Lady Gaga, V magazine's guest editor this month, created 16 covers for the spring preview issue. Some feature Karl Lagerfeld, Hedi Slimane, and Daphne Guinness—all stunning and shot by top photographers. But her most provocative is just a selfie of her and fiancé Taylor Kinney, taken in front of a mirror. More specifically, it's a post-sex-on-a-canvas selfie:
There's a deep meaning to the image, Gaga explains in an editor's letter. "Since we first met, Taylor's been drawing and painting all over me. Years ago, when we were secretly living in San Diego and crashing on the floor of a beach shack, we never wore shoes. He told me he wanted to make love to me on a canvas." That fantasy wasn't fulfilled until now—for art and charity. As Gaga details:
I asked [Taylor] to collaborate with me on a project to raise money and awareness about mental illness, [and] he immediately brought my attention back to this idea…We made love on the canvas on a Sunday in Chicago. We made love amidst chaos. We talked about shootings. We made love amidst terrorism. And we talked about how people's hearts are also suffering all over the world as they watch and witness a swell of violence. We made love amidst violence.
This issue overall is about "people coming together to express a passion for art and fashion, to really 'go there' to make a great statement and to change things," Gaga writes in a separate letter online—and this clearly sets the tone.
All sales from the cover ($50) go to the singer's Born This Way Foundation. Preorder it now, ahead of its January 14 release, at vmagazineshop.com.
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Alyssa Bailey is the news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
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