Who has chosen to sell her ass with more gusto and carefreeness under the guise of being original than Lady Gaga? Why, Urban Outfitters, of course. This is precisely why it’s actually quite long overdue that the two entities should come together to create a limited line of Joanne-inspired clothing to “honor” her upcoming world tour.
Throwing together a few standard tees, hoodies and a bomber jacket with mostly the same graphic on them, Lady Gaga proves it’s not about content so much as presentation. The high gloss aura of something overpriced with the “ironic” lo-fi transfer image of a picture of her from her less than flattering school years is very well tailored to the Urban Outfitters aesthetic. Other than that, it’s basically a bunch of shit with the same picture of her wearing sunglasses or a shirt that simply says Lady Gaga and/or Joanne.
At the core of the collab is, naturally, a predilection toward self-exploitation that not everyone possesses. Which must be somewhat jarring to Urban Outfitters, so accustomed to exploiting against most institutions’ wills. The varied price range of the merging of minds’ schlock is targeted toward the most casual of LG listeners to the most intense of fans, starting at as low as $16 and as high as $279. But honestly, if you’re going to buy Lady Gaga merchandise from Urban Outfitters, you might as well just wait until the tour rolls around, where she’ll inevitably be shilling all the leftovers there anyway. But maybe, if it sells well enough, they can take more time to cultivate another, better collaboration. One that also imposes on Tony Bennett, too. Or maybe shirts with Rorschach ink blots featuring the faces of Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse, the former of whom only dyed her hair blonde to avoid comparisons to the latter. Though, at this point, it would be a more favorable case of mistaken identities to the public.
