This is how Lady Gaga became Patrizia Reggiani, Gucci's ‘black widow’ (Photos)
The singer plays the Italian, accused of murdering her ex-husband, in 'Gucci House', Ridley Scott's film that tells the drama of one of the most powerful families in the fashion industry.
Since Lady Gaga shared on her Instagram account the first image of her as 'Mrs. Gucci' back in March, her expectation to see her turned from head to toe into the dark Patrizia Reggiani has been in crescendo. The interpreter of global hits such as Bad Romance or Poker Face gives life in La casa Gucci, the film by Ridley Scott that narrates the drama that occurred in the bosom of one of the most powerful families in Italy, which was nicknamed as' black widow 'of fashion after ordering the murder of her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, in 1995. Accompanied by stars of the stature of Adam Driver (who plays Maurizio), Jared Leto (Paolo Gucci) or Salma Hayek (Pina Auriemma), the artist , who was already nominated for an Oscar for best actress in 2018 for her leading role in A Star is Born, faces her second major film role characterized by the glamor and eccentricity of Reggiani.
Very large sunglasses, gold jewelry equally generous in number and proportions and a good assortment of tight garments signed by Gucci make up Lady Gaga's uniform in her role as 'Lady Gucci'. This was precisely how the widow of the grandson of the founder of the Italian house with whom he married in 1973 was called. Based on the book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamor and Greed ('La Casa Gucci : A sensational story of murders, madness, glamor and greed '), Scott's film, which will be released in Spain on November 26, recovers a story of love and power that ended in disgrace. Under Reggiani's orders, a hitman killed Maurizio Gucci, who was already his ex-husband at the time, firing four shots at point-blank range at the door of his home in Milan in 1995. A couple of years later his involvement was discovered in the crime being sentenced to 26 years in prison, although she was finally released in 2013. She spent a total of 16 years in jail, the last two of her own free will after rejecting parole, claiming that she had never worked and was not among his plans to start doing it.
Despite the fact that the end of the story is already known worldwide and copied rivers of ink in the newspapers of the time, La casa Gucci delves into the years before the fatal outcome: the love story of Maurizio and Patrizia and the intense family conflicts that ended with the loss of control of the firm by the founding family. "When Patrizia meets Maurizio Gucci, the attraction is very strong", confesses Lady Gaga herself in the video that can be seen at the beginning of this article. "She's so exotic and so far from her world that she falls in love with her," adds Adam Driver, who plays her husband. "And in the end she goes too far and crosses the threshold of madness," anticipates the director of the film, Ridley Scott.
The wardrobe, without a doubt, is another of the great protagonists. The Oscar-winning British costume designer Janty Yates was able to visit the archive of the Italian house - "the original looks fit Lady Gaga like a glove", she assured - and also found pieces of the time in vintage stores and even on platforms such as eBay or Etsy . "The film covers a period of twenty years - from 1975 to 1995 - in which fashion totally changed and that had to be reflected in the clothes of Lady Gaga, Adam Driver or Jared Leto. Of course, I put the focus on the stars, but I also had to dress a casting of 80 people in total plus the extras, "the costume director told The New York Times.
To prepare for the role, Lady Gaga, who was born in New York but has Italian ancestry as her last name - Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - attests, spent nine months speaking English with an Italian accent even when she was off set. "She told me she wanted to dress like her mother, who is Italian, so I had designs from her own collection and from the Gucci archive. Jewelry, for example, was very important. We put two necklaces here, four bracelets there. .. we use tons of accessories ", explained Yates who, in total, devised 54 different looks for the artist in which not a single earring was repeated. The inspiration? "We didn't want her to look like a Joan Collins in Dynasty, but more like a Gina Lollobrigida." Here is a preview of some of those outfits that we can see on the big screen on November 26.
