JUDAS!!!

This is another M.I.S.S. exclusive, so you know the drill. To see this post in it's original format go to Fashion Meets Music: Lady Gaga's "Judas".

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germonatta has obviously done her fair share of time in catechism and art history, because the video for her latest single, “Judas” is dripping with odes to religious iconography and popular culture. Instead of serving up a blasphemous video with an anti-Christian theme, Gaga merges the Renaissance with The Wild One and gives us a modern day version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

While a storm of unnecessary controversy swirled around “Judas” from the moment Gaga announced the track’s title, the lyrics are intelligent for a pop song, making the connection between Judas, Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and our little fame monster, the beat is sick albeit familiar, and the video is a sartorial feast for the eyes from the first frame. Although her chola version of Mary Magdalene felt like a continuation of her “Telephone” character, the Byzantine style crown she wears while ripping up the streets with Jesus and his chosen twelve, which calls to mind both Mary the mother of Jesus and the Empress Theodora another historic bad mamajama, and her leather top embroidered with a Sacred Heartmerge Renaissance portrayals of one of the most celebrated disciples with a modern day bad girl image.

Gaga’s fashionable play on religious imagery only begins with a Sacred Heart and a bikini top with a few strategically placed crosses. She carries the image of the beloved chola disciple from her mother superior with a lipstick loaded gun to her final scene as a Harajuku bride in creepers being stoned by her detractors. Despite her over the top fashion reeling you in from the first frame, the most striking image of Gaga comes when she bathes the feet of Jesus and Judas in simple leggings and a crop top with Botticelli like curls, but that’s just me you may prefer the Elizabethan Gaga entering the biker bar.

Clothes and Christianity aside, Gaga’s makeup was the underlying star of this video. Her thick eyeliner recalled on of history’s ultimate femme fatales, Cleopatra, and was very apropos considering her role as Bonnie to biker Jesus’s Clyde, who was very easy on the eyes mind you. Not only was her makeup game locked but Gaga’s stiletto nails were more than worthy of a place in our weekly Mani Monday wrap up. From a set boasting 3D nail art and what looked like a hint of denim to those amazing black and red nails dripping in gold chains, Gaga’s nails almost make me long for the days when I kept a fresh acrylic set.

Whether you are the fan of the makeup, the fashion, or the artful use of Gaga’s one year at NYU, most little monsters will agree that the only sin committed in “Judas” was mixing Chanel with Lacroix.