Why Antonio Berardi turned down Lady Gaga to design her fashion label

[chessmess]

ok scott. i can understand what you're sayiong. but why do you have to take away her image? its a part of her persona. it's established that she isnt your average pop princess, for one, she can sing better then most popstars, two, her fashion image is a part of her and thus cannot be removed.

its well known that she was possibly fabricated at the start, but i am willing to bet you she has just as much say in what she wears now as nicola does

 

[Spike413]

well calling her music meaningless is by no means a shocking statement to make....you can listen to it and realise it doesn't exactly have a lot of substance.

secondly,i don't agree with this snarky second-tier talent comment....just because antonio no longer has the limelight like mcqueen or chalayan and has scaled his label back a bit doesn't make one irrelevant. and it certainly doesn't mean he's not allowed to have his opinion about somebody who approached him. and calling him a hypocrite because of his client-list is rather silly too given many who aren't exactly lovers of the pop culture mainstream still have those types of clients. you can't stop people from buying and wearing your work. they are only just that...clients. and he's certainly not ghost-designing for them on collections they do nor do i believe he's slaving to them like a pathetic child.

and i am not "hating" gaga for the sake of it. i just have very strong feelings about what she's about and what people are deeming her to be. what i get annoyed by is all of this nonsense about what she's doing is revolutionary. and it's not. and this all-mighty,look down your nose,pretentious attitude she always exudes in interviews and such. look she's just a pop singer...an entertainer....and i just think all of this holding her up in this light like what she's doing is changing the face of music....it's rubbish to me.

and berlin,i mention bjork and the like because quite honestly,this is the manner in which people are equating her to. like what she does is as innovative as what bjork does. that's all. so before you kill me....

Maybe you can, but it's awfully arrogant of you to make such a sweeping declaration of what is and isn't meaningless since music, like any creative field, is received by everyone differently. It's just not something you like; why not leave it at that instead of degrading it and calling your opinion fact?

Without getting into a "Gaga; good or bad?" debate, I'll just say that Berardi's status within the industry has every bit to do with this discussion and his comments because he seems to perceive himself not only as more meaningful than Lady Gaga, but as more significant in his chosen industry than he is generally regarded as being. So while he may not appear to be a total egomaniac, he clearly thinks highly enough of himself to believe that he's better than she is. And let's not forget that he doesn't have to send his clothes out to celebrity stylists if he doesn't want to; he chooses to because it's good for business. I guess what it comes down to is that either he truly doesn't have high standards when it comes to which celebrities get to wear his clothing, or he actually does hate it when someone like Megan Fox wears his work but doesn't insult her because it would be bad for him to destroy the relationship with her and her stylist, as well as potentially impact his business. Neither of those options cast him in a particularly flattering, honest or sincere light imo, so I really don't see why anyone would automatically jump to his defense.

And at the end of the day, he felt the need to go public about it which practically guaranteed that he would get some attention, especially since it involves someone as prominent as Lady Gaga. It seems a little desperate on his part. But more than that, it was rude and immature of him. Instead of commenting on it by saying that it simply wasn't something he was interested in doing, or just keeping his mouth shut, he took the opportunity to insult her and her music. He didn't need to, he chose to, and he ended up looking like a bitchy diva because of that choice.

 

[RayleighR]

well thank god for that. this woman ruins fashion for me.

 

[Blanche DuBois]

she is overrated
im glad she is not getting her clugs into fashion

 

[Deleted member 1957]

just like i had guessed...it had to turn into a totally unrelated argument..hmm

 

[chessmess]

she is overrated
im glad she is not getting her clugs into fashion

she is still doing haus of gaga...

 

[Leeroi]

^Haus of Gaga is actually rather old, she started it with her friends when she first started her career. It's her way of making clothes for herself when she didn't have money to buy designer ones.

 

[50two]

who cares if its meaningless. we live in a postmodern world. jesus christ.

 

[disco54]

Well im surprised there are a lot of Gaga haters on this thread. I mean she is outlandish but she has a lot of talent to back it up. Her new cd is just brilliant. She has taken a lot of flack and mean comments for being bisexual , and her solid support for gay and lesbian community . Bottom line is Antonio Berardi is a fool , if he thinks Lady Gaga is just some pop princess. At the end of the day the world knows who is Lady Gaga not Antonio Berardi.

 

[Salvatore]

Well im surprised there are a lot of Gaga haters on this thread. I mean she is outlandish but she has a lot of talent to back it up. Her new cd is just brilliant. She has taken a lot of flack and mean comments for being bisexual , and her solid support for gay and lesbian community . Bottom line is Antonio Berardi is a fool , if he thinks Lady Gaga is just some pop princess. At the end of the day the world knows who is Lady Gaga not Antonio Berardi.

But I mean, is not the way with most designers? Many designers that are known in the fashion world are not that known outside of it so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

And I cannot dispute she has talent as she has a great singing voice live. It's the pretentiousness and narcissism and blatant gimmicks that put me off. And I think she chooses to use that talent not to its full potential. I'm curious if her style and music will be able to evolve with the time and if she will stay 'relevant' .......... seriously too early to start thinking about a fashion line.

