In the contemporary fashion dialogue, no celebrity is paid more lip service than Lady Gaga. Such is her reach that the Global Language Monitor recently revealed that “Lady Gaga” topped the list of the most searched fashion terms, with “no pants” a close third. The Moment recently caught up with the fashion plate du jour, who was surprisingly candid and dressed in mufti — an outfit of checked shirt, black tights and vertiginous heels that brought to mind Mary-Kate without the grande nonfat latte — to talk about everything from her new gig as a mouthpiece for M.A.C. and its AIDS fund to her constantly referring to herself in the third person.
I have to say that meeting you is rather odd. It’s like interviewing Mr. T. What to call you?
[Laughs] Lady Gaga or Gaga is fine. Everyone calls me one of the two, and it’s very normal. I think it’s mostly about being in my world and understanding what I do. Everyone here is around the magic that happens when I work with, say, Terence Koh or Francesco Vezzoli or Frank Gehry. When you’re around me and really see that all I do is live and breathe for my work, it’s not strange, it’s just Gaga.
Got it. Before we turned on the tape recorder, I was talking to you about betrayal. Is that something you think about more than ever?
Absolutely. You have no idea. More than dealing with betrayal, though, what is really hard is that I have had to leave my past behind me. It’s hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don’t always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.
Why would you disconnect yourself from your past?
I left it behind because I had to. For many reasons, like drugs. It’s no secret that I have had problems with drugs in the past. And some places represent to me things in terms of my mental and physical health, so you learn to move on, to preserve what your mission in life is, and my greater mission is my fans.
Really? That sounds very selfless for a pop star.
It is selfless. But, you know, I am very lucky. I work very hard, but when God opens that door for you — when life opens that door for you, I should say — I think it’s important to be giving, to return the love back. I have a spiritual guide, not a therapist but someone who in my mind is connected with a higher being, and he helps me a lot.
