Franc Fernandez

Franc Fernandez, full name Francisco C. Fernandez, is an Argentinian artist, fashion designer, and creative director based in Los Angeles and New York. His most well-known work is his meat dress design for Lady Gaga, but has also worked with several different artists.

Early life and education Fernandez was born on April 12, 1986, and "grew up in a close-knit Argentine household." He was born in Argentina and lived there until moving to Sylmar in San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles at age eight. In early high school, Fernandez began to go by "Franc" to increase his chances of getting a job. Despite designing clothes, Fernandez did not ever go to fashion school. His hats garnered him attention, and he began to receive requests from stylists for custom pieces.

Once he started working with Nicola Formichetti, Fernandez's career began to take off. He stated that he "contacted Nicola a while back showing him" his work by email and was later contacted by Formichetti to work with him and Lady Gaga. He did the styling for Scissor Sisters' UK arena tour. He also directed the music video for Sam Sparro's "Pink Cloud", using influence from technology and the internet to produce a video best viewed on an iPhone, mimicking the device's scrolling and swiping motions.

In 2022, Fernandez now works as a creative director for Original Creative Agency LLC. He describes his job now as "referencing" as he compares his visions to images. If he can't find an image, he sketches them out.

In 2010, he was approached by Gaga's stylist Nicola Formichetti about creating a meat purse for Gaga for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Fernandez agreed and suggested they should make a dress and shoes out of cuts of raw beef to match. Fernandez purchased about 40 pounds of the Argentinian beef and sprinkled salt on it to drain any leftover liquid. He and his collaborative assistant Lyndsea LaMarr made up the design as they went along, seeing which cuts would best fit which areas, as "there is not much plan [sic] you can do with such an organic material." They used a strong nylon thread to sew the meat together. He also worked with Brandon Maxwell, one of Gaga's stylists, to sew the meat despite being vegan. Fernandez transported the dress around in a cooler. As the dress was never tried on, Gaga had to be later be stitched into the dress backstage.

Along with the dress, Gaga's beret, purse, and shoes were made out of meat. They didn't have much time to make everything, leading them to wrap her shoes in meat and butcher twine. Formichetti told Fernandez to "throw another piece of meat on top" to make the beret. Unlike the shoes and beret, the purse was decorated with jewels.

The reaction to the dress was mixed, earning ire from animal rights groups such as PETA, and attempts to analyze it from various media outlets. Fernandez stated "I wasn't surprised at the response. I think everyone involved knew the response that the meat dress was going to get. I think what I was more surprised and excited by was how much the internet and technology played a part in that. I got tons of hate-mail, love-mail, and "meat dress" was a top Twitter topic for three days straight."