Food for Thought - Lady Gaga and Madonna

Yesterday, pop culture icon Lady Gaga released the video to her latest single, "Judas".

Normally, this would be outside the scope of my blog, since I deal mostly with vintage or nostalgic elements. However, there is a nostalgic slant to this story. In addition, this would normally be dealt with on Music Mondays, but I felt it deserved a more in-depth article than those I do for music videos.

The main controversy surrounding Mother Monster as she is called by her fans (myself included) and her new album "Born This Way" is that the title song - the first single released from the album - sounds suspiciously like one many people remember from Madonna's album "Like A Prayer". If you follow pop culture at all you will have heard in the weeks and months since the release of "Born this Way" many call-outs on Lady Gaga for the song's striking similarities to "Express Yourself".

How does she plead? Not guilty. In an interview with NME she called claims that the video was a rip-off of Madonna's "Express Yourself" ridiculous: "If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It's the same one that's been in disco music for the last 50 years."

There are many differing opinions on the matter, mostly falling into the camps of "guilty" or "not guilty". Personally, I feel that either of these views are overly simplistic and cannot really address the issue as a whole. Plagiarism is something we've dealt with a lot as a society since the Information Revolution of the 1990s. The Internet has made it much easier to share and/or steal both ideas and intellectual property. Most of the debates regarding the Internet over the past ten years have been about protecting copyrights for musicians, photographers, publishers, etc.

In a 2002 exposé on this subject and its appearances in the fashion world Cathy Horyn, New York Times Fashion Critic (who made a guest appearance at my school this past week) asked "Is Copying Really a Part of the Creative Process?" To summarize the article, she took the example of designer Nicolas Ghesquière's apparent "lifting" of a designer vest from the 70s in his Spring 2003 Collection (see side-by-side here

The original on the right and the copy in Balenciaga's Spring 2003 show on the left.

A quote from the article:





"''I think it's a phase of our time,'' said Harold Koda, the costume curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ''Part of it is post-Warhol. It's just rummaging through extant material culture and juxtaposing it with other things to create something different. Postmodernism has really pervaded our culture.''"

Another quote:





"Mr. Wong [Kaisak Wong's brother. Kaisak died in 1990] knows about the Balenciaga copy. ''Is it like plagiarism?'' he asked. Copyright laws don't cover fashion as they do publishing and music -- nor should they, said Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor. ''We borrow and change -- that's the creative process,'' he said."

We can understand two things from these quotes: first, that in the modern artistic climate we borrow from others in order to create and second, that in order to avoid plagiarism, we must take what we borrow and make it our own. There is little doubt that Ghesquière's actions were, in fact, plaigarism, since he took an existing design and changed only the actual fabric - not even the type of fabric, but did Lady Gaga do the same thing?

Even if we consider that she "lifted" the melody for "Born This Way" from "Express Yourself" (which I don't really believe, though I do see strong similarities between the two songs), she changed the lyrics, cadence, rhythm, and message of the song entirely. Even if she "borrowed" the melody she still took it and made it her own. This is not copying, this is the postmodern creative process.

I'm sure some of you are out there saying that Gaga's Madonna get-up at the end of the "Born This Way" video proves the accusations of plagiarism. However, we must remember that these allegations had been bandied about even before the video went into production. Being Lady Gaga and enjoying ironic commentaries, she naturally wanted to reference the similarities in an irreverent way. This was how she did it:

Two stills from "Born this Way" showing the Madonna look.

Here's the part of my article that I think is really cool. For the first time I think I may actually have a somewhat legitimate scoop. I don't know exactly how many of my readers were alive when "Express Yourself" was first released, but I wonder if the media at that time made any references to this song when Madonna's hit came out:







Skip to the one minute mark and I'll wait for you to pick your jaw up off the floor. If there is any plagiarism going on in this situation, the guilty party is Madonna. Unlike "Born This Way" to "Express Yourself", here the chorus is melodically identical to its predecessor.

However, do I actually think Madonna is guilty of plagiarism? No. I don't. To be frank I don't think that either of these women are guilty of copying something. Did they borrow as part of the creative process? Maybe, but I am a strong believer in Zeitgeist and the philosophy that ideas don't really belong to one person or another and instead exist all around us. It is those who take those ideas and create something uniquely his or hers who can then claim the product as their own.

An artist can be inspired by a tree and choose to paint it. Does this mean that he owes the tree a royalty check? If a designer (say Yves Saint Laurent) is inspired by an artist (just picking names out a hat here.... Mondrian) and creates a dress that maybe kinda sorta looks something like this:

Would that make Monsieur Saint-Laurent a plagiarist or a genius? Whether or not he owes royalties to Mr. Mondrian is a question of legal procedure. This is a philosophical debate.

