Lady Gaga made a serious sartorial statement at the red carpet premiere of Joker: Folie à Deux at the 81st Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. The multi-hyphenate singer-actress was accompanied by her fiancé Michael Polanksy and took to the red carpet in a sweeping gothic gown by Dior Haute Couture and a theatrical headpiece, courtesy of prolific designer Philip Treacy. She paired the look with her Giuseppe Zanotti platform lace up boots and glittering jewellery courtesy of Tiffany & Co., including a necklace in platinum and 18-karat yellow gold with diamonds, earrings in platinum with diamonds and a Tiffany Victoria bracelet.
Gaga’s voluminous Dior gown exuded mid-century elegance featuring a midnight black hue and a structured velvet bodice with a dramatic V neckline. The halterneck silhouette cascaded outwards into pronounced pleating on the skirt and an exaggerated ribboned train.
The most striking part of Gaga’s dramatic look, was of course, the theatrical Philip Treacy headpiece that completed the red carpet look. The horned creation hailed from the Irish-born, London-based milliner’s fall/winter 2001 couture collection, which was presented in July 2001 in Paris, France. The hat, “Look 23” from the collection, showcased intricate lace detailing, a curving symmetrical structure, sharply pointed tips and central beaded bow detailing.
“When a woman wears a hat, she feels like a million dollars,” said Treacy to reporters after the fall/winter 2001 show. “Hats are power.”
Philip Treacy has been a pioneering headwear designer for the best part of thirty years and is renowned for his extravagant and innovative hat designs that blur the line between fashion and art. He gained notoriety in the early 1990s when he began collaborating with Alexander McQueen and working with the influential fashion editor Isabella Blow, who became his muse.
Blow famously wore the gothic Philip Treacy horned headpiece that dramatically dips in front of the eyes back in 2002. The hat was part of Blow’s extensive collection of designer creations that was put up for auction by Christie’s after she died on May 7, 2007. Daphne Guinness purchased the entire lot before it went up for auction, and Blow’s clothing and accessories later became the 2013 London exhibition, Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore.
In 2013, Lady Gaga wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “I went to the Isabella Blow exhibit in London. It’s so incredibly touching, beautiful, inspiring. Monsters should go; her story is poetry.”
It is assumed that the hat that Gaga wore on the red capet is still owned by Guinness and was likely on loan for the red carpet premiere.
Joker: Folie À Deux was directed and co-written by Todd Phillips, and stars Lady Gaga as the Harley Quinn to Joaquin Phoenix’s titular character. The film is a musical followup to the first Joker film, which came out in 2019 and earned Phoenix an Oscar in 2020. Joker: Folie À Deux hits theaters across North America on October, 4 2024.
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