Lady Gaga Influences Fashion, Art While Giving Back

Lady Gaga: Singer, Fashion Artist and Philanthropist

Photo by AP

Here’s a look at some of the philanthropic efforts and fashion impact of Lady Gaga, a two-time Grammy winner, singer/songwriter and fashion artist who’s a champion for individuality.

Gaga Gives Back

Lady Gaga partnered with Virgin Mobile on her Monster Ball tour to raise money to help homeless youth. Fans who volunteered their time at homeless youth organizations were offered VIP tickets. More than $80,000 in proceeds was raised along with 30,000 hours of community service for various charities such as The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) across the U.S. She’s also supports Virgin Mobile’s RE*Generation (teamed with NAEH), which brings “together organizations that care about homeless youth, and connecting them with young people who want to help.”

Gaga is very proactive in raising awareness about the risk of HIV/AIDS among young women. She and recording artist Cyndi Lauper teamed up with M·A·C AIDS Fund’s VIVA Glam campaign, which has raised more than $160 million through the VIVA Glam lipgloss and/or lipstick campaign. Proceeds go directly toward helping those infected with the disease.

Gaga immediately responded to the Haitian people as a 7.0 earthquake hit the country in 2010. She donated the proceeds (tickets sales, merchandise, etc.) from her Jan. 24, 2010, Monster Ball concert along with sales from her online store. Overall, she donated more than $500,000.

She combined fashion with social good to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this year. The $5 white-and-red rubber bracelet with the words Pray for Japan in both English and Japanese raised $250,000 in 48 hours. She used Twitter to ask her “little monsters” to donate more if they could. And, on her latest visit to Japan for a charity concert, she encouraged tourists to return to Japan. “I missed Japan so much…and ever since the earthquake I really couldn’t wait to come back and see the fans,” she told the Associated Press.

In Gaga’s hometown, she teamed up withRobin Hood, a poverty-fighting organization in New York City. The organization recently awarded $1 million to SCO Family of Services, which supports New York City teens living in poverty.

Fashion + Art Phenom

According to Style.com, “allusions to this pop culture omnivore (who is attired by a Warholian gaggle of twentysomethings working under the moniker Haus of Gaga) [were found] at the haute couture in Paris. And yet it was hard not to detect a hint of the Gaga effect in Gaultier Paris‘ leg-bearing bodysuits, Christian Lacroix’s sculptural skirts, Givenchy’s dangling chains, and even the pouf-skirted finale dress at Chanel.”

Lady Gaga is more than a singer/songwriter and musician. She’s a fashion phenomenon. According to international fashion make-up artist, Max Della Maggesa, “Lady Gaga is a style icon, a muse, a craze.” He calls this ‘the gaga-ism’ because everyone will know her. Gaga has been compared to Madonna, who revolutionized the world of fashion 30 years ago.

The term “GaGaism” refers to Lady Gaga. It’s about being an individual and expressing yourself, while at the same time being a part of the community. Croatian conceptual artist Igor Jurilj created an art exhibit in November 2010 called “Gagaism.” Gaga found out about the exhibition while she was in Croatia on the Monster Ball Tour.