Very little of what we create comes from thin air. A good example of this is explained in a theory about dreams - that we can only dream about people or places we've seen in real life. This makes sense to me, despite what some of you have just shouted at the computer in disagreement: "What about that dream I had where I was in a land made of cotton candy/a place I've always wanted to go but have never been to/a place that did not exist in my lifetime?!?" Simple: We take elements from what we see every day and mix them all up in our heads to create new places. We might take the grass from our backyard and the mountain range from that travel magazine you flipped through at the doctor's office. The toaster in that tree came from the Highlights under the travel magazine. The key here is the creative combination or alteration of these basic elements.

"OMG they TOTALLY ripped of Highlights!!!1!!"

You can also think about it this way: Most people know that mythical creatures are based on misunderstandings of real animals. Think about how the ancient people tried to explain them. Someone who has never seen a rhino before and who has no word for rhinoceros in his language would naturally, upon returning to his tribe, explain what he saw as a horse with a horn.

What I'm trying to say - in a rather roundabout way - is that it's practically impossible to be completely original. All ideas come from somewhere outside ourselves. The challenge is finding an original way of expressing those ideas and creating a product therefrom.

Adding a drum kit to an extant song does NOT count.

Madonna and Lady Gaga have both done this indirectly. Gaga has admitted that she is a huge Madonna fan. There was likely some indirect inspiration there. Did she sit down with the sheet music to "Express Yourself", change three notes and release a new song? No. MOVE ON. Madonna probably heard "Respect Yourself" growing up. Maybe she felt that chorus could be taken in a new direction or maybe that phrase just stuck in her subconscious and came out as a new song. Did she sit down one day and say, "Gee, I think I'll rip off talented artists and make gobs of money off of their hard work"? No. That job is already taken (I'm looking at you, Forever 21).

I wish I could say that we've moved on from this controversy, but people are already comparing "Judas" to Madonna's "Like a Prayer", saying there are similar religious overtones and bla bla bla. It's kind of irritating. In En Vogue's "Free Your Mind" they feature a spoken introduction just like "Express Yourself". Are they plagiarists, too? As a society can't we learn to concentrate our energies on debates where there is, in fact, plagiarism going on? (I'm still looking at you, Forever 21).

Think about it,

For more on intellectual property, see this post.

Halloween Costumes - Lady Gaga

I figured I should start off the month with a real bang, so here she is:

24-year-old Stefani Germanotta - aka Lady Gaga - exploded onto the music scene only a few years ago with her hit single "Just Dance". Since then she's become an international phenomenon not only in the music industry, but also in pop culture. She also dapples in politics as seen by her recent involvement in the Don't Ask Don't Tell debate. Gaga has always been an almost endless source of inspiration for Halloween costumes, and this year is no different! Here are some ideas if you go the Gaga route:

(A) Gaga Meets the Queen!

In making this you'll probably want to avoid latex since it's very difficult to work with and is not the most comfortable thing to wear. You best bet for finding anything like this is a thrift store. If you can't find something with these sleeves, inflate a beach ball and paint it red (be sure the paint is rubber-friendly!). Once it's dry, cut holes in the bottom and upper side to attach it to the dress. The effect will be more like this, but it's in the same style. You might have to use some stuffing to keep it from drooping too much - newspaper is a cheap option, but might be noisy. I recommend using tulle or another stiff fabric. The collar is an altered centerpiece from a party store, like this one. The red eye things can be done with glittery red makeup. A pair of red sunglasses could probably also work.

(B) The VMA Meat Dress

Of course this is going to be one of the most popular Halloween costumes this year. To make yours you'll need an alternative to raw meat, unless you'd like to go über-realistic, which I don't recommend. Instead, try and find a meat-themed novelty quilting fabric. If this is unavailable, you'll have to find some pink or white fabric and go at it with some fabric markers until you've got that meaty feeling. For a more tongue-in-cheek effect, I'd recommend a touch of the ridiculous with a squeaky toy hat in the shape of a steak or hamburger, and a bacon wallet. You can also round off the look with some sausage links made by stuffing a meat-colored stocking and tying it off every so often. (See next for hair)

(C) Gaga in Alexander McQueen at the VMAs

Take a thrift store gown (preferably in red) and use fabric paints to achieve the medieval panting look. After letting it dry, use heavy thread or safety pins to gather the skirt up onto one hip if you want to show off your armadillo heels. You can always leave the skirt down if you so desire. If you're averse to making a black tulle petticoat, whipstitch large bunches of black tulle under the hem of the skirt, to give that illusion. The armadillo heels can be achieved with a mesh and papier-mâché armature that fits over a pre-existing shoe and ties around the ankle. For the hair, get a platinum blonde long wig and dye the ends blue. For the headdress, find a plastic headband and hot glue some feathers sticking directly up (this may require some wire to stabilize them). Then spray paint the entire thing gold.

