She was at the event to deliver a powerful speech on strength in the face of adversity, but on Monday night Lady Gaga used the 25th annual Women in Hollywood celebration to make an equally powerful statement through her fashion choices.
Shunning the traditional gowns and dresses usually seen at award ceremonies, the singer and actress donned an oversized suit from Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2019 collection, and with that simple choice questioned the feminine red carpet beauty standards we’ve come to accept.
Wearing a deliberately baggy grey suit, Lady Gaga took to the stage to deliver a highly personal speech. “I tried on dress after dress today getting ready for this event, one tight corset after another, one heel after another, a diamond, a feather, thousands of beaded fabrics and the most beautiful silks in the world,” she said. “To be honest, I felt sick to my stomach.” Gaga’s suit, she explained, was a way for her to take the power back.
Lady Gaga has always been known for her brave and notable fashion choices, but this most recent choice — to focus on words, and not a dress — feels prescient at a time when women’s voices are increasingly silenced and maligned. “We are not just objects to entertain the world,” Gaga added of women’s roles in Hollywood and beyond. “We are voices. We have the power to speak and be heard and fight back when we are silenced.”
In choosing the Marc Jacobs suit, the A Star Is Born actor explained, she was able to use fashion for something different to the role it had played over the course of her career. Here, fashion allowed her to speak her truth rather than to shock her audience.
“I had a revelation that I had to be empowered to be myself today more than ever,” she said. “To resist the standards of Hollywood, whatever that means. To resist the standards of dressing to impress. To use what really matters: my voice.”