Glovely Icon: Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is becoming a name to be reckoned with, if you're looking at the pop charts worldwide. This Diva of electronic music is born Stefani Germanotta, a name that has star quality, though we have to admit that 'Lady Gaga' has a much better ring to it. Lady Gaga has a thing for bare legs, womens lingerie ánd glamourous gloves. Her outfits often have written the word 'sex' all over it and tend to flirt with fetish elements, having her continually balancing between girly innocence and vampy seduction. Her style is somewhere on the same horizon as Madonna and Rihanna with here and there a little whiff of Gwen Stefani. We picked the best images available, with among them some nice stills of celebrity photographer Warwick Saint.

Beg, steal or borrow?

I give you two minutes to look closely to the picture on the left. Something isn't right. Yes, her boobs are planning an escape, but that's not what I mean. Haven't found it yet? Here's a clue, take a closer look at the hem of Lindsay's dress.







What's going wrong, ladies? She cannot have stolen that dress. But paid she has surely not. Someone lent our lovely Lindsay Lohan a dress.

It's common practice. Famous labels or designers giving away their goodies to celebrities for promotion. It's in fact a bit odd, because we cannot assume that she can't afford it, on the contrary.

That leaves me one question: Why would I pay a good deal of money for a dress that someone else is getting for free? It's against any feeling of righteousness that's left in me. Fact is that you're being tricked with your eyes wide open. What's happening is that some famous fashion label or designer says: "Let's give Lindsay Lohan a free dress, there are enough dumb sheep to pay for it". Let's be clear, we cannot go about laughing our asses off because of that stupid tag and buying something from that same label or designer later on. If you want to do that, be sure to inform the shop personell to leave the dress tagged. Ok, that's enough grumbling for now, nothing to get so wound up about.

In a world full of bribes and slush clothing the french designer Christian Louboutin is an Oasis for the down-to-earth. The designer of the most sexy footwear available for a lady's feet, one that counts princesses among his customers, lets nobody be mistaken about it. He doesn't give his shoes away for free, not even to the ever lovely épouse du président (Carla Bruni). If you want Louboutins, you have got to pay for them. If you're not willing to pay, you obviously don't want them bad enough...

More glovely fifties inspiration

In an earlier article we wrote about the fifties of the last century as 'the golden age of gloves', because of their popularity at the time. This winter season (but summer also) fashion is loosely based on the fashion of the 1950's. We have been digging in old fashion magazines (like Vogue) for pictures to see how gloves were worn in those days. It seems that the fashionable lady practicly wouldn't go out without gloves. When you look at the pictures below you should also pay attention to little details like the buttons, veils and lovely little hats. Gloves are essential to a enchanting fifties outfit, so be sure to have some wardrobe staples like a pair of simple leather or suede gloves in different lengths and find yourself a lovely coat or cape!

Gloves golden age

Autumn / winter 2009 is totally fifties. Nicely tailored coats, pretty hats and of course wonderful gloves.

Dress gloves became popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, but they reached their summit in the fifties of the last century with icons like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Gina Lollobrigida. They conquered the world with their looks, of which gloves were a substantial part. This time is also known as 'the golden age of the gloves'.

Today the look is back and women can once again wear this elegant, sexy and terrificly refined fashion accessory with dignity. To inspire all of you we've picked out some nice pictures of the fifties great women from the silver screen. Here's the style of Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Jackie O, etc. You know their names.

Fashion or fetish?

Earlier on we wrote a little piece on how fashionable gloves are able to give a woman a sexy and powerful appearance. Like almost anything there's also a downside to that. In the fetish and BDSM-scene gloves are very popular. Off course we don't want to evoke such associations wearing fashionable gloves.

Its hard to draw a line between fashion and fetish. Many couturiers tend to flirt with the fetish element and we know some women do too. We'll try to give a hand illustrating how to be on the safe side, the tricky side or just over the edge.

Fashionable and decent:

• Avoid extremes. Don't wear to much leather or shiny materials at once. Look for some gloves with a supple quality and matte surface.


• Not to much skin. The most effective way to keep things decent is to keep the amount of visible skin within limits. No bare legs or arms.


• Boots can be very fetish, but a safe boot is a boot with the shaft not to high and the heels not higher than 6cm. Wear them in a way that not the whole shaft is visible.
  
• Avoid 'plastic' materials. This tends to look cheap. At best you could try real patent leather, but with it's shinyness its a bit risky.


• You can wear gloves of any length, provided that there's no metal studs, shackles, buttons etc.

Fashionable and attractive

• Look for a little edge or twist, but keep it simple. Choose nice and outstanding accessories. Patent leather is a good option, but not too much. Real snakeskin or crocodile leather are good show-offs.
  
• Easy with showing your skin. A bare shoulder, arm, leg or décolletage is fine. Don't show belly or buttocks. And by that we mean that your skirt must not be shorter than mid-thigh length.


• A combination with boots is saucy, especially if you wear them over your pants or with a skirt. Don't choose boots higher than just over the knee. Any heel height is fine.
  
• Maybe a nice idea is to wear a simple t-shirt with high boots over jeans and a pear of elbow length gloves.
  
• Possibilities: Short gloves with nice details. Extremely short gloves reaching to the mid-hand or even the knuckles. Long gloves with buttons, an exquisite cut or embellished cuffs.

Over the top

This effect is easily reached. Just take little to much of everything. Jewelry to tawdry, too much (fake) fur, too much shiny materials, too much skin. The example next wears a little too much leather, but other than that she'd fit the fashionable and attractive categorie.

Wearing stockins with cuban heels can be very risqué.

When you're going over the top anything is possible.