In pictures: Lady Gaga and how she shapes fashion to life

Singer-actress Lady Gaga has been known for her stop-in-your-track looks over the course of her career. However, she was not always as confident, she said recently, as she explained how exploring with beauty has become a “healing practice” for her.

“It has been a healing practice for me since I was really young. I was incredibly insecure when I was a teenager, and when I graduated from high school and went off on my own, I discovered that makeup had the power to transform who I was,” she told E! News.

“I realised that I had more of an ability to speak up for myself. And it had more to do with how I felt and not how I looked. I always say that because I think everybody’s makeup style is unique to them. With Haus Labs, I want people to know this is not about trying to look like me. This is about looking like you.”

Lada Gaga made her 2010 VMAs entrance in a regal gown from late friend and designer Alexander McQueen’s line. She accessorised it with a feathered headpiece and even had uniformed guards to complete the look of royalty.

Lady Gaga credited raw meat VMA ensemble with a deeper political meaning. “If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights pretty soon, we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones,” the singer said on Ellen. “And I am not a piece of meat.” Was it comfortable? “She said it was her most comfortable dress of the night,” Franc Fernandez, its creator, told MTV.com. “I’m guessing it weighed around forty pounds. It’s built on a corset, so the weight is distributed on her chest.”

Is it a hat? Is it her hair? Is it a button? Looks like it was all three rolled in one. Japanese designer Nagi Noda designed the singer’s face-shielding button hat, which she wore with waist-length extensions and a bold-shouldered jacket and, as usual, had heads turning.

Gaga once wore a Muppet-covered Jean-Charles de Castelbajac creation with a matching headband. “I dress this way all the time because it inspires my life,” she said during an interview. “I dress this way because my whole life is art and my whole life is performance.” She also said: “I really loved this one in particular because I thought it was a commentary on not wearing fur, ’cause I hate fur and I don’t wear fur.” Kermit the frog reciprocated the gesture by escorting the singer to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.