Doja Cat isn’t playing around. For her electrifying headlining Coachella performance, the first by a woman rapper and 2nd by a Black woman in the festival’s history, she blasted through nearly two dozen songs and half a dozen wardrobe changes. When it came to performing her smash hit “Demons,” Doja wore a shocking, custom “hair costume” in the same shade as her knee-grazing platinum blonde wig, flanked by 22 dancers in fuller coverage costumes by visionary hairstylist and headpiece designer Charlie Le Mindu.
To open the song, Doja slinked across the Coachella stage creating a vibe that was a mix of sexy and sinister. With choreography by Parris Goebel and 600 wefts of hair by Le Mindu and team, Doja’s dancers fully morphed into menacing, demonic figures. Thanks to a YouTube Livestream it was a mere seconds before the internet started doing its thing, applauding and trolling Doja Cat with equal energy. Whether a fan or just freaked out, everyone seemed to agree the hair was something of a spectacle. Naturally, The Tease went to the source, connecting with Le Mindu about the conception and execution of Doja Cat’s custom looks.
Scroll to see what Le Mindu had to say including their reaction to the now iconic performance.
The Tease: How did the collaboration with Doja Cat’s stylist and creative director Brett Allan Nelson come together for Coachella? Was there a brief? A vision for the silhouette? Any special considerations?
Charlie Le Mindu: Brett approached me to create the hair costumes for him. We did work together in the past and we always had a good time collaborating. I do love Brett’s vision and his approach to build a show. He asked me to recreate my signature Lion’s Mane outfits, and in addition to them, we designed together the dancers catsuits, as well as Doja Cat’s outfit. It was a back and forth conversation, where we sent each other sketches, technical drawings, as well as work in progress pictures.
Starting with Doja Cat, how much hair was used for the final look and where was it sourced?
Le Mindu: I always pay close attention when I source hair. I usually work with a hair dealer in Paris who has good traceability. For Doja’s outfit and her boots we sourced the finest 24″ human hair quality on the market coming from Eastern European countries, and we used around 25 wefts.
Let’s get into the dancers: How much hair was used for the full coverage suits? How big was the hair team? What was assembly and fitting like? Let us into your world!
Le Mindu: For the dancers, we used more than 600 wefts of human hair to be able to cover the 22 costumes present on stage. To prep the hair applied on to the costumes I had a team of 8 hairdressers in Paris. We had 2 weeks to build the 23 sur-mesure costumes, and hired an atelier composed of 6 tailors that worked around the clock to make it happen! I am very grateful for the tremendous work they did. I also want to thank the Paris-based fashion school Paris College of Art for working hand in hand with us on this production, and their 6 students who interned with us. I also had a team at Coachella for adjustment and straightening before the show, which was composed of 2 hairdressers, my right hand Nirina who is a tailor and can work with hair as well, plus myself.
Did you see the dancers rehearse with the costumes before the final performance?
Le Mindu: Yes, I attended to the final rehearsals on site with my team, where we made all the adjustments necessary to make the dancer’s comfortable and confident before going on stage for the show.
What did you think about the final performance and the look? Are you happy?
Le Mindu: I am beyond happy with the final result. It was a very emotional moment for me to see this insane performance. Doja Cat’s presence on stage, surrounded with all these hair monsters is definitely a must see.
People are losing their minds online — what do you think about the response?
Le Mindu: I am proud and grateful to have been part of this iconic pop culture moment, and am not surprised by the response of the public. This is Doja Cat at her finest, and this is such an important milestone with her being the first female rapper headlining at Coachella. Her presence, accompanied by the combination of Brett’s vision with Parris Goebel’s choreography and the crazy amount of hair insanity on stage made this show special. It is for sure one of my favorite project I worked on so far. I’m glad to see that we indeed touched the audience with our vision.
Watch Doja Cat’s Coachella ’24 weekend 1 performance of “Demons” in full on YouTube, linked below. For updates from Charlie Le Mindu be sure to follow them on Instagram.
