162 |Harper’s BAZAAR|September 2014INTERVIEW
The
GAGA
AL
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KL: Choupette is my muse. Is Asia your musical
inspiration? LG: Asia is my inspiration for many things.
She has really shown me the importance of living in the
moment. If I don’t, I’ll miss a precious look on her face!
She is a very romantic and loving animal, and this sort
of poetry is what art is all about, I think. Interaction.
She loves to sit with me when I record jazz. She never
barks or makes noise; she just looks at me with her big
ears. KL: I think animals are better muses than human
beings – they’ll never fall out of fashion. What do you
think of animals? LG: I love animals. They communicate
with us entirely with love, something we all should do.
Asia and my love will never be out of fashion – it is
unconditional. KL: What are you into? What’s your
next fashion ‘trip’? LG: I’ve been recently enjoying
looking far and wide for the best vintage fashion I can
fi nd. Clothing with a story, a past. Heavy fabrics, jewels,
veils. My latest trip is feeling a connection to all women
throughout history through fashion. I love wearing clothes knowing that I’m carrying the spirit of previous fashionistas, and living out more of their
fantasies, and my own. I believe clothes carry the soul of the designer and the person wearing them forever, so I look for clothes with a soul. Perhaps
it’s something only I can see. But I know it’s real. KL: Where do you see your look evolving? LG: I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. Who
knows? But when I sing jazz with Tony Bennett, I want to wear dresses made for real ladies, turn off all the lights, and have you hear only my voice
cutting through the darkness. KL: I wonder if you’ll end up extremely classic one day. Do you think classic can be daring too? LG: Very. KL: I can
picture you doing Miss Otis Regrets with Tony Bennett. I love that song. Please tell me about your new album with him [Cheek to Cheek]. LG: Tony
has completely changed my life. It’s been a sort of secret that I’ve been singing jazz since I was 13. I was a jazz singer before I was a pop singer. Tony
is such a gentleman. He really treats me like a lady. I feel so healed by my relationship with him because some men were very bad to me when I was
young and in the studio. Tony showed me what the elegant and old-school cats were like. Our recording sessions were beautiful, memorable. We’ve
built a deep friendship. There are 60 years between us, but when we sing together there is no distance. This album is pure jazz, songs from the Great
American Songbook, played by both Tony and my respective jazz musicians and friends. KL: I love Billie Holiday’s It’s Easy to Remember (and
So Hard to Forget). In life, I always say, most people are easy to forget and hard to remember. Do you like Billie Holiday? What are your musical
inspirations for this type of music? LG: I used to listen to Billie Holiday every Sunday with my mother, but I fell in love with Ella Fitzgerald. She is
to me the quintessential jazz vocalist. Her life story, the pain and wisdom, the whiskey in her throaty voice. I felt connected to her because it’s these
types of women, the lush ladies of swing, who’ve made me feel like no matter what happens, I can always turn a tragedy into a great performance.
That’s the romance of theatre. KL: How long is your world tour? Is it around the world in 80 days? LG: Seven months. KL: Do you have a different
look planned for every city? I dare say, fashion could be your victim. LG: I don’t have my looks planned, but it’s a nice compliment to suggest so.
Thank you. I bring lots of vintage pieces with me – jewels, hats, bags – and I’m also very fortunate to get sent beautiful couture and runway looks
all over the world. I just wear what makes me feel good for the day. Right now I’m enjoying feeling like a lady. Wearing dresses, in love, walking Asia
in gardens, singing jazz with Tony Bennett... KL: I heard you’re going to Dubai for the fi rst time. I hope you like it. I loved it when I showed the
Chanel Dubai collection there. LG: I’m very excited to
go there, see my fans, give them the show of a lifetime.
And, of course, I must explore the local designers and
go shopping! KL: I would call you the world’s ever-
changing fashion icon. How does it feel to be chosen as
Carine Roitfeld and Bazaar’s icon? You change all the
time, but to me you stay the same Gaga. How do you
manage that? LG: It’s an honour for you to say that,
Karl. You are very classic. Classic for me is something
that changes all the time, like a drifting anchor. Even
though I’m changing all the time, I’m always thinking
of iconography – which is repetition of images – so I’m
always different. I’m in a way wearing the same outfi t
over and over, but I’m just a different expression of the
same woman. When I leave the house, I bear the souls
of fashionistas who came before me; I continue to live
glamorously to celebrate them. I’m just being me.