Lady Gaga brought a blast from the past to this year’s Super Bowl half-time show. Six out of the seven songs in her 13-minute set list came out before I had even started studying for my GCSEs, but there was a satisfying nostalgia about the return to the soundtrack from the roller discos of my youth.

Whether or not you are a fan of Gaga’s music, you are probably aware that her name is synonymous with crazy costumes. And yet, this performance suffered from a distinct lack of outrageous attire.

Only a couple of months ago, we saw her in an elaborate leather dress complete with pink platforms, and in a cobalt blue fur coat with shoulder pads so gigantic she could have tackled the Super Bowl players herself and probably won. She has toned down her wacky wardrobe considerably in recent years, but the eccentric touch is still there: so why was her choice of outfits on this occasion so tame?

“This was from the same superstar who, at the 2011 Grammys, was carried down the red carpet encased in a giant egg”

Admittedly, her Versace long-sleeved body in a mermaid-esque mix of blues and greens wasn’t something you might throw on to go and get a pint of milk. Yet, it was also strikingly similar to the piece from Alexander McQueen’s Plato’s Atlantis collection for Gaga’s Bad Romance music video, only with less precarious platform heels. It was even vaguely reminiscent of Beyoncé’s military-style body worn to perform the same gig just a year ago. She pulled it off fantastically, but it could probably have been worn by a number of other female performers with equal success.

A swift costume change into a white, crystal-covered NFL-style jersey also seemed a boring choice for the most-watched show on television. This was from the same superstar who, at the 2011 Grammys, was carried down the red carpet encased in a giant egg.

Maybe the infamous 2010 meat dress was a step too far, but at least it was a protest (against the restrictions on the rights of gay soldiers imposed by the US government). At the time, it was seen more as another one of the American pop star’s more grotesque get-ups than as a real statement, but it certainly got people talking.

Many expected that, as an avid Hillary Clinton supporter, Lady Gaga’s political comment might have been more daring than to quote from the Pledge of Allegiance, but instead, she kept things uncontroversial, even down to her costume choices. 

Perhaps, given this is one of the biggest shows on Earth, a failsafe outfit choice prevented any wardrobe malfunctions or restricted movement. Or, since Gaga herself has admitted that outlandish attire distracts an audience from her music, maybe she wanted to focus the crowd’s attention on the performance. Apart from the live stage jump controversy (she effectively bungee-jumped off the roof), her set was brilliantly received, although I’m not sure whether her attire has ever affected the appreciation of her talent.

Agony Aunt: Approaching (Ridiculously Attractive) People

Ever the style chameleon, Lady Gaga realised long ago that one should never dress to please anybody else, and she’s had more than her fair share of iconic looks. In 2013, she stepped out in London looking like a living ghost wrapped in loo roll. In 2011, she had semi-permanent prosthetic angular cheekbones. And who could forget the Coca-Cola can hair rollers in the Telephone music video?

She does glamorous well too, as we saw from her performances with Tony Bennett, with enormous ’80s-style hair and shimmery gowns. Her versatility of personal style is commendable, and perhaps why her Super Bowl outfits were then so underwhelming.

Maybe Gaga set our expectations too high, or maybe we expected too much of someone who, just as anyone else does, has the right to wear anything they want to. The lack of stylistic flair shown by someone who became iconic for demolishing expectations that female celebrities should only ever dressed in a feminine and attractive way was more than a little disappointing, but she still managed to put on one hell of a show