Last night, during the Grammys, Lady Gaga made the monsters go wild again, by debuting her next 'Mayhem' single titled 'Abracadabra', alongside an incredibly crafted music video which was directed by herself in collaboration with photographer Bethany Vargas and new choreographer Parris Goebel, and is described as "a dance battle between the light and dark sides of Gaga."
The styling was done by HARDSTYLE. Hair by Frederic Aspiras and makeup by Sarah Tanno-Stewart. Photography by Robin Harper.
We're starting off totally strong! My absolute favorite piece from the video is this brutalist-inspired crimson latex cape with real nails holding it together, and black latex bodysuit underneath, both custom-made by NYC-based latex artisan Renee Masoomian.
"We reinforced the latex with a double layer before punching little holes and threading the nails through. The nails were treated with a special glue on the backside and backed with thin twine that was rubberized, and then we layered another latex reinforcement strip over the top of everything to seal and secure each nail in place."
The "Lady in Red" is also wearing a custom lace hood by Stephen Jones (more about that later) and a custom red version of the hand-sculpted spiked wide-brim leather hat (€1,350) from Berlin-based emerging designer Maximilian Gedra’s "Stalactite" Fall/Winter 2024 collection!
Her insane black latex fetish gloves with attached stiletto nails are from Balenciaga's Spring/Summer 2023 runway.
The main piece of the "Abracadabra" music video took a small village to make.
In the promotional photo, Gaga wears a custom Samuel Lewis x Suman Gurung x ILONA cape which is based on the closing number from the Givenchy Fall/Winter 1998 "Endogenous, Russian, Amazonian" Haute Couture collection, which was designed by Alexander McQueen—a baroque-inspired extraavagant white lace jacket with oversized dramatic Elizabethan collar and tiered stiffened long train.
Gaga revealed to Elle that they created this cape by upcycling old wedding dresses with the help of GALEDI!
For the dance sequence, she wears a custom Olivier Theyskens white pleather catsuit with strong shoulders, lace panels, distinctive hook-and-eye embellishments in cross formation and incorporated gloves, based on his Spring/Summer 1999 collection. Costume designer Seth Pratt created this piece with the help of GALEDI! The suit originally came with built-in boots but were cut off due to movement reasons.
Stylists Hunter Clem and Genesis Webb dressed all of the dancers in looks from Gaga's personal archive, including deadstock fabrics with the help of costume designer. Gaga said "we also used deadstock fabric for the dancer’s clothes. That's fabric that's been in warehouses for long periods of time. And we also use pieces from my archive; so old costumes are reinterpreted."
Some of the looks were created by Orchid Sattelite and E.I.N.III by Efrain Nava with accessories and clothing by emerging designer Soma Faitanin including the batwing shirt, opera gloves and short gloves from his Fall/Winter 2023 "Chagrin Canon" collection. Some of the white strappy leather accessories are custom Zana Bayne.
One of my all-time favorite dance scene looks has to be this crooked man-inspired one!
The red lacing bodysuit with padded hips, lacing sleeves, and destroyed moiré silk bustle skirt, was custom-made for the video by Samuel Lewis and Seth Pratt!
I promised you that we'd talk about her headpiece. The red floral lace hood and matching boater hat with overlapping cut brim is a bespoke Stephen Jones design for our girl!
Matching red lace gloves were custom-made by Wing & Weft Gloves.
Another custom design are her Sugar Jones red patent leather boots with silver-tone hardware embellishment by Chrome Hearts.
The black dancers, also called the "Mistresses", are all wearing custom E.I.N.III black jackets,skirts and lace hoods with custom Zana Bayne leather lace-up bodysuits underneath, and tilted headpieces by Manny Robertson.
For the final dance scene, Gaga changed into a white frayed bandage-inspired corset dress adorned with faux chiffon and crinoline moths embellished with feather antennaes and rabbit fur puffs, designed by Samuel Lewis and custom-made for her by Iggy Soliven in collaboration with Oberon Alexander. The moths were made and hand-painted by Ariel Brickman!
The epic silver cross necklace which is made of little Gaga heads depicting her Oscars 2019 look was custom-made by DOSIS G6C for her.
During her photo session, Gaga spiced up her outfit with this Mia Gosset solid silver cathedral cuff with moving elements, which unfortunately didn‘t make it into the actual video.
