Lady Gaga's Meat Dress Goes On Display

Not everyone may understand Lady Gaga’s fashion choices, but they have certainly caught the attention of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The dress that Gaga wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, where she accepted an award for the “Bad Romance” video, will go on display at the Hall of Fame’s special exhibit, Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, until February 2012. Why is this dress so special? It was made entirely of thinly sliced layers of Argentine beef.

The dress and matching boots were hand sewn by Franc Fernandez and Nicola Formichetti. The dress was made as the layers of beef were dried and preserved by a taxidermist, similar how beef jerky is made. It was then sewn onto heavy white lining. While the dress drew criticism from stars like Justin Bieber and Courtney Love, and forced PETA to release a statement saying, “Meat is the decomposing flesh of a tormented animal who didn't want to die, and after a few hours under the TV lights, it would smell like the rotting flesh it is and likely be crawling in maggots—not too attractive, really,” the dress was named by Time magazine as the Best Fashion Statement of 2010.

In order to prepare the dress for the exhibit, which features over 70 artists and highlights the women who influenced rock and roll music and American culture, it was kept in a meat locker for months, covered in chemicals, dried out and painted to keep it looking fresh. At the exhibit, the dress will allegedly be accompanied by a statement saying it has “many interpretations.”

But according to Gaga, who attended the VMAs with discharged gay service members, her choice of material for the dress has to do with protesting against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She said the dress represents “equality.” “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 own bones,” she told Ellen DeGeneres last September. “And I am not a piece of meat,”