“I think people need to be louder.”
Charlie Le Mindu
fashion interview by Chance Goode
All images courtesy of People’s Revolution and Kelly Cutrone
Under the SKINS: A Discussion With Charlie Le Mindu About His Comeback Couture Show
Designer and hair artist extraordinaire, Charlie Le Mindu, is back on the runway after a 10-year hiatus. Le Mindu has been busy designing costumes for opera and ballet performances, editorials, and the viral costumes worn by Doja Cat and her dancers at Coachella. The self-proclaimed tricophile sees hair as a second skin and wants to celebrate the human body by turning hair into high fashion using couture techniques. I spoke with Le Mindu after his haute couture show, where he reflected on his return to fashion, collaborating with Pornhub, and making music about fisting.
Chance Goode: Hey, Charlie. How are you doing?
Charlie Le Mindu: I’m good. I just got back to New York.
CG: So this was your first collection back after a decade-long hiatus. What made you decide to come back now?
CLM: A lot of things. When I used to show during fashion week in London or Paris, I was doing it for myself, and it was working because I was doing extravagant stuff, but the thing is, I didn’t go to fashion school. I was a beauty school dropout, and I was spending so much money on these shows. It costs a lot of money.
What I love about hair is the movement. So I stopped doing fashion and started designing costumes for the ballet and other dance performances for 10 years. During those 10 years, I really learned a lot about fabrication, the technical aspect of creating costumes and the techniques of haute couture, because I was working with the operas in Germany and Paris. I think it was time to come back to fashion because I saw this younger generation that didn’t know me, and I wanted to show them what was possible with hair.
CG: I loved how sexual the collection was, whether it be the teeny tiny hair bikinis or the bodysuit with the landing strip. Why was it important that you infuse sexuality in this collection?
CLM: For me, there was no sexuality. There was a lot of sensuality. In America, they don’t really know that word sensuality. Being naked is not sexual. Something sexual involves touching and penetration. A body can be beautiful and sensual when it’s just naked. There is nothing sexual about it. I think the body is very beautiful.
There was a performance during the show involving a pregnant woman, and other performers of all sizes and colors. It’s all about body visibility for me. I think people need to be louder, and it doesn’t mean it has to be sexual. So I think sensuality is important because some countries in the world still think that when they see a naked body, it is sexual, and it is not. When you go to Germany or France, all the girls are topless on the beach, and it’s fine, and no one thinks it’s sexual. It’s completely normal.
I think what’s very important with Pornhub is that they really help sex workers. I used to do porn myself. And when you meet people, especially women who work in the porn industry, they are so confident; most of them work for good companies, but there are some really terrible porn companies. Trust me when I say this, I know what I’m talking about. The team at Pornhub are the best that I have worked with because they know what they want. They’re very political in a way. They’re very clever girls, and they’re so open-minded and have no judgment. We live in such a hypocritical world where the fashion people in France are like, “Why are you using Pornhub as a sponsor?” Gay guys predominantly own the fashion industry and they all watch porn, yet are telling me not to use Pornhub even though they’re always on it.
CG: I love that Pornhub has been working with designers lately. It’s really an awesome collaboration.
CLM: Pornhub and OnlyFans have been working with young designers, and they’re really helping financially. But only a few designers accept those collaborations because they are scared or not political enough. When you accept a collaboration with a company that produces adult movies, you are also accepting that people will criticize you. Bear in mind that my collaboration with Pornhub will stop me from being able to take on other sponsors. Still, I really don’t care because, once again, it’s very hypocritical for other brands to say we don’t want to be associated with Pornhub when they don’t know the politics of Pornhub. They only see it as a porn site.
CG: You mentioned the performance that was going on during the show, in which there were all of these bodies on top of each other with what looked like mud. What was the story behind that?
CLM: This collection is called SKINS because human hair is like our second skin. It’s like fur. I wanted this mass of bodies, all together. They were putting green clay on each other to form a statue. I wanted them to be like a set design, with all of them connected.
My stepmom is from Cameroon. Growing up with a Cameroonian woman, I’ve seen all kinds of things and learned about diversity from a young age. With this performance, I just wanted to show that we’re all in the same shit, literally, the mud was the shit — it was an actual shit show. The performance was so beautiful because we had two dancers from the opera and the pregnant woman whom we found in the street the night before. I just wanted to create this beautiful statue and monument as a background for the show.
CG: I find it so incredible what you can create with hair. Specifically, this one look that was a floor-length coat with a structured cinched waist. I believe Carine Roitfeld was recently seen wearing it. How did you create that silhouette using hair?
CLM: What’s funny is that I much prefer the inside of the clothes to the outside. I’ve been working with human hair for twenty-five years, no —thirty years, and I know what it looks like on the outside. As for the inside, I’ve been learning haute couture techniques while creating costumes for ballet, where we made crinolines and corsetry.
CG: And what about the look with the padded hips and shoulders? Was that constructed from lace bras and panties?
CLM: Actually, it was created out of wig caps. All the wig caps we used had metal inside, so they looked like bras, but they were all made from wig caps.
CG: During your after-party, you put on this live performance where you were in a jockstrap with your face all bloody. It was really hot. Can you tell me more about that?
CLM: So I have a band called Muchas Problemas. Because apparently, I love problems. It is the project that really allows me to be myself: Charlie the fisting lover. The EP is about my experience with orgies, my sex parties, and all the stuff that I love doing. That is me letting go on stage.
CG: I listened to your song ‘Take Me In.’ That was about fisting. Right?
CLM: I mean, the whole EP is about fisting. I used to teach fisting when I was in Berlin, believe it or not. It’s the project where I do not limit myself to what I’m gonna look like or who likes it or not. As with fashion, I have a completely different way of working. With the music, I just want to please myself and go as far as I can.
I’m going to be opening for Peaches. She was actually playing at my after-party. She’s one of my best mates. I’ve been doing her costumes for twenty-five years now.
CG: I love Peaches! I saw that Rose McGowan was also at your show. What’s your relationship with her?
CLM: Well, she has been supporting me since the beginning. She has been following all my projects, and has been a really good support. I think the fact that I had Pornhub and Rose McGowan at the same show makes a lot of sense. She kind of created the Me Too movement. We don’t hear about her as much since then. I’m happy that the people who are quite political follow me. That’s the kind of people I want to see at my show.
CG: I loved seeing her there, because we don’t see her a lot.
CLM: She came from London just to see my show, which is amazing.
CG: Lastly, what’s next for you and your brand?
CLM: That’s a really good question. I don’t even know myself. I would love to show at New York Fashion Week and, once a year, for couture in Paris.