Lady Gaga is on the promotional trail—and she's dressed to kill. Last night, she launched her newest album, ARTPOP, which boasts collaborations with all sorts of artists, and arrived at the launch party wearing nothing less than a flying dress. The brains behind the flying frock—think hexacopter-style aerial drone up top, attached to a platform with a fiberglass bodice and skirt—is TechHaus, part of the Haus of Gaga. 
 
 The dress, which Gaga calls Volantis, seems to be a symbol of the voices of today's youth. "I wanted to make today about something even more important to me, and that something is the youth of the world," Gaga said. "Their minds are just so boundless. They're just so inspiring." 
 
 Though details of the singer’s plans for the transport system were few, she told the crowd she believes Volantis has the potential to be a "real technology," but doesn’t plan on using it to hover above her Little Monsters at concerts anytime soon. "Hopefully she will be the future of many things," Gaga said of the contraption, which was designed by London-based firm Studio XO. "Most importantly today, we just want you to feel inspired." 
 
 The singer appeared at the event alongside two of the artists she's been working with, Jeff Koons and Marina Abramovic. ARTPOP is being released later today and is already doing brisk business on iTunes. 
 
 Additional reporting by J.J. McCorvey. ||||| In anticipation of her new album, ARTPOP, Lady Gaga plans to reach new heights, literally. As part of ArtRave, Gaga's fashion, music, art, and tech mash-up party tonight in a Brooklyn warehouse, Gaga will soar above her audiences in a flying dress called VOLANTIS. 
 
 VOLANTIS was conceived by Studio XO in Gaga's TechHaus. It has six booms in a hex formation and is powered by 50 volts of batteries. The dress also has a carbon fiber molded casket designed to mimic a fitted couture dress. This futuristic machine will make Gaga fly. 
 
 UPDATE NOV. 10 6:47 P.M. ET: Lady Gaga steps into VOLANTIS. 
 
 UPDATE NOV. 10 6:58 P.M. ET: Gaga lifts off! 
 
 RELATED: Lady Gaga's Top Art Moments 
 
 RELATED: 10 Things No One Told You About Lady Gaga's artRave ||||| Image caption Gaga last performed in the UK a year ago Image caption The concert contained eight songs, and an equal number of costume changes Image caption The performer had surgery for a broken hip in February previous slide next slide 
 
 Lady Gaga has opened the iTunes festival in London, playing a set of entirely new material. 
 
 The 60-minute show marked The pop star's comeback, after a broken hip caused her to cut short her Born This Way Ball tour earlier this year. 
 
 "To say that I've missed you, it's a bit of an understatement," she told her fans on stage at London's Roundhouse. 
 
 Featuring pig men in boiler suits and multiple costume changes, the show was streamed live around the world. 
 
 In the audience were celebrity fans including Adele, Niall Horan from One Direction and TV personality Arlene Phillips. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lady Gaga: "I feared I'd never perform again" 
 
 For fans, it was the first taster of Gaga's forthcoming album ArtPop, as seven songs - including Manicure, I Wanna Be With You and Swine - were played for the first time. 
 
 Many attended the show in a dress code dictated by the 27-year-old on Twitter - including "bedazzled pig snouts" and "trash bags or artclothes". 
 
 At the show In an X Factor era, pop's main message is "be yourself". Lady Gaga isn't interested in that. "I'm not one icon. I'm every icon," she recently told WWD magazine. "I'm an icon that is made out of all the colours on the palette at every time." In essence, she's a visual performance artist, exploring fame's ability to seduce, transform and distort. Not for nothing does she sing "art's in pop culture in me" on her current single. But the music is what fans came for - and the good news is that, on first impressions, Gaga's new material is catchy and clever. Manicure is Abba by way of Giorgio Moroder, while Sex Dreams is every bit as saucy as the title suggests. The set could have done with less waffle, and the pauses between songs were unforgivable. But when she's paying attention, Lady Gaga can out-sing, out-perform, and out-smart most of her contemporaries. 
 
 "Artclothes are clothes you don't mind getting covered in live art!" she said, warning there would be a "paint zone" at the show. 
 
 In the event, nobody left the show resembling a Jackson Pollock painting - with the "live art" amounting to nothing more than dancers, in all-white boiler suits and pig helmets, spray-painting canvasses. 
 
 Gaga took to the stage nearly half-an-hour late, dressed as a bandit, holding a knife, with a black bandana obscuring the lower half of her face. 
 
 Strapped into a metal cage that resembled a medieval torture device, she was hoisted above the audience to perform the opening number, Aura. 
 
 "What's up, London?" she demanded as the song ended. "Do you have to scream so loud? I can barely hear myself." 
 
 The new music largely stuck to the electro-pop template of her biggest hits, Bad Romance and Just Dance - but one track, Jewels and Drugs, was inspired by the star's love of hip-hop. 
 
 "I wanted to set myself free of this box they put you in, in pop music," she explained. "It's like you have to stay inside the box and be a good girl. 
 
 "But I don't want to be a good girl. I want to be out of the box." 
 
 She was joined on stage for the track by rappers Too $hort and Twista. TI, another featured artist, appeared on video screens because, Gaga said, "they wouldn't let him into the country, poor thing." 
 
 Image caption Many fans dressed for the show, following a bizarre dress code laid out by the pop star on Twitter 
 
 Later, the singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, told fans she had survived "some really tough times" and explained she had used "wigs and make-up" to "cover up the pain". 
 
 SETLIST Aura 
 
 Manicure 
 
 ArtPop 
 
 Jewels & Drugs 
 
 Sex Dreams 
 
 Swine 
 
 I Wanna Be With You 
 
 Applause 
 
 "When I didn't feel strong enough to be me, I created someone else. And it worked. 
 
 "So here I am, the human underneath the wigs," she said, removing her headpiece and bobby pins to reveal a tousled brunette bob. 
 
 "This is my real hair." 
 
 Fans lapped up the theatrics, as Gaga attempted to break down the artifice of pop stardom by changing wigs and costumes in full view of the audience. 
 
 But some were disappointed that the hits were being ignored. 
 
 "Just play Poker Face," shouted one during a lull in the music. 
 
 Accordingly, the singer's current single, Applause, got the most rapturous response of the night, as the singer prowled the stage in a Mad Hatter costume, complete with a Sherlock Holmes' pipe. 
 
 The singer's eye-opening performance marked the opening night of the month-long iTunes festival, which will also see concerts by Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Queens Of The Stone Age and Katy Perry. 
 
 Competition-winners make up the audience every night, with entry via a free ballot.
– Wondering how Lady Gaga would ever top her meat dress or egg transport system? Well, she found a way last night, when she arrived at the launch party for her new album via ... flying dress. The dress, which she calls "Volantis," is by TechHaus, part of the singer's Haus of Gaga, Fast Company reports. The dress' flying apparatus is attached to a platform, on which Gaga stood, clad in a fiberglass bodice and skirt. It's powered by 50 volts of batteries, Complex reports. ARTPOP is out today.