I have to admit, I am not the biggest Lady Gaga fan. While I can enjoy a round of Bad Romance on the dancefloor, the Lady has definitely reached media oversaturation, giving out a fair amount of inane quotable quotes along the way. Having seen her perform in her early days at one of my parties at Marquee, I can also say that stylewise, she is very much indebted to Nicola Formichetti. Trash talking aside, I do appreciate Formichetti's hand in Stefani Germanotta's remarkable transformation, and while there have definitely been highs and lows, one element that's remained consistently good are Gaga's manicures.
Gaga's nails are the work of New York based nail artist Naomi Yasuda, who has a long list of celebrity fans, but still makes time to do house visits. While Yasuda's rates aren't above the average ones you'll find for a Japanese 3-D manicure, blinging out your nails with bejeweled tips on a weekly basis is financially impossible for most of the ladies I know, myself included. Thankfully, Yasuda has come up with several ways to make her one-of-a-kind nails more accessible to the public with several collaborations. First, she created a series of stone, gem, and chain encrusted press-on nails with artificial nail manufacturer Kiss, selling for $45 a set. Second, Yasuda collaborated with Minx to create 2-D gold and silver graphic nail stickers, which are $35 for a pack. Lastly, for the hardcore nail fanatics, Yasuda created a limited edition of hand-cut and crafted nail sets, which were filed into crazy shapes and loaded with nail charms and stones. Only 30 pairs were made, and each pair costs $225. Of course, all of the nail sets will be available exclusively at the Barney's x Gaga workshop.
-Tiffany