By Katrina Doran.

Belfast milliner Gráinne Maher prepared weeks in advance of the Lady Gaga concert to fulfil her millinery dreams and have a bespoke piece hand delivered to Gaga's dressingroom as a welcome gift to mark her return to the city.

Before forging a now award-winning career as a milliner Grainne studied music and was a vocal performance artist so as a huge fan of the pop-sensation Grainne's love for Lady Gaga is not only for her catchy tunes and stand-out style but also as a performance artist.
‘I missed my chance to create a piece for Lady Gaga on her last visit to Belfast, so when I heard she was coming back to town, I just knew I had to get one of my headpieces to her', said Grainne.

Gráinne pursued music industry contacts that have direct reach to Gaga's tour management and the massively well-connected Citybeat DJ John Kearns came to the rescue delivering the stunning creation to Lady G's manager before the concert at the Odyssey on Saturday.

‘I created a very sparkly abstract loop piece with large Swarovski crystals in purple and silver tones. It is based on a design from the GMM current AW collection.'

The piece was wrapped in a circular hatbox, with trademark GMM black and white bows. The key thing was that the box was see-through. "I hoped that the headpiece would be on show, sparkling away from inside the box saying ‘open me please!!! I hope she loves it!"

Photography by Jessica Weber.