It’s been ten years since Lady Gaga blew open the borders of pop music with Born This Way. The singer’s second album was a hyperactive, Eurodance-infused anthem to outsiderdom and self-affirmation, cementing Gaga’s position as high priestess over a coven of needy little monsters.
As she flitted between the gothic sounds of “Marry The Night”, the trancey “Scheiße”, and the power sax-solos of “Hair”, Gaga blended incongruous concepts with contradictory visuals, forging a kaleidoscopic, freak-flag brandishing universe.
Alongside fashion director Niccola Formichetti, designer Brandon Maxwell, makeup artist Sarah Tanno, and hair stylist Frederic Aspiras, the Haus of Gaga pushed the singer’s already outrageous aesthetics – the meat dress had happened at this point – into a totally feverish dimension. The result was, quite literally, “show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before”.
Now a decade after its release, below, we revisit some of Gaga’s most iconic Born This Way looks: