If you know Lady Gaga, you’re already familiar with her extravagant tastes. Remember her ridiculous tour rider? She’s not through yet, though. Following her hip surgery for synovitis (a type of joint infection) that caused her to cancel a string of dates on her Born This Way Tour, Gaga requested that designer Ken Borochov of Mordekai draft her up something special to roll around in. What resulted is possibly the most lavish wheelchair to ever hit the pavement.
Going in for surgery now. Thank you so much for sending me love and support. I will be dreaming of you.
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 20, 2013
Borochov only had a week’s notice to design the chair. “It was a huge undertaking,” he told the Daily Beast. “It was made all over the United States. My assistant had to run around everywhere.”
Borochov said that he wanted the chair to resemble a throne, so he had 1.5 oz of 24-karat gold plated onto the exterior. The chair was finished off with classy black leather and a removable canopy. It was assembled in Wisconsin at Regal Roadsters, who have plenty of experience putting together hot rods. It might not be a speedster, but it’s definitely a head-turner.
The wheelchair’s style fits in with Gaga’s seamlessly, showing the designer’s keen eye (especially for someone who’s never met her before). Borochov wouldn’t divulge how much the star paid for the chair, but the gold itself is valued at around $2,600. For all its glamour, the chair doesn’t make use of modern wheelchair technologies, like electric power.