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Lady Gaga may be a clotheshorse, but that hasn’t stopped her from returning borrowed four-figure frocks shredded and stained.
That’s what happened when the star was lent a Thierry Mugler black dress made of a thick, sheer material for a video shoot about two years ago.
When the NYC-based fashion p.r. firm that arranged the loan got the dress back a few weeks later, it was torn — and had what appeared to be the remnants of a “Bad Romance” on it.
“It looked like it had [semen] on it. It was so disgusting. I couldn’t even tell you,” dishes a p.r. girl who worked with the label at the time and saw the damage firsthand.
“We never found out what it [the stain] was, but we paid the $500 dry-cleaning bill.”
The fashion house kept its poker face. Not only was Gaga BFFs with Mugler’s then-creative director Nicola Formichetti, but she was at the top of her game. Of course they would lend to her again! (Gaga’s rep did not return a request for comment.)
But some fashion houses are turning their backs on stars they see as irresponsible and greedy — in some cases outright banning a celeb from borrowing from their collections.
When it’s time to hit a big-ticket red-carpet event, such as next week’s Met Costume Institute Gala, celebrity stylists will negotiate with designers’ p.r. teams for loans. Following the public appearance, items are expected to be returned in mint condition.
Frequently they’re not. Among the worst offenses: returning high-priced duds soiled and tattered, losing or stealing merchandise and attempting to resell one-of-a-kind items.
In February, Lindsay Lohan chopped a $1,750 Theia ball gown she had been loaned into a messy mini while out on the town. “It was appalling,” a Theia rep told Page Six at the time.
Janice Dickinson was accused of walking off with $20,000 of borrowed jewelry after “The Reality of FASHION The Reality of AIDS” runway show benefit that same month. (Dickinson denied stealing them, and most of the jewels were ultimately returned.)
But it’s not just train wrecks Lohan and Dickinson who are getting wrist-slapped. Starlets like Ashley Madekwe of “Revenge” and pop stars like Rihanna have allegedly committed blunders when it comes to the etiquette of freebies.
According to an industry source, Madekwe was caught trying to pawn a Monika Chiang purse she’d been given by the label on her own personal style blog. (Madekwe’s rep, Emily Yomtobian, says, “This is totally not true,” and adds that the TV star just wore Chiang in March. “When we gift, we don’t gift with any sort of conditions,” adds Chiang’s p.r. rep Nick Steele.)
Worse, according to star stylist Phillip Bloch, is the most common A-list faux pas: returning borrowed goods damaged.
One offender? Mariah Carey.
“We all remember the Mariah minidress phase . . . less dress, more skin, too much Mariah,” says Bloch. “Four or so years ago, it was really hard to borrow for her because she used to cut all the gowns into really short dresses,” he says, adding that designer Elie Saab nixed Carey for fear she’d shear his wear.
“They would be like, ‘We can’t loan to her. She’s going to cut the gown!’ ” (Carey’s rep, Cindi Berger says, there’s “no truth to this.”)
Rihanna didn’t chop the Herve Leroux gown she borrowed for her wild 2010 birthday party — complete with midgets and dirty dancing — but she did send the beige frock back so filthy that the publicist didn’t even recognize it.
“It came back literally brown,” says a fashion publicist who worked with the brand at the time. “I don’t know what the hell she did with it.” (Rihanna’s rep did not return a request for comment.)
Since there are only so many samples to go around, a star’s bad behavior has implications that go beyond tomorrow’s tabloid headlines.
“I don’t think the celebrities understand. There’s a designer. They do a collection. Of the collection there are only so many good press pieces and only so many amazing samples, and when it comes to the high-end designers, there are even less,” says Bloch. “And everyone has to share that — from Jill Zarin to Lindsay Lohan to Tilda Swinton.”
So you can imagine the panic when Katy Perry’s stylist lost a couture Zuhair Murad frock a few years ago.
The “California Girl” stunned in a nude-looking long-sleeve Murad mini at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards.
Perhaps it was all too invisible of a dress, because it went missing the next day.
“It was a couture gown worth tens of thousands of dollars, never to be seen again,” says a p.r. gal who no longer works with the firm representing Murad.
“How can you lose a gown? She wore it. You come the next day to collect everything, and it’s not there,” she says, adding that the designer held off on lending to Perry’s stylist, Johnny Wujek, for a period of time after the incident.
(“[Katy] is not aware of this,” says Perry’s publicist, Ruth Bernstein. “Sounds like a Johnny Wujek issue. This is a non-story unless it’s about stylists.” Wujek did not respond for comment.)
Regardless of whether it’s the stylist’s fault or the celebrity’s, when you are as famous as Perry or Rihanna, most designers will be forgiving.
If you’re a Real Housewife? Not so likely.
Bloch says that during a recent lunch with designer Reem Acra, the evening-wear designer admitted that she didn’t want to loan to a certain Real Housewife of New York because, “Then my dresses won’t go on other celebrities.”
But when it comes to stars designers won’t touch, Lohan reigns supreme.
So much so that when her team approached Jovani, a glitzy dress brand often associated with prom wear, the label’s flacks weighed the pros and cons of lending to the troubled starlet.
“We said, ‘Would it be worth lending these pieces out if we never got them back?’ ” says Lianne Gourji, Jovani’s p.r. director.
They caved and decided to simply gift the star a couple of dresses. Label Collette Dinnigan also took a chance when it loaned a flirty dress to Lohan while she was shacked up in the Chateau Marmont.
“Apparently, she looked high and low for it and couldn’t find it,” says Marilyn Heston, president of MHA Media, a fashion p.r. firm.
“And then there’s a New Year’s Eve party in Miami, and she was photographed wearing the dress on the cover of a magazine. It was like, ‘Aha! Caught.’ We had living proof that the dress wasn’t completely lost.”
Heston adds that there were “no hard feelings. We got the dress back.”
After all, as Cameron Silver, owner of LA’s celeb-fave vintage store Decades, points out, “You never want to completely break off with anyone.”
No matter how irresponsible they may be.
“Lindsay Lohan may win an Oscar,” says Silver, “and then Chanel will want to dress her. Just like they dressed her 10 years ago.”
dschuster@nypost.com