Here is Gaga's latest video: Alejandro (NSFW)

(D) The "Alejandro" Gun Bra

Take those high-waisted black wide-leg pants out of your closet ladies! If you don't own a pair (shame on you, they're incredibly slimming) then a trip to your thrift store will probably yield many results. If not, then any black pants will suffice. Purchase a cheap bra at any outlet store, and find two plastic toy guns (preferably with long barrels). You may have to use a saw for this, so be careful! Remove the barrel from the rest of the gun. Be sure to file down any sharp edges to avoid cutting yourself later. Put the bra on to test where you want the guns to be placed - remember they will be held up by a strap, so just make sure they're pointing the right way. Have a friend help you mark the positions of the barrels and make sure they're even. Take off the bra and crazy-glue the guns in place and let them dry completely. A simpler alternative is to use two paper towel tubes painted black. Use a luggage strap like this one to connect the two ends of the guns across the back of your neck. The rest of the bra straps are ultimately optional, but can also be achieved through the clever use of straps. Finally, a blonde version of this wig finishes up the look.

(E) The "Alejandro" Priestess

At your local thrift store, find a white lab coat, graduation gown, or seminary robe. Don't use a terry robe. You probably won't find something hooded, so also find something with a hood that is already white or that can be bleached. Remove the hood from the sweatshirt and attach it to the robe. There are three options for the red edges and crosses: sewing (slow), paint (messy), or duct tape (potentially tragic). I recommend the last option because is will give that rubber feel without the discomfort of actually wearing rubber. Always remember to double-side duct tape that comes in contact with your body. You will be sorry if you don't, especially with these panties.

(F) "Alejandro" Dancers

This is good for your more "conservative" or "male" Gaga fans. It's a very simple costume- biking shorts or cut-off leggins pulled up extra high, a pair of combat boots and this wig (all in black). You could also switch out the boots for fishnets and high heels if you so choose.

Here is Gaga featuring Beyoncé in "Telephone" - NSFW!

"Telephone" Prison Glam

Get out your hot glue guns, people! You'll need an over-sized black leather jacket, black knee pads, and a black bra and panty set. Using a boat-load of glittery gems and rhinestones from your local craft store, bedazzle everything to your liking. Let them dry. After that, prepare some cans for your hair. Make sure they're clean! Rolling your hair around them might not be enough to keep them in all evening, so you may want to anchor them with bobby pins - you can do this by poking holes into the can and inserting bobby pins. Don't forget the finger gloves - take a pair of cheap faux-leather gloves and cut across the hand, just above the thumb. If you want to trim them smaller, be sure the finger portion of the glove remains completely intact! Then, add fishnets and some knee-high boots and you're done!

"Telephone" Crazy Chef

This one will also involve some work. You'll need to find a sort of translucent plastic to cut and glue into the bodice. She's actually wearing an apron over a matching skirt, but the skirt can really be anything you like, since it's mostly hidden by the apron. Be sure the plastic is stiff, but not so stiff that you can't sit down or walk comfortably. Also be sure that you don't hurt yourself while cutting it out and gluing - always make sure to file down sharp edges! Since the outfit is translucent, you can go all the way and just wear the medical tape crosses over your nipples. If you'd like a touch more modesty, though, you can always wear the tape crosses on a nude bra. The hair might also pose a challenge. As you see in the video, she wears a couple of different headdresses with this outfit, so you'll have to pick and choose what you want on your head. Since that blue contraption might be hard to make, I recommend the latter of the two. If you're not up to making a phone out of hair, you can always just buy one of those toy phones to wear as a hat. Don't forget your bottle of "poison", as well!

"Telephone" Caution Tape Bikini

This is probably the simplest of the three. All you'll need is a roll of caution tape, which I've seen at party stores, but might also be available at military surplus stores. Over a nude bra and panty, just go crazy with the tape! To affix it to your person, use bobby pins around the underwear, and any other tape you use should not come in direct contact with your skin. Use it only on the Caution Tape itself.

