LONDON, United Kingdom — Last night on X-Factor, one of the most popular shows in British television history, Lady Gaga laid down the digital pop star gauntlet again, dressed in Gareth Pugh’s fantastical creations from Spring/Summer 2007 while performing Bad Romance, the first release from her second album The Fame Monster. The song originally debuted at the seminal show of the Spring/Summer 2010 collections staged by Alexander McQueen. As was widely reported at the time, when Ms. Gaga announced the song’s debut to her more than 1 million Twitter followers, it promptly crashed the SHOWStudio site which was live-streaming the McQueen show.

Since then, Gaga has performed Bad Romance at the American Music Awards, the Ellen Degeneres Show, the Jay Leno Show, and now X-Factor, reaching millions of viewers around the world. But even more interestingly, she has gone beyond the typical old media promotion circuit, using the internet to create viral interest in her music and day-to-day antics.

The results are impressive to say the least. Since the Bad Romance video was launched on YouTube on November 10th, it has been viewed more than 30 million times. To put that into perspective, Madonna’s current single, Celebration, has only been viewed 1 million times since it debuted on YouTube on October 14th. In total, Lady Gaga’s videos have been viewed more than 500 million times on YouTube, the equivalent of almost 40 appearances on X-Factor, which attracted an estimated 13 million viewers yesterday evening.

It’s no wonder that Forbes Magazine recently declared that “Lady Gaga isn’t the music industry’s new Madonna. She’s its new business model.” However, what the Forbes article failed to note is that Lady Gaga may very well be revolutionising the fashion business as well.

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The Business Of Lady Gaga (Forbes)
“In the cacophony of the music business, Gaga has broken through the clutter with muzzle velocity, becoming a superstar in scarcely a year. Her first album, The Fame, is the best-selling debut album of 2009. Her single Just Dance has been viewed 87 million times on YouTube. Gaga’s tracks have clocked 20 million downloads this year. One of them, Poker Face, is the most downloaded tune in the history of U.K. digital music.”

Heir to Gucci Empire Reveals Plan to Double Bet on Fashion (Wall Street Journal)
“A 12-person team within PPR has drawn up two lists. The first enumerates a new set of 20 possible industry buyers for the three retail businesses up for grabs, Mr. Pinault said during the interview. The second list targets a dozen potential luxury and lifestyle brands PPR would be interested in buying.”

Tailoring the Image to Fit the Clothes (NY Times)
“It is Patrick Li’s peculiar job, as an art director and graphic designer for some of the hottest new clothing designers in the business, to articulate their vision in the single nanosecond it takes to look at the name on the label of a dress or a T-shirt.”

Luxury brands avoid price cuts at all costs (Toronto Sun)
“Tiffany, like all retailers, has struggled during the global economic downturn as consumers tightened their purse strings. As a result, North American big box, discount and grocery stores have resorted to drastic prices cuts to lure shoppers. Metro and Loblaws, Sears and Walmart Canada have all gone head-to-head in price wars. Luxury brands however, have done quite the opposite. Instead, exclusive shops have opted to shrink inventory levels to avoid offering steep discounts.”

Steve J & Yoni P Makes Waves in London (Korea Times)
“Rising designers Steve Jung and Yoni Pai are making a name for themselves on the British fashion scene with their chic, impeccable designs with quirky details.”