Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress Turns 15: Designer Shares ‘Gruesome Process’ & Why He ‘Didn’t Fight the Meat’

Fifteen years ago, arsenic she prepared to deed the 2010 VMAs reddish carpet connected Sept. 12, 2010, Lady Gaga had a backup program for her nutrient dress. If the tailor-made look didn’t fit, if the nutrient spoiled oregon it dripped excessively overmuch blood, the rising superstar had thing other acceptable connected the rack. But Franc Fernandez, the decorator of the formal that is contiguous connected show astatine the Park MGM successful Las Vegas, had worked 3 agelong days to make it, draping butcher cuts connected a mannequin torso. “Obviously, I didn’t privation that backup program to happen,” helium tells Billboard.

The nutrient dress, 1 of 3 Gaga wore during MTV’s 2010 Video Music Awards, did not motorboat her career: “Poker Face” had topped the Billboard Hot 100 the erstwhile year, and she won 8 awards that nighttime for apical 5 hits “Bad Romance” and “Telephone.” But the fashion statement, which Gaga said was a protestation against the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” argumentation astatine the time, helped crook her into a taste icon and established Fernandez’s vocation successful the process. He has since worked with Rihanna, Beyoncé and others, and is represented by William Morris.

Back then, though helium was portion of the singer’s originative squad known arsenic Haus of Gaga, Fernandez was struggling to physique a estimation and marque capable wealth to enactment a originative career. After Gaga wore the dress, his beingness changed. “Like astir radical who are successful a originative tract and person migrant parents, there’s this changeless ‘you should get a existent job’ sentiment, which you internalize and think, ‘Yeah, they’re astir apt right, due to the fact that this hasn’t been fruitful,'” helium says. “But the standard of the publicity that got conscionable gave me: ‘OK, you’re moving towards something, and you’ve got immoderate of it, truthful support going.'”

To people the nutrient dressiversary — Sept. 12 — Billboard reached retired to Fernandez successful Los Angeles.

How did the nutrient formal task travel to you? Was determination a brief, oregon a achromatic paper?

It started with Nicola [Formichetti, past Gaga’s stylist] saying, “We privation to marque a meat purse for the reddish carpet.” Somewhere on the way, we were like, “Let’s bash a afloat dress.” I don’t adjacent deliberation it was a afloat formed thought until I started making the formal and she saw it, halfway done. She was like, “Holy sh-t!” successful this mode of “I didn’t cognize this happening was afloat being formed.” It was much similar a tiny daze — which I deliberation is mean erstwhile you spot that overmuch nutrient slung connected a hanger.

I’ve work you bought the nutrient from your household butcher.

There’s an Argentine marketplace and butcher store successful the Valley that is present called Me...