Last, but not least, "Bad Romance"! (Also NSFW)

(J) The "Telephone" Escape Costumes

Another costume for friends or couples. These are the... things that Gaga and Beyoncé wear as they escape in the video. Buy two big floppy hats. They should have wire in them for shaping, but if not that's alright. With the hat on, have a friend measure your height (in inches) up to crown of the hat. Double that height. Now find out how many yards that is - never round down in these situations, you can always cut away, but it's harder to add! For instance: I am 6' tall. With a hat, I might be a total of 75". Double that and you have 150"; 36" to a yard, and I would need about 4 1/4 yards. Anyway, purchase your required amounts in a cheap polyester chiffon (black for Beyoncé and light blue for Gaga). Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and sew one selvage shut. Drape this over your hat and self with the open side facing the front. Add a belt and arrange the fabric to your liking and comfort (make sure you wear something underneath as chiffon is quite shear). Finally, purchase some fishnet stockings that match the fabrics and cut them into gloves - there you go!

(K) The "Bad Romance" Monster Costume

For the main part of the costume, you'll want to find a white body suit. For the headpiece, take a slightly too big white bathing cap and cut two holes for the eyes. Use some card-stock to make a white pointy paper crown. The shoes might be a bit tricky, but anything from white pumps to costume go-go boots, to the white anime boots available at party stores can work. Use whatever you can find. Do be aware that this costume has been referred to as the "sperm costume". If you wear it, be prepared for some unsavory humor.

Just so you all know, this was technically a total of eleven ideas. I won't be posting this many in a day again. If you have any specific questions about any of these costumes or their construction, please feel free to contact me! Also, remember to pass this on to your friends if you think they'd like it and check back all this month for more great costume ideas.

Happy October!
Nostalgically Yours

Hindsight - Not Your Momma's Platform Heels!

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” -Oscar Wilde

Today I introduce yet another segment. As you may have deduced from the quote featured above, I will use "Hindsight" to discuss the amazing and peculiar trends of days gone by which, in retrospect, might seem a bit silly.

As I'm sure many of you know, Lady Gaga has had mixed reviews about her wardrobe for this year's MTV Video Music Awards, including a dress made of raw meat (not pictured) and a pair of Alexander McQueen's signature "Armadillo" shoes:

I've heard many complaints about these heels - though I quite honestly think she deserves praise for putting on these babies - but let's take a trip back in time and explore the history of the chopine.

Chopines (or Zoccoli, as they were called in olden days) were platformed over-shoes that became popular towards the end of the Dark Ages in Renaissance Europe. Originally intended to keep the hem of a lady's dress from dragging in the mud, the chopine (and the added height given by it) became a status symbol. They were most popular in Spain and parts of Italy - Venice and Florence, specifically - and hit their highest in the 17th century.

For all intents and purposes, you might be wondering exactly why these are a trend we would look back upon and ridicule, especially when compared to McQueen's "Armadillos". Here is why:

These zoccoli are around 20 inches tall! To say that these over-(the top)-shoes were impractical would be a gross understatement. In fact, the women who wore these gargantuan things needed attendants to walk with them in order to keep their balance. The fashion was often ridiculed in literature of the time, as evidenced by this "smutty" caricature:

Contrary to what this drawing presents, there is some conjecture as to whether or not a lady's skirts would have covered the chopines... Here's an example of women who showed off their zoccoli:

Notice how these Spanish women all leave their chopines clearly visible beneath their ringed "verdugado" skirts (to clarify, these women are fully clothed - these earliest known ancestors to the hoop skirt and cage crinoline featured the wooden hoops in the outermost skirt). Clearly different women chose to wear them in different ways. I think the most  obvious way to tell if a certain zoccoli was covered or not is to look at how ornate the decoration is. Of the following two examples, the first would probably have been covered by the skirt whereas the second, more delicate example may have been worn to a ball or party and might have been proudly displayed - after all, they were a status symbol.

Of course, the fact that it was a status symbol is also a matter of debate amongst experts. Some say that only Venetian courtesans wore these high over-shoes to make themselves more visible to clients. Others say that zoccoli were reserved for the most prominent female Venetians. Much like Francis Classe, I believe that both women would have worn these shoes, considering the lavish gifts Venetian men would have had to lay upon their courtesans to keep their interest, and then on their wives to keep them quiet. It's not too difficult to imagine a great social battle between the Ladies and Mistresses of Venice... Female competition is the only logical explanation I can think of that might lead to 20-inch chopines.


Hope this was insightful and entertaining - and hey, maybe next time you complain about the four-inch heels you wore to go clubbing you'll remember what these women endured for fashion!

Hoping sincerely that none of your are ever subjected to such tremendous heels,
Nostalgically Yours


Thanks to the following sources for information and pictures:
Francis Classe
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

Put on Your Sunday Clothes!

