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(CNN) — Wrapped in a giant black puffer despite the blistering Californian sun, Blackpink member Lisa stepped out onto Coachella’s main stage on Friday for her first solo performance at the festival. Within minutes, the huge coat was whisked away — revealing a reptilian bodysuit covered in head-to-toe scales. “She’s the reptilian villain,” said the look’s designer, Asher Levine, in a video call from his studio in Los Angeles. “It’s very creature couture.”
Levine, who has created otherworldly stage-wear for Lady Gaga, Grace Jones, Doja Cat, Christina Aguilera and Grimes, got the call to create both of Lisa’s technologically advanced Coachella looks less than a month before her performance date. “We’ve been going for a week and a half, day and night,” he told CNN in the days leading up to the event. “I went to bed early last night for this interview.”
For her custom 3D reptile suit, Levine first took a body scan of the K-pop star to capture her precise measurements, which he then uploaded to a digital tailoring system which enables him to drape and adjust textiles on Lisa’s virtual avatar before the outfit goes into production. Next, he designed a unique geometric scale print using AI, and then passed the two-dimensional textile design onto his studio’s sculpture division to handcraft each individual scute — mimicking a lizard’s interlocking scales. The designer, who calls himself a “leather industry disruptor,” hopes to one day create cruelty-free versions of leather goods and exotic skins such as crocodiles and alligators.
“We don’t have to kill animals anymore,” he said. “We can evolve beyond that.”
Even with the aid of digital tools, the reptilian costume took meticulous work over a handful of days, with the smallest details, such as the translucent scales and horns that sat on Lisa’s shoulders, each taking between 50 and 60 hours to make.
Illuminating inspiration
For Lisa’s second performance look — an ethereal sheer catsuit complete with glowing 3-D- printed blue and pink tendrils — Levine looked to another area of nature for inspiration.
“A lot of the references were bioluminescent insects (and) translucent fungi with illuminated veins running through the petals,” said Levine. “People have been putting nature on themselves for thousands of years: flowers, animal prints. But now (I’m thinking) what’s exotic 2.0?”
For Levine, that approach meant fusing prehistoric creatures with futuristic technology — something he’s done before with his Terrelli clutch bag, which was inspired by the 300-million-year-old extinct fish Dunkleosteus Terrelli.
“What I like to do with my designs is create chimeric organisms (and build) a new, evolved, exotic extension of this character,” he explained.
Each of the 20-something luminescent tendrils worn by Lisa featured a fiber optic light that created an extra-terrestrial glow.
“We started experimenting with embedded illumination in 2011,” said Levine, recalling a project a decade earlier with the Grammy-winning artist Will.i.am. “He was like, ‘Can you embed lights in clothes?’ And me being very enthusiastic said, ‘Yeah, let’s figure it out.’”
Since then, he’s hooked Gaga, Aguilera and Grimes up to featherweight lights for a variety of shows, and has perfected his use of flexible, glass-like materials for built-in luminosity. For her Coachella performance, Lisa wore a series of clear petals across her chest that “looked like glass but bent like leather,” said Levine, holding a petal up to the camera and manipulating it with his hands to demonstrate. “This is the future that Blade Runner predicted.”
One of the biggest challenges for Levine is producing a technologically advanced outfit that allows high-octane artists to move freely. After all, these are not static looks, such as those that might feature in a magazine editorial. “Building these pieces for a performance is literally like building for a sports athlete,” he explained.
However, Levine recognizes that a second-skin scaly bodysuit may only appeal to specific entertainers, but so far, he’s found likeminded clients who seek to push boundaries not only with their work but also in their style.
“These are the kinds of people that I’ve been focused on evolving,” he continued. “That’s who my customer is. You’re the other, you’re avant-garde. Asher Levine isn’t for everyone.”
The-CNN-Wire
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