CHARLIE LE MINDU

OVERVIEW

So French hair stylist Charlie Le Mindu has officially turned his attention to clothing fashion. Renowned for some of Lady Gaga's striking and sculptural hair styles, he is now using his love for the art of hair to demonstrate a somewhat unconventional clothing line. Charlie Le Mindu began designing clothes in 2009 but is now due to show at Paris Haute Couture week with his Spring 2013 collection using human hair and Japanese leather as his predominant choice of materials and is quoted "The hair just looks like textured leather,...it’s very organic, but also kind of fetishistic.” 

"To describe Le Mindu's childhood as unusual would be an understatement. Born to a Spanish gypsy father and a French drag king mother (one of the first in the country), Le Mindu's youth was filled with reluctant rugby matches and trips to watch his mother work the stage at gay nightclubs. "My mother always reminds me that, from the age of six, I wanted to be a hairdresser," says Le Mindu, who got his start playing with Mummy's locks and shaving the hair off his Barbie dolls. "I wanted to make them look like lesbians," he quips in his frank, utterly French, and often unintentionally funny tone." (http://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/charlie-le-mindu/#_) And upon my learning of this, there appears to be instant clarity in terms of where his inspiration and drive formulates from, considering his four years cutting the hair of drag queens in Berlin from the age of 17, it is understandable that his development of style happened to be a little eccentric. Although despite this, from the very beginning of his career he has always preferred to work traditionally and insisted on traditional training methods when learning his trade in hair styling. Himself donning a retro punk revival 'do' inspired by that of Johnny Depp in Cry Baby, this traditional insistence is clear to see. He is quoted by Interview Magazine to have described "this day and age, maybe because of grunge and all that, people think it's sexy to look like a mess. And it is. But sometimes we need to look to the past. Not copy it, but just take it as an example."

As a hair stylist and designer combined, Charlie Le Mindu takes influence from 'older' icons such as Cher, Iggy Pop and John Waters as well as lesser known personalities who may be known for certain statements or obscurities. "Conversely, he is also inspired by a number of new and unique performers from the present, citing Canadian artist, musician and music video director Claire Boucher (a.k.a Grimes), British singer-songwriter and actress Rita Ora, American rapper and lyricist Azealia Banks (formerly known as Miss Bank$)."

COLLABORATION 

Charlie Le Mindu has really been able to flaunt his name since his collaboration with Lady Gaga. She has been spotted countless times wearing his boundary-pushing, exclusive creations; these designs even making it to her album covers.  She has stepped out wearing some incredible pieces by Le Mindu, particularly head pieces, and has been a great platform for his career in terms of gaining recognition and to some degree acceptance by the fashion industry. It would now probably come as no surprise to you that he was infact also the mystery artistic mind behind Gaga's world renowned 'hair bow.' 

MY OPINION

I personally am not a huge fan of Charlie Le Mindu's work. There are some pieces which are beautiful, undeniably creative and innovative but I think it is very difficult to make such an unusual choice of material; such being human hair, look professional and sophisticated. Although he is clearly incredibly talented and advanced in his craft, I prefer his work on wigs and head pieces rather than his body adorments and I see them as appearing slightly cheap and often out of taste.