An education in culture, courtesy of Lady Gaga

In her first column for V magazine, Lady Gaga wrote, “Any writer, or anyone for that matter, who doesn’t understand the last two sentences of this column should NEVER be writing about or critiquing fashion or artists in publication.”

Here are those last two sentences (if we’re being technical, it’s actually three): “After weeks of writing this article, I ask out loud, ‘What do you think YSL would think of my metaphor about his collection?’ My darling hair designer, Frederic, replied, ‘You could ask Nan Kempner, but she’s dead.’ Now there’s a queen who never left home without her library card.”

I too am a queen who never leaves home without my library card, but up until writing this article, I had never heard of Nan Kempner. Good thing I don’t consider myself a writer or a critic; I’m just a word vomiter and a bitch. So sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think I’ll be resigning.

For all of you who aren’t snobby fashion savants, Nan Kempner was an iconic New York socialite with a penchant for couture, particularly YSL. Diana Vreeland, a former Vogue editor, once said, “There are no chic women in America. The one exception is Nan Kempner.” I’m sure Lady Gaga has an affinity for the late society queen, who, as a child, was told by her father, “You’ll never make it on your face, so you’d better be interesting.”

Words, evidently, that Gaga lives by.

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