In contemporary pop culture, few can rival Lady Gaga’s pioneering attitude towards fashion. And ‘pioneering’ is one word that could be used to describe her outfit for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. The singer wore a dress made from raw flank steak, along with shoes, a purse and a hat – made from the same material. Five years on, the dress has been put on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
Designed by artist and fashion designer Franc Fernandez, the dress was styled by Dazed’s former creative director Nicola Formichetti. Following the award show, the garment was placed in a meat locker, then a vat of chemicals and, to counteract some discolouration that had occured, was painted to look fresh. Now the dress, along its accessories, is being exhibited as part of the museum’s Women Who Rock exhibition.
However these pieces are only on loan to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they still remain in the possession of Lady Gaga. And she’s pretty happy about that fact that they are being exhibited at the museum. “That meat dress represents part of, a very small, small part of the movement towards equality, and for it to be honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the shit,” she told accesshollywood.com.
As for how long the dress is expected to last, museum’s the director of collections Jun Francisco told mtv.com, “We don’t know. Nobody has tried anything like this before and so a lot of conservators have never experienced this. There was another meat dress in the past, but they actually let it rot. It wasn’t preserved at all. But this one is different since it’s now beef jerky—we’re assuming the lifespan of this dress is the lifespan of beef jerky!”