Vegetarians, beware: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is serving up one very famous -- and controversial -- meat dress worn by Lady Gaga at the MTV Music Awards last fall.
The item is part of a new Women Who Rock exhibit at the Cleveland museum. Gaga went from rocking a rack of meat to having it preserved for the ages. Literally. The hand-sewn meat dress is now more of a beef jerky dress. Let us explain.
The Argentinean slabs of tartare may have been barbeque-ready when Gaga put them on last September. The singer modeled the dress when she accepted the Best Video of the Year, "Bad Romance," wearing it to proclaim, as she put it, "I am not a piece of meat." But let's face it: The freshness date of the frock -- and matching meat boots -- have long since passed.
A post on NPR explains the process for preserving the meat dress: The edible fashion statement "was kept in a meat locker, placed in a vat of chemicals and then dried out by taxidermists in California before being transported to the museum." Just one problem. It looked like a bunch of beef jerky -- which doesn't exactly pack the same punch.
To create a raw beef look, the jerky was painted over to appear fresh. That process took several months. So now, hopefully, the dress seen round the world won't be smelled round the world. Delicious.
[Photo credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]