The famous red-meat dress Lady GaGa wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards is to be turned into beef jerky and preserved for history, according to the designer who created the costume. The "Paparazzi" singer caused controversy at the Los Angeles event earlier this month when she stepped onstage wearing the meaty ensemble, complete with a purse made from slabs of beef and a piece of steak balanced on her head as a makeshift headpiece.

GaGa was blasted by animal rights campaigners, who urged her to ditch the unusual piece of clothing before she alienated all her vegetarian fans, but the star insisted the dress was not intended to offend. She told U.S. chat show host Ellen DeGeneres, "Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian... And, I am not a piece of meat."

The man behind the design, Franc Fernandez, reveals the perishable gown took him three days to make, refrigerating the strips of meat in between. And the 50 pounds (22.7 kilograms) of beef has not gone to waste - it`s being dried out and transformed into jerky.

He tells Eonline.com, "The dress will go through a process where it becomes a sort of `jerky`." But Fernandez insists the jerky won`t be available to buy - instead, it will be "archived" for future generations of fashionistas to gawk at.

Speaking to MTV Style, he adds, "The meat dries out, rather than rotting. But it shouldn`t be worn again. There`s not going to be meat dresses in the future. This was made for a specific purpose. It`s what it is."
sections: Celebrities