Lady Gaga's Meat Dress: Offensive Or Awesome and Is It REAL?

Lady Gaga's meat dress was by far the most outrageous fashion moment of the 2010 Video Music Awards last night. It was her third and final outfit change of the night (she wore it to accept her Moonman for Video Of The Year), and definitely the most insane. But the bigger question is — was Lady Gaga's meat dress real?

The answer is YES.

The designer behind the dress is Franc Fernandez. And when we chatted with him this morning, he told us: "The dress is indeed real meat from my family butcher. Glad it went so well." Franc Fernandez showed off how he created the look on his blog this morning, and it's a work of art. (Lady Gaga's stylist, Nicola Formichetti, was the one who styled the look.)

So why meat? It's symbolic ...

On why Lady Gaga chose a meat dress, she told Ellen DeGeneres that it was a symbolic choice: "Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth. However, it has many interpretations, but for me this evening ... If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And I am not a piece of meat."