Pitt students want Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’

Lady Gaga wasn’t the only person who showed up to her concert sporting outrageous duds: many… Lady Gaga wasn’t the only person who showed up to her concert sporting outrageous duds: many Pittsburghers donned their own eye-grabbing ensembles, Gaga-style.

Pitt junior Megan Piplica found out a week ago that her friend had extra tickets to the diva’s concert, and she began quickly crafting a costume modeled after several of the songstresses’ look.

Piplica was among hundreds of Lady Gaga’s “little monsters” — the name the singer has bequeathed to her fans — who dressed up in full Gaga gear for the concert at the Consol Energy Center Sunday.

“Some of the other little monsters were out there planning a lot harder and longer than I was,” she said, adding that part of her research was Googling outfits other fans had prepared.

Piplica, choosing to go the homemade route, ventured to Goodwill to find components for her costume. None of her purchases were safe from scissors. She cut up a black dress to make a leotard and used leftover fabric for a bow. Part of her handcrafted costume also included a deep yellow, shoulder-padded jacket. She said that it was reminiscent of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” video.

“I’m hoping there’s going to be a lot of other people dressed up with me, and we can bond over our love of Gaga,” Piplica said before going to the show.

In the city that fostered one of Lady Gaga’s icons, Andy Warhol, it seems more than just fans  got dolled up with Piplica for the event. The Art Institute of Pittsburgh got its Gaga on by outfitting their giant Creation Rex like the diva, creating a “Gaga-saurus Rex.”

Fans didn’t just bring costumes to emulate the superstar — they brought her often complicated dance moves as well. Piplica admitted to knowing the dances for “Bad Romance” and “Alejandro” and planned to bust out her moves when the time came. She also wasn’t afraid to break out her “Gaga claws” as Piplica called them — the “Thriller”-like claw-hands that the singer includes in some of her choreography.

“I love my Gaga,” she said, detailing the Gaga-themed party that included “disco stick kabobs,” “bluffin’ with my mixed berry muffins” and “pasta-razzi” that she and friends threw for the Glee episode featuring the singer.

And a vast number of people — young, old, male and female — who came out to see Lady Gaga belt out her chart-topping hits share Piplica’s enthusiam.

Among the line dwellers who arrived early for the big event were some spectacular Gaga impersonators. A young girl outfitted herself in the infamous red lace, literally head-to-toe ensemble, complete with crown, that the singer wore to the 2009 VMAs. An older man sported a black and silver apparatus that poked out from the shoulder of his suit jacket in daring spikes, along with a super-high pair of silver platform shoes.

Steven Sims, of Cleveland, had previously attended five Lady Gaga concerts, sometimes traveling as far as five or six hours outside of his city to see her.

Sims sported a translucent, mauve bodysuit that shimmered in the sunlight. He wore an illuminated black cross stitched to his chest and a mask crowned with lights and rhinestones and topped off with a spray of feathers.

“I’m going to be right up front, and I want her to notice me,” he said.

It’s Sims’ special bond with the star’s outlandish antics and bold artistic statements that makes Lady Gaga such a big part of his life.

“I feel like I’ve been set free. I don’t worry about what people think about me anymore. I know I’m a rock star. I was born that way, and that’s the connection I get with her,” he said.

Another devoted fan, who wore a giant silver chain and caution tape crossing on his chest, explained that he’s been a fan “since the beginning of Gaga.” He wielded a sign that proclaimed, “We want your Bad Romance Gaga!”

“I think she’s a genius,” he said, “I really think she’s an icon for sure, and I think she’s going to go down in history.”

Much like KFC and Coca-Cola, Lady Gaga seems to have her own coveted secret recipe, but hers is for writing pop music that’s overwhelmingly catchy. And Pittsburghers were all too excited to belt it right along with her.

As for the dressing up and the ready theatricality of Pittsburgh’s “little monsters,” Piplica explained that it’s just a way to make the show that much more entertaining.

“It’s not just the concert, it’s the experience … I’m prepared to sing every lyric and scream my head off,” she said.