read today about the ceremony. Ultimately, in a business like show business, the awards don’t mean much – all that matters is who is being talked about the next day. With a gravity-defying dress, the two-tone hair of a comic book superhero, and the fiercest eye makeup that I’ve ever seen on her, Gaga has absolutely captured that prize.

So go ahead, flame me for being mean to Taylor Swift. I’m on Team Gaga.

Earlier today, I posted on PurseBlog about a designer for which I’m thankful. And then I got to thinking…if I’m going to talk about fashion icons that make me thankful to be in this business, then I can’t not mention my personal favorite goddess of celeb style, Lady Gaga. View the Gallery →