U.S. singer Lady Gaga performs her new song "Government Hooker" during the Thierry Mugler Fall-Winter 2011/2012 women's ready-to-wear fashion collection by designer Nicola Formichetti during Paris Fashion Week March 2, 2011. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes (FRANCE - Tags: FASHION ENTERTAINMENT IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Nicola Formichetti has taken the reigns as creative director at French label Mugler, and he’s brought his muse—the artist formerly known as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta—with him.
During last night’s catwalk show at Paris Fashion Week, Lady Gaga stomped down a runway that unfurled beneath Gothic arches. For her opening look she donned a sheer top that exposed her bra and a hip-hugging black leather dress. Puffing on a cigarette and bathed in red light, she resembled a gangster plucked from some futuristic staging of Chicago. During her second pass she modeled white and pink Latex corsetry and a hat clearly derived from a lampshade. For a woman used to wearing meat, it must have felt so pedestrian.
(More on TIME.com: Did Lady Gaga really stay inside an egg for 72 hours?)
Even so, Gaga exuded comfort and confidence, at one point writhing against a column and flashing her bright red fingertips at the audience. That ease on the runway probably stems from the fact that Formichetti is Gaga’s personal stylist—and the visionary behind her most eccentric costumes. Telegraph fashion critic Hillary Alexander praised Gaga’s debut, writing that she owned the stage “without any appearance of nerves on foot-high platform booties.” It probably helped that she was literally marching to her own drum: the show opened with the Lady’s never-before-heard track Government Hooker and closed with Born This Way.
“I was nervous, but I had to do it for Nicola and for Thierry Mugler, whom I love,” she told Alexander back stage. “I have been a fan of his designs since I was 18, and I used to search the vintage shops in New York for his clothes.”
Ahead of the show, the Bad Romance singer admitted that nerves had her on edge. “You have no idea how much respect I have for you and for all the models, which is why I’m so f****** nervous,” she reportedly told Formichetti before taking her first walk. “If I vomit on the stage, it will be good press.” (via Sky News)
(More on TIME.com: Check out highlights from Gaga’s new video “Born This Way”)