Shape Shifter - Who is Lady Gaga now? A Hollywood superstar, a pop innovator, and a much happier, more grounded creature altogether. But as Jonathan Van Meter discovers, she's still an ever-evolving puzzle all her own.
Vogue US|October 2024
Who is Lady Gaga now? A Hollywood superstar, a pop innovator, and a much happier, more grounded creature altogether. But as Jonathan Van Meter discovers, she's still an ever-evolving puzzle all her own.The first four or five or six times I encountered Lady Gaga, in London or Paris or New York, backstage in Vegas or Madison Square Garden or the O2 arena, at the top of the Skytree in Tokyo or from inside a giant replica of her fragrance bottle at a party at the Guggenheim, or even when, six years ago, we hung out in her kitchen in Malibu and danced and cried while listening to music-Like, real Italian style, she said-every single one of those times, in all of those places, she was both there and not there. She was viscerally present and accounted for but also somehow absent. This is not a complaint.
By Jonathan Van Meter - Photographed by Ethan James Green.
Shape Shifter - Who is Lady Gaga now? A Hollywood superstar, a pop innovator, and a much happier, more grounded creature altogether. But as Jonathan Van Meter discovers, she's still an ever-evolving puzzle all her own.

The first four or five or six times I encountered Lady Gaga, in London or Paris or New York, backstage in Vegas or Madison Square Garden or the O2 arena, at the top of the Skytree in Tokyo or from inside a giant replica of her fragrance bottle at a party at the Guggenheim, or even when, six years ago, we hung out in her kitchen in Malibu and danced and cried while listening to music-Like, real Italian style, she said-every single one of those times, in all of those places, she was both there and not there. She was viscerally present and accounted for but also somehow absent. This is not a complaint.

Costumes have a way of upstaging people. You can get so hung up on all the finery and camouflage that you fail to see the person wearing it. A modern-day Marie Antoinette gown with a four-foot train, to take one example, doesn't just change the way a person moves; it changes the way she behaves. I don't like the idea of you drinking wine out of a plastic cup, Lady Gaga said to me one time in one such getup-a baroness proffering stemware as she minced toward me. The first time I laid eyes on her in December 2010, she was barefoot, covered in fake blood, mascara running down her face, wearing a robe made of voluminous red feathers-like a cross between Alice Cooper and Big Bird, I wrote. She was dressed like a lunatic and you guessed it-behaving like one. On another occasion-in another astounding frock, hair in a Bride-of-Frankenstein updo-she had on shoes that made her feet look like they were screwed on backward and brought her up to nearly my height. To be clear: Gaga is tiny. But when I was still getting to know her she was acting like a woman who is six feet tall. To wit: She languidly draped her hand in mine so that I could examine her elaborately bejeweled dragon ring. I'm going through an Elizabeth Taylor moment, she said. "Don't judge me."

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FLERE HISTORIER FRA VOGUE USSe alt
SCREEN TIME
Vogue US

SCREEN TIME

Three films we can't wait to see.

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1 min  |
December 2024
Impossible Beauty
Vogue US

Impossible Beauty

Sometimes, more is more: Surreal lashes and extreme nails put the fierce back in play

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2 mins  |
December 2024
Blossoms Dearie
Vogue US

Blossoms Dearie

Dynamic, whimsical florals and the humble backdrops of upstate New York make for a charming study in contrasts.

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1 min  |
December 2024
HOME
Vogue US

HOME

Six years ago, Marc Jacobs got a call about a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Making it his own, he writes, would be about love, commitment, anxiety, patience, struggle, and, finally, a kind of hard-fought, hard-won peace.

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7 mins  |
December 2024
GIRL, INTERRUPTED
Vogue US

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

Anna Weyant found extraordinary fame as an artist before she had reached her mid-20s. Then came another kind of attention. Dodie Kazanjian meets the painter at the start of a fresh chapter

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10+ mins  |
December 2024
ROLE PLAY
Vogue US

ROLE PLAY

Kaia Gerber is someone who likes to listen, learn, read books, go to the theater, ask questions, have difficult conversations, act, perform, transform, and stretch herself in everything she does. That she's an object of beauty is almost beside the point.

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10+ mins  |
December 2024
CALLAS SHEET
Vogue US

CALLAS SHEET

Maria Callas's singular voice made her a legend on the stage. In a new film starring Angelina Jolieand on the runwaysthe romance continues.

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3 mins  |
December 2024
BOOK IT
Vogue US

BOOK IT

A preview of the best fiction coming

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2 mins  |
December 2024
GLOBAL VISTAS
Vogue US

GLOBAL VISTAS

Three new exhibitions offer an expansive view.

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4 mins  |
December 2024
MONDAYS WITH MARC
Vogue US

MONDAYS WITH MARC

Just how many Met Galas has Marc Jacobs attended? A few of his favorite guests recount fanciful nights at the museum-past and present.

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7 mins  |
December 2024