Ihave to start o by saying thank you to everyone who has supported Flawz from day one. My vision and the vision of my team, would of not been possible if it wasn’t for you all. The love for each issue, the support, the feed back, and your patience with me in the begin ning has not gone unnoticed. From all of us at Flawz, we thank you!
We made it to our 10th issue! Flawz continues to im press me with its growth as a magazine. I'm going to tell you all something, I never thought this magazine was ever going to happen. It wasn’t that i didn’t have faith in myself… It was that I just thought this was never going to catch on, or come to fruition. Anyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about fashion, art and creativity, so creating a magazine that stood by my passion seemed like a given, but the execution seemed to be out of my reach. I knew one way or anotehr this maga zine had to happen no matter what! After 9 amazing, groundbreaking, black women empowering, black men empowering, LGBTQIA+ empowering and body positivity empowering issues later, we have reached issue 10. Who else to round out our 10th issue then a women who my entire team is inspired by… Lady GAGA!
“I was born this way”, out of all of her albums, Born this Way, has to be the album that touched me the most. BTW came as a cultural phenomenon. The impact this album left on us (the LGBTQIA+) community and a generation as a whole is unmatched. She referred to this album as being a “fantasy, techno rock” experi ence, which when you hear the entire album, it really is. The album, gave me a sense of, “B**ch no one can come for me”, kind of vibe. It also was such a gay ideol ogy album. From the cover of the album “Born this Way” to “Government Hooker”, a song based o of, “conforming to fit in or fighting for yours and others lib eration. There are also songs like “Hair”, “Marry the Night” and “You and I”, which spoke to me on such a deeper level. But no song has touched us more than Born this Way. The line “God makes no mistakes”, anni hilates any judgment or prejudice right o the bat. It puts hope and something that is much greater inside of us. We define beauty for ourselves. The public does not defined it for you, neither does a religion. Gaga really stood up for us with this album but not only for the LGBTQIA+ community, but also for social justice.
Her platform and her voice rings higher then artist, simply because she’s come out and support you. Yes I am here for you. Yes I am In a way, I feel this magazine is the same Way. My team and I are celebrating the being free to love fashion and art and to akways for equality as wel las being yourself, for who in every way.
The future of flawz is bright! We have only when it comes to Flawz. We are dedicated you new creative editorials. Expanding family and bringing you more exciting concepts. always, I want to thank my team for another issue. I'm looking forward to what’s next. Stay
then any other and said, “Yes I am one of you”. as Born this liberation of akways strive who you are only just begun dedicated to bringing Expanding our Flawz concepts. As another amazing Stay tuned.
J’ADORE RA RONIN FOUNDER + EDITOR IN CHIEF
Here it is. THE 10TH ISSUE FLAWZ MAGAZINE! We have come so far in celebrating the talents and creations of our Second Life artists and designers. As Summer begins to wane and the season of Fall returns once again I am re minded of how far we’ve come in the past 4 years of this publication. Flawz has always celebrated diversity in both real life and Second Life and through all of that we have always celebrated fashion and individuality. It is one of the most gratifying elements of my time at Flawz to see how our models and designers are still so loved by our audience and remain a key presence in the magazine’s pages and on covers. There was a point in fashion both in real life and on Second Life when it didn’t matter how successful you’d been, once your reputation takes a hit and your your sell-by-date was up, it was over. I don’t stand for that and lots of others don’t either now. With Second Life it allows us to reinvent ourselves and to change our looks on a whim and to constantly improve ourselves.
With this issue we wanted to get back to our roots and cele brate the music and fashion icon Lady Gaga and her fash ion renaissance throughout the years, since the beginning of her career. Each of our participants have chosen an era of Lady Gaga’s fashions coinciding with her album releases that best represents themselves and their artistry, and what that era of Gaga fashion and design means to them.
To our readers, I want to personally thank you all for the love and support of Flawz Magazine and its artist and design ers. I am constantly awestruck on the amount of support Flawz receives in both real life and on Second Life. Second Life as a platform is all about the celebration of diversity without judgement or persecution from others. This issue is a love letter to you. I hope you enjoy reading this issue as it has been so much fun creating it. As always I want to thank our incredible artists and creators for participating in this issue. You are true talents in your craft. Thank you so much I can’t wait to see you again for our next issue!
The year was 2008, and I remember a specific moment when I was 14 years old, being in my room on a weekend. As I was folding my clothes after just doing laundry, I had MTV playing on my televi sion in the background. All of a sudden, a song starts playing with strong synthesizer beats and I can’t help but gaze at my tv at the sound. I’m then awestruck to see a lady with platinum blonde hair grab the mic and start singing in what appears to be a house party full of wasted people. The song was Just Dance, and I was instantly hooked from the catchiness of the song, to the fashion and dance moves being displayed on my screen. I had never heard pop music quite like that.