 

[Spike413]

But I mean, is not the way with most designers? Many designers that are known in the fashion world are not that known outside of it so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

And I cannot dispute she has talent as she has a great singing voice live. It's the pretentiousness and narcissism and blatant gimmicks that put me off. And I think she chooses to use that talent not to its full potential. I'm curious if her style and music will be able to evolve with the time and if she will stay 'relevant' .......... seriously too early to start thinking about a fashion line.

That much I can agree with. I'm a fan of hers, but I also don't love the idea of her doing an actual line (as opposed to designing her own stuff). I can't see her putting her name on a line of clothes that really does reflect her look, simply because it wouldn't sell. As much as her style is admired by people, I doubt if there are many who want to replicate it. And given that her look is such an important part of her appeal I wouldn't want to see her do anything that's watered down, because it wouldn't be her.

Honestly I think she's just as "above" a celebrity vanity line than he is.

 

[Salvatore]

That much I can agree with. I'm a fan of hers, but I also don't love the idea of her doing an actual line (as opposed to designing her own stuff). I can't see her putting her name on a line of clothes that really does reflect her look, simply because it wouldn't sell. As much as her style is admired by people, I doubt if there are many who want to replicate it. And given that her look is such an important part of her appeal I wouldn't want to see her do anything that's watered down, because it wouldn't be her.

Honestly I think she's just as "above" a celebrity vanity line than he is.

Very much. I'm wondering how much of the ideas she has belong to her because she cannot even properly explain them like in this video:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xblxn8_mtvep-gaga_webcam

Very bizarre. And I mean, her 'style' is nice here, but it's nothing that is really particularly since the jacket looks near Tisci for Givenchy or even Gianni Versace. Just really, really too early.

 

[pen6693]

Antonio is my new hero hahaha

 

[simons]

isnt her haus of gaus just replications of designer works?

i agree its too early for her to have a line, if any.. celebrity lines are just ridiculous imo, the brand is established before the work when it should be vice versa.

i also think its too early to call her anything but the "it" music thing right now. she has 1 1/2 cds out. her music is good, i give her credit for having so many number ones but its her ,like someone said earlier, gimmicks and out-there outfits that make her unique, her music is really just pop and nothing special.

and yeah this entire article is just a pr move. its just the business but berardi should have stuck to his statement if he did make it.. he probably did but thought it was off the record non?

 

[LolaSvelt]

He can hate Lady Gaga as much as he wants, I don't mind that, he's allowed his own opinion, but I find it silly that he called her music 'meaningless'. Her music has a lot of meaning, more than people think. It's all in the lyrics.

 

[reese06]

He can hate Lady Gaga as much as he wants, I don't mind that, he's allowed his own opinion, but I find it silly that he called her music 'meaningless'. Her music has a lot of meaning, more than people think. It's all in the lyrics.

"Let's have some fun, this beat is sick. I wanna take a ride on your disco stick"

Yes, so much meaning behind her music. Lets not make her music something more than what it really is. Meaningless pop songs that noone will remember in a few years.

It's not her music that has made the impact.

 

[LolaSvelt]

Wow...one line. Her album The Fame pretty much mocks the life that materialistic women live and the ironic thing is that Lady Gaga is now living a very luxurious and extravagent life because it gives this whole idea about how women give in easily and will do anything for the fame and fortune (listen to song, The Fame).

This is also a great site for song meanings: http://www.songmeanings.net/artist/view/songs/137438984319/

 

[Volume_3]

I really dont think Lady Gaga is living a "luxurious life" to be ironic, she's just an attention seeker. If you look at her interviews before she became big she's normal, she seems to actually care, and has some dignity, as soon as she became big she became a 24/7 publicity stunt, her interview style changed to one of acting and saying things for attention.

Im not suprised he turned her down.

 

[Thanatos]

^Thats not exactly what I call meaningful and besides, what I think is more important is if a song is well written and hers are not.
I just had a look at some of her song lyrics on that site and it looks like it could be written by a 15 year old, its all, gaga fame fame love me baby oh oh fame and other sorts of gibberish and random words.
I don't see anything wrong with what Antonio said, but thats because of 2 reasons
1. I dislike Lady Gaga
2. He was speaking the truth

 

[Salvatore]

Moreso than her nonsensical lyrics, it's her 'style' that I am concerned at how it would translate into an entire fashion line that will not look like costumes and how will she and her design team create something every six months that is relevant, fresh, and ultimately marketable. I think what is happening here is that she's attempting to be a fashion icon like her idols (Madonna, Michael Jackson, ecc.. ) but I am not sure if she understands that their fashion was really not gimmicky and for attention and people/designers were influenced by them, not really the other way around. I think there is already too many designers that are doing what she will attempt to do with this Haus of GaGa and if she thinks it will sell just because who she is, she has the business wrong.