Most of you will recognize this song from "Wall-E", one of my favorite movies. As I explain in my review of "Toy Story 3", a Pixar movie will inevitably make me cry. Today, however, I weep only for the lost traditions of yore.

The song you just watched speaks to the lost western cultural phenomenon of "Sunday Clothes" (you've heard the expression "wear your Sunday best"?), when people would wear their best dresses and suits to Mass on Sunday morning. Obviously, this has its roots in Christian tradition, probably dating as far back as the Sunday "sabbath" in the time of Constantine I. Since the rise of Christianity, those who worked did so Monday-Saturday. Our modern concept of the weekend wasn't nationally accepted in the United until 1940 (Pioneers of the two-day weekend included Henry Ford in 1926). This meant that Sundays were all the more special for people, since it was their only day off. Though the leisure class could afford to dress lavishly on a daily basis, the working classes had only Sunday to look forward to show off a new dress, a new tie, a new hat. Depending on their income, after Mass most people would go out to the park, to the beach, to enjoy some sort of recreation and to further display how swell they looked. The idea of Sunday clothes is about more than just religion, it has to do with a sense of decency and decorum that went out with the Baby Boomers. Nowadays, being well-dressed is optional. People don't blink an eye if a person goes grocery shopping in sweatpants, but even fifty years ago people thought it was important to look well-kept and elegant.

On this vein, in a relatively recent article from the April issue of Southern Living, Valerie Fraser Luesse pines the loss of three classic icons of feminine propriety:

"1. The Easter Dress

We used to start shopping for out Easter dresses before the Valentine's candy was even stale. An Easter dress was your prettiest, dressiest Sunday-go-to-meetin' ensemble of the year. It screamed spring: floaty fabrics in pastel colors; short sleeves, puff sleeves, or no sleeves; store-bought or handmade. Pearls required. and glovesHat and gloves optional after 1960. [...]

2. The Mother's Day Corsage

When I was a kid, if a mother came to church without a corsage from her children, the whole family went on everybody's prayer list. Now almost nobody buys one, and that's a shame. Here's how it works. You choose the flowers for your mother's corsage based on whether her mother is living or dead. If her mother is living, she wears roses or carnations in pink or red. If her mother has crossed over, she wears white or yellow roses or an orchid. Everybody gets baby's breath. It's just the right thing to do.

3. The Hostess Apron

'When you saw my grandmother's mint-green organza apron, you knew some cucumber sandwiches were coming out,' my friend Rebecca says. Back in the day, Southern [and most other American] women wore kitchen aprons, which they actually wiped their hands on while they cooked, and hostess aprons, which adorned and protected their good dresses while they served guests."

I guess my upcoming move to New Orleans really has me thinking about long-gone nostalgia such as this. Southerners have a reputation for being much more old-fashioned than Yanks - and it's really true. a New Yorker sticks out like a sore thumb in the Crescent City. My last visit to NOLA left me completely flabbergasted. I wondered at the courtesy and warmth I encountered wherever I went. I'm excited about getting more in touch with my New Orleans past. My mother and aunt were the seventh generation born there. I'm also glad I inherited my family's Southern sensibilities, which is why I really agree with Ms. Luesse in that it's a crying shame that these and other traditions have been abandoned. Of course, as she also says in her article, certain things are better left in the annals of Good Housekeeping...

However, in our desperate attempt to do away with those things we saw as uncool and old-fashioned, we effectively threw out the baby with the bathwater. The Baby Boomers were so preoccupied with breaking down the establishment that they didn't stop to think about what might be nice to keep around. Eventually we reached today's generation - the new "Silent Generation". Not silent like the first one, because it had been assimilated by World War I, but silent because we're simply not involved in anything outside our Facebook accounts or our television screens.

The good news is that I think things are changing. Artists such as Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera have done a lot to try and modernize the looks of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, making it cool to look retro. Lady Gaga and Laroux are both intensely reviving the 80s. Hopefully this will encourage other young people to examine the lifestyles of days gone by and maybe start picking out and adopting the things that are relevant in the 21st century. This is especially true because I don't know if we've really found our voice as a generation (thus the "silence"), so perhaps in a world saturated with information, we'll begin to combine the past with the future in finding an identity of our own.

Here's Hoping!

Nostalgically Yours

Pop Culture Comparison

It's interesting to note the similarities between Lady Gaga and Marchesa Luisa Casati.

Both are major celebrities and fashion icons

Both are considered eccentrics

Okay, Casati didn't have a singing career, but she did enjoy nude walks through her gardens, so both feel the liberty of going without pants!

I really believe that at the end of this century Lady Gaga will be remembered in a similar way to how we remember Casati.

Think about it


Nostalgically Yours