Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Remember the meat dress Lady Gaga wore nearly two years ago to the MTV Music Awards? Anna Wintour sure hopes so: A good part of Gaga's September issue cover story was devoted to that particular sartorial choice, which still seems to define the performer.
In fact, it defines Gaga so much that Mama Monster brought it back to the stage for this past summer's tour, Born This Way Ball. And in case you were wondering, the Meat Dress 2.0 (see: right) was born this way:
"We were talking about putting the show together, and I said, OK, what if I was someone's grandma and I was going to a concert tonight. How would I know that it was a Gaga show? And we all just sort of looked at each other and said, 'The meat dress.' We talked a lot about the original intention, which was to create an outfit that is indicative of the fact that underneath all of our different skin colors and religions and beliefs, we are all made of flesh and bone. And then this instant image came to my mind, which was from the late seventies, of the woman being put into a meat grinder on the cover of Hustler magazine, which really terrified me when I was a child. So I tried to spin all that into a space of humor and politics and sexuality onstage."
· Dream Girl: Lady Gaga Graces the September Issue of Vogue [Vogue]
· Lady Gaga's September Vogue Cover Has Finally Landed [Racked]
· All Lady Gaga Coverage [Racked]