By: Mary Grace Donaldson
Posted In: Entertainment
Photo credit: MCT Campus
Lady GaGa shows off her crazy fashion sense at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, January 31, 2010.
According to national surveys, Halloween costume buyers are ga-ga for GaGa.
The results of a National Retail Federation survey reproduced by thirdage.com state that “the Lady Gaga costume in many different forms is one of the more popular costumes people are seeking out.” Yahoo! search results, also reproduced by thirdage.com, reveal that GaGa is the most searched for celebrity-themed costume. People aren’t just putting together their GaGa outfits, but sites such as spirithalloween.com are selling replicas of GaGa outfits right out of her music videos for $49.99. Salve students, on the whole, are not a representative sample of Americans in search for the perfect GaGa getup. While most consider themselves GaGa fans, they don’t share the same sentiment on the idea of a GaGa costume. “She kind of wears costumes in all her videos,” said sophomore Megan Mowery. Mowery and her friend, Stephanie Neototistos, also a sophomore, had no idea that GaGa was being rated as the most popular costume for the night of thrills and chills. Freshmen Katie Agati, Meagan Anthony and Bridgett Smith were not aware of, in the words of thirdage.com, how “Lady Gaga will be in many places at once this Halloween.” “I think it’s funny,” Agati said of the GaGa getups. “It will be very inappropriate at the same time.” All three, while not interested in dressing as GaGa, consider themselves fans. “I love her, and I love Ke$ha,” Agati said. “Crazy blondes!” All three students also agreed that the whole point of GaGa is to not need to buy a costume but rather to create it. Samantha LoPinto, Laurent Melvin and Chelsea Morelli, also freshmen, were not aware of just how much GaGa costumes are flying off store shelves, but knew of someone who is planning on joining the Halloween edition of the Monster Ball. When asked about GaGa costumes just being a passing fad, Melvin said that Halloween costumes always tend to follow the trends. GaGa, in spite of her imaginative outfits, was not an imaginative choice for a Halloween costume. LoPinto added that GaGa is popular with people who tend to wear “crazy outfits.” When informed that GaGa costumes were going for $49.99 on sites such as spirithalloween.com, LoPinto said that “all costumes are overpriced, but for Lady GaGa, you could probably make it [the costume] yourself.” Sophomore Austin Schwarz shook his head when asked his opinion on GaGa as a Halloween costume. He said that he didn’t know GaGa was such a popular trend with college-age people, and “fortunately” didn’t know anyone engaging in a bad romance this Halloween. He said that people could be more imaginative with their outfits, and shook his head for a second time when asked if he was a fan of GaGa otherwise. Global Café worker Shirley Rose considers herself a big fan of GaGa. However, Rose couldn’t believe that people are spending $49.99 on GaGa costumes when they could just as easily be homemade. “I wonder how many Lady GaGas are going to be running around my neighborhood this Halloween,” Rose said.
