Coachella looks at everything from Lady Gaga to Sabrina Carpenter – and costumes that can make and destroy careers

Behind the creation of the festival’s most iconic and outrageous costumes is from wardrobe malfunctions to insider tips and viral sensations.

Lisa recently broke the corset strap. The cast members of K-Pop Superstar and White Lotus were waiting to say hello to her Los Angeles hotel fans, but it was the wrong one step outside her suite, and it would not have been a sudden opportunity for photography. “I’ve always put my backup corset with me on Uber,” Genesis Webb, fashion director at Pop Star Chappell Roan and one of Lisa’s main style advisors, tells the BBC. “This is the number one rule for styling music artists. Anything can happen.”

As artists like Lisa, Lady Gaga and Charli XCX descend at Palm Springs Desert for Coachella’s 26th Music and Arts Festival, they bring an elite team of creative directors and fashion experts whose visual works can make and break performances. “An artist’s attire at Coachella can be a monumental tool for establishing one’s identity or reinventing one’s own,” says Thomasmere, a Rolling Stone music critic and staff writer. “Look at what Sabrina Carpenter achieved on stage last year. Babydoll dress, big blonde hair, pastels – using that iconography on stage, it made an impact in creating a global hit, creating a career as a pop star.” Meanwhile, Mier said that unfocused or “chaotic” outfits could lead to ock laughs online, and even worse, “If people don’t want to see you on stage, they just stop paying attention. That’s a death kiss for a pop star career.”

For emerging artists looking to become stardom, getting fashion right can quickly benefit. Witness Chapel Lawn arrived as an underground indie singer at last year’s Coachella Festival and left the newly crowned star. “She had cult support, but she was never mainstream,” Webb says. “The audience still knew they needed to ‘see’ her. I knew that style would help define her in the world. “Webbe asked the California costume shop Jackaro Planned to create a giant. Beaded butterfly suit For the singer, it quickly became a viral sensation. “Everyone knew what she was after that. People still wear butterfly clothes as Halloween costumes. That’s how you know you did your job.”

Despite the high-looking interests of an artist’s signature concert, the time to make it often gets shorter. “By the time I get through creative inspiration, logistics and budgets, I’m watching three weeks from final ideas to performance,” says longtime creative director of June Ambrose’s Missy Elliott, telling the BBC. The costume designer and fashion director is responsible for some of Elliot’s most indelible images of 1997 music Inflatable suit For Rain Video (Supa dupa Fly) A tracksuit tailored in couture At the 2003 Grammy Awards.

Elliott’s 2024 world tour will feature over 2500,000 costumes covered by rhinestones, many of which will be appearing at Coachella this weekend. Ambrose also creates three appearances of hip hop stars. All the elaborate looks are towed into the desert by a tractor trailer before the show. Also, the entire showcast will be bone-drying Coachella Valley with new looks from dancers and special effects fabrics.

Why is there so much investment in the clothing itself? “From the start, Missy has always been an individual type of artist,” says Ambrose. “She’s reshaping the culture of hip hop and is keen to redefine what women in the space look like.” Ambrose says Elliott sees her concert as a “complete experience” to match Broadway musicals and blockbuster films. “We develop the show with a three-act structure. There are stories. There are characters. The costumes translate Missy’s songs into visuals. They express the same energy and emotions as the music, helping Missy enter the character on stage.” It also serves as a memory marker for the viewer, giving a cue of simultaneous visual and audio that could be embedded deeper into the brain, allowing Elliott’s music Canon to hang out on a head that has no rentals. “Missy has been an iconic performer for a long time, so we consider it a real challenge,” says Ambrose. “Now we continue to ask ourselves, “How do we raise the game?” Other than that Can I try it? “The goal is to show them something they have never seen before. ”

Like Elliott, Beyoncé used style in 2018 to tell the story on the famous Coachella set. Instead of the usual Arsenal in a stunning couture gown and crystal-studded leotard, she worked with stylist Marni Senofonte to present a more unexpected arch type.

To create numbers to stop the show, Senofonte is currently working with Balmain’s Olivier Rousting, the only black women’s clothing designer at a major luxury fashion house. Combining the heavy, elaborate outfit with a stunning, light-air choreography, Beyoncé admitted in the 2019 Netflix documentary Homecoming.

“She raised the bar in a way that other artists weren’t close to reaching,” says Mie. “And she did it through visuals. It’s a microcosm of using Coachella for your artistry through fashion.”

Sometimes, artists use concert styles to become personal with their audience. The 2025 Coachella set, which tracks trekking from Texas rappers to global superstars, takes your stallion with you, using fashion as a sign post along the way. To represent her early years in the Houston rap scene, stylist Eric Archibald has found work by young artists like the brightly colored “Old School Citizens’ Human Denim” that appears on stage. As the show proceeded to Megan Terraon’s subsequent albums, her outfit changed to reflect her success. “It’s such a huge moment that we have everything we want to customize,” Archibald tells the BBC. “The clothes really help the audience go on a journey with her during the show. They see where she comes from and where she goes. It seems like something you’ve never seen before. It’s gorgeous and very moving.”

Body movements are just as important as an emotional whirlwind. During the performance, the artist is on stage for up to three hours, often playing full dance routines and powerhouse vocals, navigating moving light rigs, constant set changes and costume swaps to milliseconds. When hair artist Daniel Priano created the beach waves of Sabrina Carpenter on Saturday Night Live, She brought in a dozen cans of suitable hair products to ensure that pop star hair had enough movement to make it look natural, but it was well-shaped as even the distinctive bomb style of the high-contrast video carpenter was unmistakable.

“They say the TV will add 10 pounds (4.5kg), but the TV screen and concert jumbotron. [large, hi-res video screens] It actually lightens the appearance of your hair. That’s why 90% of pop stars use hair extensions,” says Priano, who also creates the look of Rose, Mariah Carey and Lisa’s hair. Complete the characters on stage. At least a month of preparation time, you should order hair extensions from celebrities, dye and curl. She told me during her last big tour, her hair extensions began to fall off her head. She pulled it into the ponytail between songs, making it look like a costume change. She needed someone who could handle that type of madness because things don’t always go well. ”

“My motto is that there is always a solution before a problem arises,” says Ambrose, Missy Elliott’s elaborate costume. “For a quick change, we did the drill and wardrobe crew. They are superheroes. They can pull it apart within a minute.” To facilitate movement around the stage, Ambrose enlisted in Timberland designer Tad Smith to create ultra-high work boots made from eight layers of stacked soles. “We inserted foam to fill the interior of the leatherboard and reduce the weight,” Smith says. To help protect Meghan’s stallion’s face from Coachella’s infamous gusts of wind, Archibald commissioned a custom-made cowboy hat from Stetson, which reminds her cowgirl roots, along with hand-carved leather boots that allow artists to navigate the dust and sand of the desert.

But sometimes Webb says, “Costumes are more important than comfort. They know what they’re starting out. They’re pop stars. This is what they train.” She cites Lisa from K-Pop Sensation Blackpink as a prime example. “The discipline and knowledge required to work in that world are extremists. It’s incredible. You ask how she wants to see. She can tell you exactly what she already wants. I bring my feelings about clothes.

She also brings in an extra corset just in case.

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