On April 11, 2025, under the incandescent skies of Coachella, Lady Gaga didn't just give a concert: she carved out an operatic fresco where fashion, history and the future intertwine. A radical, visceral performance, where every costume becomes a manifesto and every gesture a prophecy.
Some shows mark an era. Others redefine the very idea of performance. At Coachella 2025, Lady Gaga accomplished both, offering a total vision where music, fashion and emotion merge in a whimsical opera. Each outfit change mapped intertwined eras, a vibrant homage to the history of couture and a no-holds-barred exploration of contemporary identity.
The theater of origins opens with a reinvented Lady Macbeth. Under a blood-red light, Gaga emerges in a scarlet velvet gown, bristling with studs, designed by Samuel Lewis, Athena Lawton and William Ramseur. It's a vision of majestic madness, inspired by Thierry Mugler's over-the-top creations for the Comédie-Française. A cage concealed beneath the drapes, designed by Jet Sets, whispered Gaga's fundamental idea: behind every ornament, confinement; beneath every parade, the thirst for freedom.
The setting shifts to faded innocence, on a wasteland populated by skeletons and bathed in sepia. Gaga becomes a fractured doll, dressed in an antique lace corset mini-dress by Dilara Findikoglu. Through these delicate shreds, a spectral silhouette emerges, somewhere between the fallen angels of the Pre-Raphaelites and post-apocalyptic heroines. Gaga's art: marrying the memory of the past with the brutality of the present.
Puis vient l’heure de la guerre du miroir. Sur “Paparazzi”, l’icône ceint son torse d’une armure métallisée conçue par Manuel Albarran, modernisant son look iconique de 2009. La référence est double : un salut à Alexander McQueen, prince de la cathédrale d’acier couture, et un clin d’œil aux amazones baroques de Mugler. Lorsque retentissent les premières notes de “Poker Face”, Gaga foule un échiquier géant, ressuscitant l’univers de McQueen, printemps-été 2005 : un jeu d’échecs cruel où la mode devient stratégie de survie.
Dans un élan de résilience glamour, elle renoue avec ses fondamentaux. Pour “Killah”, elle porte une combinaison Marni, alliance incendiaire de rouge vif et de nude illusoire. À ses pieds, les bottes « Monster Ball », plateformes massives et corsetage brutal, rappellent ses années de furie expérimentale. Se citer elle-même devient alors un geste de pouvoir : affirmer son passé pour mieux annoncer ses renaissances futures.
Enfin, la renaissance grotesque couronne la nuit. Sur “Bad Romance”, Gaga s’élève dans une création de Matières Fécales : croix chirurgicale brodée, plumes synthétiques irradiantes, gants monstrueux façonnés par Yaz XL. Une transfiguration totale : l’ange, la bête, la martyre et la reine, réunis en une seule silhouette. Ici, le monstre n’est plus une blessure : il devient couronne.
From this odyssey springs a manifesto: the advent of the "Gothic Future".
A style where glamour is tinged with darkness, where wounded textiles, ghostly leathers and synthetic feathers fashion emotional armor. A world where fashion, far from erasing scars, exalts them as symbols of humanity augmented - not by technology, but by memory, pain and imagination.
Gothic Future conjures up Victorian memories, futuristic visions and digital dystopias in a single creative breath. It's a fashion that doesn't seek to seduce, but to conjure: to ward off loss, chaos and downfall, the better to reinvent light.
Under the starry canopy of Coachella, Lady Gaga didn't just perform.
She erected an ephemeral cathedral, where fragility becomes strength, where the grotesque becomes beauty. Once again, she revealed herself not as a star, but as the high priestess of a future to be built.