Lady Gaga is someone who has inspired many people, myself in cluded. I think what’s interesting with Gaga is that, very few artists are able to captivate an audience on the merit of music and fashion combined. It's usually one or the other, but Gaga manages to go through both so seamlessly and with such precision. Through the last 14 years or so that Lady Gaga has evolved in her career, I’ve been keeping a close watch, constantly seeing what the next move will be as far as style/trends, and what the next sound will be soni cally. For this issue of Flawz, we wanted to pay tribute to the Lady herself, who has inspired us in so many ways, such as to think out side the box and to be fearless in our own self expression. She is truly an icon of our generation, a LGBTQIA+ activist and trendsetter in fashion, music and pop culture.
Also, this is our 10th issue!!! What an incredible milestone to have reached with you, our dear readers, and also our amazing photog raphers and creators who have helped us make it this far. You’ve been walking this journey of fashion, creativity, innovation and world of virtual editorial publication, with us. I’m excited for what the future has in store for us.
It’s no secret to anyone that I’m a huge Lady Gaga fan. I remember hearing “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” for the first time on the radio, then “Paparazzi”, “Bad Romance”. Her music helped me so much through the years. “Marry The Night” literally saved me from taking my own life Growing up queer in a very homophobic community was not an easy task. Being 12 and seeing “The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden” for the first time on TV lit erally blew my mind. Lady in a bright yellow wig with nu merous astonishing costumes singing the songs I love so much and screaming about equality and gay rights – that was the acceptance and liberation I truly needed at the time. Her music and crazy outfits used to be the ray of light in the complete darkness I was in.
I remember coming back from school to check for her new performances and pictures of her in crazy outfits. It used to give me so much life. And it still does. Lady Gaga influenced me so much: my love for makeup, wigs, fashion, etc. But most of all Mother Monster taught me that it’s okay to be “di erent”. It’s okay to be you and love what you do, re gardless of what others say. Because I was Born This Way. And for that I’m forever grateful. In this issue we are cele brating the icon and trailblazer who never fails to surprise and inspire, a woman of many faces and talents. Someone who’s bold choices made her one of the most memorable people in the pop industry. It’s all about Gaga.
I’m so happy to kick things o ! We begin with Gaga’s first era. The era that solidified her status as a pop girl that would be here to stay, the legendary Fame era. I decided to create three pieces from this time that really impacted me in terms of fashion. Beautiful Dity Rich, Poker Face and Paparazzi were the music videos that really stood out to me with this era.
What I love about Maya is that she isn’t afraid to incorporate her real-life self into her art. For the Fame Monster era, Maya dressed herself up in Gaga drag and did an amazing job channeling that Monster Ball era Gaga we all loved back in 2010.
Born this Way is a era that is very be loved in the fandom of Little Monsters, and Evil created a series of captivating looks from this era.
J’adore
Hoseok
Artpop was an era in Lady Gaga’s career that many were not ready for. It was an experimenta tion of di erent sounds and artistry that only her true fans knew. Artpop was the definition of avant-garde and molding it into pop culture.
While it was ahead of its time in terms of its sound it served as one of the most creative and fluid albums of Lady Gaga’s career. To me it is a representation of unconventional creativity and style with the flair that only Lady Gaga can produce. With this spread I wanted to showcase elements and inspired looks from personally on of my most favorite eras!
Carolina is very skilled. She took the Joanne era and really captured the essence of it when it comes to fashion and even elevated it.
Joanne was one of my favorite Gaga albums because of the veer from the “signature” sound into more Americana themes. It was simple and personal but still made a statement, which I feel like my photos represent. Most of Gaga’s albums give us the avant garde and camp themes that we love but Joanne gave us what felt like a more bared view than we’d had at the time.
Danita makes her debut with Flawz for this issue and she really surprised us. She took the concepts of an alien world that Chromatica o ers and really made it her own with her editorials.
It is here that we’ve reached the end of Gaga’s era (for now). Chromatica has a special place in my heart and so for these lat pieces I wanted to create visuals for songs that I hadn’t done so in the past. These are my interpretations of Alice and Stupid Love.
We are beyond excited to have Aunty Murda join us on our 10th issue. Aunty Murda has been with us since the very beginning of Flawz Magazine and her evolution as an artist is simply out of this world. We have had the plea sure of seeing her skill improve and grow into what it has become. The series you are about to see is simply fantastic. Aunty Murda has been experimenting with 3D animation and the results speak for themselves.
