Meat dress raises stink: Is Lady Gaga now Miss Steak? (Feature)

By Andy Goldberg Sep 14, 2010, 21:55 GMT

Los Angeles - An Argentine-born designer has revealed the bloody truth about the cutting-edge design and production of the infamous meat dress worn by the outrageous singer Lady Gaga to accept an Award at the MTV Video Music Awards.

While most fashion designers search textile warehouses for the fabric for their creations, Franc Fernandez told MTV that he just went to his local butcher to get what he needed for Lady Gaga's muscular garment.

'The dress is indeed real meat from my family butcher,' said Fernandez.

Fernandez said it took him two days to stitch the dress together out of flank steak - called 'matambre' in his native Argentina. Butchers told the New York Daily News that it probably took about 12 kilograms of beef to make the outfit, which included a headpiece, purse and platform shoes made out of meat.

Other experts voiced concern about the meat spoiling quickly under the hot TV lights.

'It's probably stinking bad. She's in the lights: it's cooking,' said one butcher.

While society routinely accepts that people wear shoes and clothing made from animal skin, many people gave Lady Gaga and her designer a grilling for using actual animal flesh to make a couture fashion item.

'What's next: the family cat made into a hat?' asked the animal rights group PETA, which reported a surge in interest on its website after Gaga's appearance apparently struck raw feelings.

'Meat is the decomposing flesh of an abused animal who didn't want to die, and after time spent under the TV lights, it would smell like the rotting flesh that it is and likely be crawling in maggots - not too attractive, really,' the organization pointed out.

The dress has given internet surfers something to sink their teeth into. On Fernandez' blog, one visitor called Norbert wrote: 'Animals are a resource that must be respected. Food is not to play.'

'By completely ignoring both implication and actual effect of your work on living animals, you truly have relegated your status downwards to a simple apathetic greedy mainstream social sophomore with no morals beyond the narcissism required to actually take pride in causing 'shock' so crudely,' another outraged commenter wrote.

A poll on MTV.com showed that music fans thought the outfit that Lady Gaga wore to accept her Video of the Year award was a colossal mis-steak, with 59 per cent labeling it a major fail, compared to 41 per cent who thought it was a total win.

The dress raised a stink much closer to Lady Gaga and not just because of the effect of the hot TV lights.

'Now, I love Lady Gaga, but as someone who also loves animals, it was really difficult for me to sit next to Lady Gaga while she was wearing that outfit,' wrote talk show host Ellen De Generes, who interviewed the pop singer about her strange fashion choice.

After her notorious appearance in the flesh, Lady Gaga said the muscular outfit had more to do with human rights than animal rights.

'It is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian,' Gaga told De Generes when asked to explain her flesh fashion.

'As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the Earth. However, it has many interpretations, but for me ... if we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones.'