Lady Gaga shed a tear as she received her award as this year’s best fashion icon at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards on Monday night.

The CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) awards at the Lincoln Centre in New York proved to be a fairly cheerful event, due in large part to the few people who weren’t fashion designers who sometimes took the platform. These included the host, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Kanye West, and a young lady named Lady Gaga.

On stage to receive her prize, a soft-spoken, maybe teary-eyed Gaga said she was her nervous.

The pop diva and fashion risk-taker, who was dressed in a turquoise wig and a corset ensemble by Thierry Mugler, a company currently managed by her friend and stylist Nicola Formichetti, expressed sincere gratitude to a throng of Hollywood celebs and fashion industry insiders.

Marc Jacobs, though, was dissatisfied with his award.

CFDA said Marc Jacobs would get the lifetime achievement award. Jacobs thanked them by telling every journalist who would listen that it should be called a “half-lifetime award.”

Yes, Jacobs did show up, and yes, he did receive the award, but only because his friend Sophia Coppola delivered it, and yes, she did call it the “half-lifetime award.”

Gaga told the audience in attendance as she accepted her award:

“All of you made me feel like a star before I was,” she told the Lincoln Center crowd, which included Marc Jacobs, Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors.

“As much as this award means to me personally … I just want you to know how much this means to young Americans.

The remainder of the night was a typical awards show mix of gush and humor. On the gushing side, Kanye West gave the International Style award to Phoebe Philo, and admitted to being “the biggest fan of everyone in this room.” When he praised Philo as “a special, special force in fashion,” he sounded very near to tears. Philo’s comments were timorous, but she could be seen putting her arm affectionately around West as this unusual pair walked off stage.

Lady Gaga also discussed the importance of dress in her life as a means of self-discovery, talent, and confidence. She’d save her money as a teenager to buy vintage Thierry Mugler from a neighborhood thrift shop, checking in with the salesperson on a regular basis to ensure her favorite pieces hadn’t sold while she was saving. She claimed she prepared her clothes for Friday night events as if she were headed to the Oscars.

The singer recalls receiving a text message from Wintour informing her that she had been chosen for the prize. She said she mistook the Vogue editor-in-chief for another Anna: “So my reply was, ‘Yes, b*tch, we did it!”

“I got a reply that said, ‘How lovely,’” Gaga said.

Unsurprisingly, the two award-winning journalists, Hal Rubenstein and Hilary Alexander, delivered the longest and most moving remarks. “The unsinkable Hilary Alexander,” as Michael Kors defined her, stated that she believed her prize was for “the entire British fashion industry,” demonstrating that even on the verge of retirement, the Daily Telegraph’s Alexander can still fly the national flag.

Cooper, a longtime friend of CFDA president von Furstenberg, explained that he wanted to exhibit his photographs to demonstrate his fashion credentials because he was serving as master of ceremonies.

“There was no way you’d be critical,” he joked, “or that’s what Diane said, anyway.”

Naomi Watts, dressed in a metallic T-shirt-style gown by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, awarded the evening’s top honor of womenswear designer to Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. However, she appeared to find the uncomfortable trek across a large stage in her high heels frightening. “That was easy,” she said as she reached the podium. “Fun doing it in a room full of supermodels.”