The O-town Scene

Gaga taps her inner Wonka for holiday workshop NEW YORK (AP) _ For the grand opening of Gaga's Workshop, it seemed as if Lady Gaga chartered a sleigh, picked up Santa Claus and Willy Wonka along the way and landed Monday night at Barneys New York flagship on Madison Avenue. The Workshop is the retailer's in-store holiday shop, conceived, de- signed and christened by Lady Gaga _ 5,500 square feet of bright colors, crazy shapes and a gigantic cartoon statue of the superstar herself in a pinup pose surrounded by jagged mirrors and sitting atop thousands of black plastic discs. From the street, passers-by get a hint of what's taken over the fifth floor of the store since Gaga and stylist Nicola Formichetti also created the seasonal window displays, always an attraction during the holidays, but the crowds typically don't start building hours before the unveiling as they did on Monday. To keep them entertained, a troupe of clowns-turned-carolers sang some of Gaga's signature songs, including "The Edge of Glory" and "Born This Way." "It's a 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' moment," Gaga said. "We wanted it all to be whimsical and fun, with a sense of art and fashion." She doesn't have time to do much holiday shopping anymore, she explained, but Christ- mas was a special time in her "traditional Ital- ian house," where the smell of food cooking all day is one of her fondest childhood memories. As for gifts, her favorite as a teenager was a ticket to see a Tory Amos concert. She pointed out at Barneys the hair bows at- tached to headbands, iPhone and iPad covers and stiletto-heel holiday stockings as potential hits for her fans. It was, however, the composi- tion notebooks splashed with her logo that she'd put at the top of the list. "I hope they'll be given as gifts this year," she said. Gaga had many elves for this project, including Formichetti, whom she called the "art director" for it all. He oversaw the day-to-day development of decor and products _ each one exclusive. "This was very personal and very emotional for us," said Formichetti, who also helps design Gaga's concert costumes and personal ward- robe. Laygirl Fashion |by Emily Popek A fortune can be made selling vintage If I could have a different career _ well, I'm not even sure this constitutes a career _ it would be selling vintage clothes online. Let's get one thing straight _ I love shop- ping, period. Just love it. But most of all, I love bargains. I LOOOVE getting a cute, high-quality or quirky piece of clothing for pennies on the dollar, much more so than I've ever enjoyed buying something at full retail price. It's a sickness of sorts, but one that enables me to indulge my shopping lust without breaking the bank. Gaga's mother, Cynthia Germanotta, also was very involved, sharing memories with artists Eli Sudbrack and Christophe Hamaide Pierson and Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman. Items for sale _ ranging from studded leather motorcycle jackets for infants to Gaga- on-a-motorcycle ornaments _ purposely run the gamut of price and aim to appeal to many ages. "I wanted it to be a wide spectrum," Gaga said. In the candy shop section there are cookies shaped like little monsters (Gaga's affectionate term for her fans) and rock candy necklaces, while inside the boudoir, sort of a tent shaped like a wig, there are hair bows and hologram- effect nail polishes. For toys, there are plush monsters riding a train, and the jewelry store has chunky necklaces and bracelets from Erick- son Beamon and Pamela Love. Underneath an oversized, archlike spider, shoppers can get $4,000 heel-less booties or $50 heart-shaped sunglasses. There are spe- cial editions of Roald Dahl's aforementioned "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as well as "James and the Giant Peach" and "Matilda." Gaga said it was important for the Work- shop to have a charitable aspect, too, so for each product bought from the Workshop or online, 25 percent of the sale will be donated to Gaga's anti-bullying Born This Way Foun- dation. As for Gaga's wish list, her gifts have been taken care of. Noting her custom-made ivory gown _ and all its trimmings _ by Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, she said, "Christmas came early. Christmas is today." Gaga's Workshop is open through Jan. 2. Nov. 23, 2011 O-Town Scene 5 But as anyone who shops secondhand knows, it's not all fun and games. Unlike retail shopping, where you can generally get your pick of sizes, prints and colors, at the thrift store or garage sale, you take what you can get. My heart's been broken so many times by fantastic shoes, dresses, tops and coats that I've had to leave behind because they aren't my size. Or, worse yet, I've bought those too-big or too-small garments with the feverish hope that I can "make it work" somehow, only to admit months later that it just is NOT working, and never will. I've started numbing the pain a little bit by selling some of those items that didn't work out to local consignment stores. This helps put a few dollars back in my pocket, but it's not really a money-maker unless I got the item for pennies in the first place. (Which, at some local rummage sales, is entirely possible.) But on a website such as Etsy, I could sell these not-right-for-me garments for three or four times what I paid for them. For the uninitiated, Etsy is an online retailer where individuals can sell their handmade, vintage or craft supply items. And boy, are there some awesome vintage shops on there! Every dreamy hour I've spent gazing on the spectacular finds of some other fashion diva has been punctuated by exclamations of "I saw a coat just like that at Salvation Army for $2 last week! And she's selling it for $40!" So I dream about how awesome it would be to BUY ALL OF THE THINGS that I think are beautiful, quality or just too amazing to pass up, and make money selling them to people who love them. But for now, it's just a dream. Emily F. Popek still re- grets not buying that vin- tage yellow leather pencil skirt that was just a bit too tight. She is also assistant editor at The Daily Star.

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