Lady GaGa, Nicola Formichetti, Stephen Gan & Inez & Vinoodh for V #71 Summer 2011

There has been a lot of controversy over the cover for V#71, which features Lady GaGa in an editorial shot by Inez and Vinoodh with creative direction from Nicola Formichetti.

As this was supposed to be the ASIAN ISSUE, shouldn't they have featured an ASIAN MODEL on the cover? I love the styling, but wouldn't have looked just as good on an Asian celebrity or model?

In his defence V Magazine co-founder and creative director Stephen Gan had this to say:

"Honestly, we searched high and low for Asian celebrities, and we seriously did our homework. But stars who are big in Asia rarely come to America, and getting someone shot over there the way we like things done, started to look tougher and tougher. Gaga and I were emailing the day “Born This Way” came out and I said, “You deserve another cover!” It turned out our Summer issue was coming out ten days before her new album was due to hit. And so I turned to Inez & Vinoodh to come up with an idea that showed her as 3 different characters: herself, a Japanese butterfly, and a Bollywood Shiva goddess. This was their idea, and it just seemed to fit so naturally."

Is he seriously trying to tell us that there are no Asian Stars living in America?

Nicki Minaj, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin For V Magazine Spring 2011

It's good to see Nicki Minaj moving away from her usual face-tourettes look (see here, here and here) in a few of the pictures from this spread for V Magazine's Spring 2011 issue.

Photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and wearing Versace and Mark Fast she really pulls of the zombie body paint.

If you are into it and want to create your own look or you just want to watch a stranger putting on make-up really fast for 10 minutes then I have already found a tutorial for you...