Photo provided to China Daily

"(I'm not) defined by the same designer or defined by the same haircut or defined by the same icon. The statement is that I'm not one icon. I'm every icon. I'm an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions."

Well, maybe one restriction: Gaga alluded to artistic collaborations with Robert Wilson for the VMAs but declined to give specifics other than two more were forthcoming with Marina Abramovic and Jeff Koons.

If Gaga seeks to avoid labeling the fashion and visual component of Artpop, it has been deeply considered and strategic, beginning with already-in-circulation images from her September cover shoot for V, again shot by van Lamsweerde and Matadin, showing the star completely naked.

"There is a sense of stripping bare and then putting things back on. That's the process she's going through," van Lamsweerde says.

"I always say to her: 'Look at you. You are incredibly beautiful. Accept it. Don't try to hide your face. Just shine through.' For her, it's a part of that not hiding behind wigs and glasses and all kinds of stuff."

Her stylist and fashion director Maxwell also engages in some philosophical musings about the direction: "I think that this time it is about letting some of it go and the focus being on the music because now she's comfortable being naked and being who she is. The world has seen everything."

But he also acknowledges that there will be clothes, most of them custom. Alexander Wang for Balenciaga created some custom pieces.