Lady Gaga’s ‘Mayhem Ball’ Tour: 8 Biggest Fashion References

The opening show for the U.S. leg of Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball tour in Las Vegas last week was, in true Gaga fashion, full of spectacle and depth. The concerts heralding Gaga’s latest album, Mayhem, are all about time-traveling into her own musical past. Leaning into this nostalgia-fueled cultural moment, Mother Monster stunned the audience on July 16 with deep cuts from her discography over the past 17 years—“Aura” (ARTPOP, 2013), “Million Reasons” (Joanne, 2017), even “Summerboy” (The Fame, 2008)—using fashion and music to chart her own career history. Her wardrobe revived aesthetic staples from her early days while foreshadowing new visions: she performed “Just Dance” in a punk-purple bodysuit reminiscent of her Monster Ball era, revived her iconic hair bow for “Bad Romance,” and wore a Wednesday Addams-inspired gown for “Zombie Boy” (nodding, of course, to her upcoming role on Netflix’s Wednesday). Styled by her own sister, Natali Germanotta of Topo Studio, and Hunter Clem, her looks pulled from a sprawl of references, yet translated as unmistakably Gaga.

The musician wrote Mayhem during a period of healing after a decade-long battle with physical and mental illness. The record is therefore as much a musical reckoning as it is a personal one, and the Mayhem Ball expands that concept, reclaiming the chaos she survived. Gaga’s Mayhem costumes are in dialogue with art history, film, and fashion, all of which have influenced her own work (think: McQueen and The Phantom of the Opera) while also folding in her own visual canon. Below, we’re diving into eight references Lady Gaga revealed during her Mayhem Ball shows last week—and how the self-referential turns into fashion mythology.

Mugler’s 1985 Lady Macbeth Costume

The show opens on an opera house-inspired set. Gaga emerges in a towering crimson gown structured like a steel cage, a velvet masterpiece designed by Samuel Lewis, Athena Lawton, and William Ramseur. She introduces herself as the “Mistress of Mayhem,” an alter ego that personifies her inner chaos. Midway through an orchestral rendition of “Bloody Mary,” a song about martyrdom and public worship, the skirt parts like curtains to reveal monsters inside its frame, trying to escape the multistoried structure engineered by Jet Sets.

With its leg-of-mutton sleeves, Elizabethan corseting, and flared shoulders, the look evokes Renaissance regalia—but the militaristic tailoring and silver pyramidal studs specifically nod to Thierry Mugler’s 1985 Lady Macbeth design. As a visual overture, it dramatizes the core tension of the show: the duality between public persona and private fracture, between control and inner chaos.

McQueen’s FW98 Joan

After performing “Garden of Eden,” a Mayhem fan favorite that recalls the syncopation of her early work, Gaga returns in head-to-toe black: a Gothic bob, mourning veil, leather boots, and sheer lingerie by Samuel Lewis. “Welcome to the opera house,” she screams. “This is my house.” A figure in white emerges—curled blonde wig, lace-shrouded face—an echo of her Fame Monster era.

This figure wears a dress referencing the red lace McQueen gown Gaga wore to the 2009 VMAs, where she accepted Best New Artist before bleeding on stage in her iconic “Paparazzi” performance. The original look came from McQueen’s fall 1998 collection Joan, which tracked Joan of Arc’s transformation from piety to martyrdom. By invoking this look, Gaga situates her early fame within the mythos of self-sacrifice.

McQueen’s SS05 It’s Only a Game

The confrontation between Gaga and her ghost of the past unfolds during “Poker Face,” as the stage transforms into a life-sized checkerboard, directly honoring McQueen’s spring 2005 collection It’s Only a Game. In the show, models move like chess pieces across an illuminated board, dressed in both militaristic American sportswear and Japanese kimonos.

Here, Gaga’s dancers form two opposing armies—black versus white—as the internal battle plays out through choreography. Just as McQueen explored fashion as psychological warfare, Gaga reimagines her past self as an opponent in a battle for sovereignty. The song ends with her shooting the double and yelling, “Off with her head!” as dancers drag the body away.

Mugler “Paparazzi” Crutches

Act II, titled “And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream,” opens with Gaga now embodying the ghost she just destroyed. In platinum curls and a glowing white gown, she sings “Disease” and “Perfect Celebrity,” revisiting the Gothic dreamscape of her past while fighting off skeletal dancers representing inner demons. After the latter, her dancers hand her a pair of chrome crutches.

Gaga, barefoot in a glowing white gown, hobbles down the runway, restaging the iconic crutches and chrome armor from her original “Paparazzi” video. But the symbol has evolved. In 2008, the crutches signified sacrifice for fame; now, they evoke survival—physical and emotional—after more than a decade struggling with health beneath her public guise.

McQueen’s FW03 Scanners

Her white dress billows down the length of the runway, glowing in rainbow colors, as she fights to get to the end of the runway and finish the song, eerily mirroring the finale of McQueen’s fall 2003 collection Scanners, which explored psychic breakdown and emotional volatility. In its final tableau, a model in a white cape stood inside a glass box as artificial snow and wind raged around her, symbolizing resilience in the face of disintegration.

McQueen’s image symbolized psychic collapse and defiant stillness; Gaga’s echo of it becomes a metaphor for her own fight for survival under the public eye. This is no longer Gaga bleeding for applause—this is Gaga breathing through the weight of it all.

Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Tour

In Act III, “To Wake Her Is to Lose Her,” Gaga pays homage to one of her most formative influences: Michael Jackson. During “Shadow of a Man,” she draws not only sonic inspiration—echoes of “Bad” and “Thriller” abound—but visual cues from Jackson’s performance legacy.

She appears in a custom Louis Verdad military-style tailcoat with silver embellishments like crystal cross appliqués. The tailoring is razor-sharp, cinched at the waist, flaring into a double tailcoat that trails behind her like a ghost—a perfect embodiment of the track’s spectral tone.

The symbolism is layered: the silhouette recalls Jackson’s Dangerous tour, and the arm band nods to his uniforms. The parallel is clear: this is another artist who also blurred the boundaries between persona, performance, and pain.

The Phantom of the Opera

In Act IV, “Every Chessboard Has Two Queens,” one of the show’s most cinematic moments unfolds. Gaga appears in a sheer black hooded cloak, reminiscent of the Phantom’s, and boards a boat that glides down a river-like runway. Seated across from her is the Mistress of Mayhem—now not an enemy, but a guide.

Like the Phantom, she raises a melting candelabra mask to conceal her face as she sings to the Mistress of Mayhem, who dons the costume Gaga wore when opening the show.

Self-Mythology

She follows with “Vanish into You,” an operatic Mayhem ballad, and “Million Reasons,” both reframed as pleas not to a lover, but to fragmented parts of herself. The Mistress figure rises once more, ascending atop the same crimson cage skirt from the show’s opening. In returning to this costume, Gaga closes the loop—not by conquering her chaos, but by learning to move through it.