Exclusive: Meet the Designer Behind Lisa’s Reptilian Coachella Look

When Blackpink’s Lisa hit Coachella’s main stage on Friday for her highly anticipated solo performance, she turned heads in a jaw-dropping look that instantly caught the attention of festival-goers and fans worldwide. As she stepped into the spotlight wrapped in a massive black puffer jacket—an unexpected choice for the sweltering Californian sun—little did the crowd know that she was about to unveil a mesmerizing, reptilian bodysuit that would leave everyone in awe.

The jacket came off, and there it was: Lisa in a stunning suit covered from head to toe in interlocking, geometric scales. “She’s the reptilian villain,” said Asher Levine, the designer behind the look, during a video call from his Los Angeles studio. “It’s very creature couture.”

Levine, known for creating otherworldly, avant-garde stagewear for icons like Lady Gaga, Doja Cat, and Grace Jones, was given a tight deadline to design two custom looks for Lisa’s Coachella performances, with less than a month to get everything ready. “We’ve been going for a week and a half, day and night,” Levine shared with CNN just before the event. “I even went to bed early last night to prepare for this interview.”

The journey to create Lisa’s custom 3D reptilian suit began with an innovative approach. Levine first took a full body scan of the K-pop star to get her exact measurements. This data was then uploaded to a digital tailoring system, allowing Levine to create the design on a virtual avatar of Lisa before moving into production. His creative process didn’t stop there—he employed AI to design a one-of-a-kind scale pattern, which was then passed on to his sculpture division. There, each individual “scute” (the overlapping scales) was handcrafted to perfection, mimicking the texture of a lizard’s skin.

Levine, who’s been dubbed a “leather industry disruptor,” has a bold vision of replacing traditional exotic skins like crocodile and alligator with cruelty-free alternatives. “We don’t have to kill animals anymore,” he explained. “We can evolve beyond that.”

Creating the reptilian suit was a meticulous task. The translucent scales and the horns perched on Lisa’s shoulders each required between 50 and 60 hours of work. Despite the help of cutting-edge digital tools, the process demanded an immense amount of time and precision to achieve the extraordinary level of detail and craftsmanship.

For Lisa’s second Coachella look, Levine turned to nature for inspiration once again, this time drawing from bioluminescent insects and translucent fungi. The result was a sheer, ethereal catsuit with glowing, 3D-printed blue and pink tendrils, each equipped with fiber optic lights that glowed with an extraterrestrial aura.

“I wanted to take the idea of nature and push it forward into something that feels like the next level of exotic,” Levine said. “People have been wearing nature for centuries—flowers, animal prints. But what does ‘exotic 2.0’ look like?”

To achieve this, Levine fused prehistoric creatures with futuristic technology, a concept he’s explored before with creations like the Terrelli clutch bag, inspired by the ancient Dunkleosteus fish. His work continues to push boundaries by creating “chimeric organisms” that bridge the gap between nature and the future.

One of the biggest challenges Levine faces when designing for high-energy artists like Lisa is ensuring that the outfits are not only stunning but also functional. “Building these pieces for a performance is literally like building for a sports athlete,” he said. The outfits need to move seamlessly with the performer’s body while supporting the intense energy of live shows.

While a second-skin, scaly bodysuit may not be for everyone, Levine has found clients who are eager to embrace bold, avant-garde designs that push the limits of fashion and performance. “These are the kinds of people that I’ve been focused on evolving,” he said. “You’re the other, the avant-garde. Asher Levine isn’t for everyone.”

For now, Lisa’s Coachella looks have set the bar high for performance fashion, merging technology, nature, and artistry in a way that’s never been seen before on stage. As Levine puts it, “This is the future that Blade Runner predicted.”