Official Lady Gaga Halloween Costumes (and a bit of a rant)

So, if it wasn’t the most popular costume last year, this year, Lady Gaga is sure to be one of the top choices for this Halloween. And now, it’s even easier to dress up like the Lady herself: Lady Gaga’s online store has announced pre-orders for officially licensed Halloween costumes.

Now, the costumes are pretty cool and, considering they’re officially licensed, the pricing isn’t bad (they’re at around $50, I’ve seen other licensed costumes in the $80 range). And there’s a wide array of choices. These are just a few:

There’s even more, plus wigs and sunglasses.

But here’s my gripe: last year, one of my best friends went as Lady Gaga for Halloween. She researched costumes online, went out and bought bits and pieces of costume at different stores and then, on Halloween day, she, another of our best friends and myself sat around her living room watching The Discovery Channel’s Halloween specials and working on the wig and art pieces for her costume.

It was so much fun.

But for us, the best part was that we were making something. We were creating art, in a way, even if it was just for a Halloween costume. And for all three of us, that was something Lady Gaga inspired in us, the desire to create and experiment with art and even if it fails at least you TRIED. That was, for us, the spirit of Lady Gaga.

So it kind of saddens me that now there’s no need for people to do that. While I’m sure many of them might still want to and may do so, now there’s the much more tempting easy route: just buy it.

I want to be clear: I don’t fault Lady Gaga or her people for this. I mean, there’s obviously a demand for the costumes, I don’t blame them for filling it. I think that if the demand had been there and Lady Gaga or her people had said “Just make your own” the backlash would have been pretty horrendous. And there’s some people who just don’t have the time to make their own costume, so buying one is definitely appealing.

Mostly, this is just me waxing philosophical on Lady Gaga the artist versus Lady Gaga the business. Because in the end she is both, but there is this schism in both the art and business world that makes it very difficult to be both at the same time while maintaining your credibility as an artist and your success as a business.

Do you guys have any thoughts on any of this? The costumes, art versus business, Lady Gaga as a DIY inspiration? No? Well, if not, just share some awesome recipes. That’s always fun.