Pamela Love On Designing for Lady Gaga, Getting a 5-Gallon Bottle of Mod Podge As a Gift

Wednesday night we stopped by a soiree for Pamela Love's limited collection with Shopstyle, held at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Kanon vodka cocktails were served, PAPERMAG pal DJ Becka Diamond handled the tunes (we always appreciate Hole's "Violet" being blasted through some upscale speakers) and Love's collage of fashionable friends showed up in spades to help the jewelry designer party the night away in style. We spoke to
the CFDA Fashion Fund runner-up about her involvement with Lady Gaga's holiday shop at Barneys and the best gift she ever got.

Your jewelry is included in Lady Gaga's Workshop at Barneys, and you've also designed her stuff for your videos. How'd that relationship start?

I'm not even really sure how it started. I think [Lady Gaga stylist] Nicola [Formichetti] had been pulling my pieces for shoots unrelated to Gaga, and they had some projects coming up where they needed custom pieces made, specifically one for the "Born This Way" video. We actually made an outfit for her for the "Alejandro" video, but it didn't make it in. I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it, because she has it in her archive and she might use it for something else.

Have you met her?

I've never even met Nicola face to face! It's a lot of in-between -- my assistants talk to his assistants and they relay it back and forth.

These days it feels like you can work with or for someone without ever seeing them in the flesh.

I kinda prefer it! It's so bad, but I live in a bubble of making jewelry, and I like to keep it that way. I like doing crazy projects, but for me, it's about the project and not necessarily about the person. Obviously Lady Gaga is amazing and her style is really inspiring to a lot of people, but for me the most exciting part was having the opportunity to make crazy things for someone who would be willing to wear them --  I'm so lucky someone exists like that!

You were a runner-up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund this year, which means you awarded $100,000 bucks! Watching the videos online, it all seemed a bit akin to a reality show competition.

It feels like a very serious, a lot more intense version of Project Runway. There's design challenges and stuff like that. But I think that maybe, in a weird way, the formats for these reality shows came from stuff like this.

Being that the holiday season is around the bend, are you someone who enjoys getting jewelry as a gift?

I definitely love jewelry and I love giving jewelry --  I love receiving jewelry if it's really unique or antique -- but for the most part I like to receive other things, because I'm constantly making jewelry and sourcing inspiration from all over the world. I'm so consumed by jewelry most of the time that maybe sometimes it would be nice to get a hat!

What's the best gift you've ever gotten?

I had a boyfriend in high school, and I was really into collaging. I collaged everything: my Dr. Martens, a briefcase that I carried around because I was a weirdo, my room. I would use Mod Podge, which is like decoupage glue, so he bought me a 5 gallon bottle of Mod Podge. I think that might've been one of the sweetest, most thoughtful gifts I've ever received. I used it all!

Did you do anything for Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

I totally didn't think about Cyber Monday until it was too late --  suck at that. But we're doing a series of discounts for the next 15 days -- it's kinda like Hanukah!