Holly goes Gaga for dress success

Lady Gaga wore Holly Russell's Blue Jewel Beetle to the Billboard event Enlarge Image

A young designer has gone from award winner to diva dresser after getting her creation onto a pop superstar.

Holly Russell's flamboyant design, which uses beetle wings and human hair, was worn by Lady Gaga at the recent Billboard's Women in Music event.

Holly, who won the Best Of Manchester Fashion Awards in July, says it was "never intended to be wearable".

However, she admits that someone "with as much personality and presence as Lady Gaga pulled it off effortlessly."

The dress the Poker Face singer wore is called 'The Blue Jewel Beetle' and is part of a collection of six outfits inspired by textures and colours found within the natural world.

It incorporates both a mass of human hair and over 1000 beetle wings, which Holly says were used to "play on the animalistic nature of the garment" and "create a reptile like texture".

The Manchester Metropolitan University graduate had to go to a special effort to get both unusual materials, though she explains that one was a much more local shopping trip than the other.

There really are no limits of design when it comes to someone like her. Holly Russell on dressing Lady Gaga

"I sourced the hair from Paul's Hair World and Hair Express on Oldham Street. They definitely thought I was mad with the amount of wigs and hair I bought off them in the space of a few months.

"I imported the beetle wings from Thailand, where the wings are simply a by-product of the food chain."

For Holly, it has been a case of success breeding success, as she says it was her win at the Best of Manchester Awards that led to her chance to dress Lady Gaga.

"The images that I originally sent off to Nicola Formichetti [Lady Gaga's stylist] were taken of my pieces hanging at the Urbis, so I think I have a lot to thank the Urbis for.

"The way in which they displayed my work was perfect, it gave each piece such importance and presence.

"[As a result] Nicola got in contact and asked if my collection could be flown out to New York for Lady Gaga."

Holly won the Best of Manchester Fashion Award at Urbis in July

And Lady Gaga wearing her dress may not be a one-off, as she says that she has spoken to Nicola "about creating a commissioned outfit for her, which I would love to do, as there really are no limits of design when it comes to someone like her."

In the meantime, the 22 year old is concentrating on her own fashion ambitions, though she says she's not getting carried away by her achievements so far.

"I am under no illusion that just because I have received press attention from this collection that I am now ready to start my own label.

"So many young designers do this and fail because they don't understand how a business functions and I don't want to do the same.

"In the future I would like to set up my own label but for now, I need industry experience to help me understand how these fashion houses work, so that when the time comes, I know what I'm getting myself into."