Coachella 2025: kink-adjacent style at April’s twin weekends

COACHELLA 2025: KINK-ADJACENT STYLE AT APRIL’S TWIN WEEKENDS

Coachella 2025, which just occupied two consecutive weekends (April 11-13 and 18-20) at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA, continued this year to be almost as important for showcasing edgy and kink-adjacent fashion as for its mix of rock, pop, hip-hop, electronic and indie music styles.

Quite a few of this year’s artists appeared at both weekends — including headliner Lady Gaga, who, it seems to be generally agreed, was this year’s desert queen. But while the latex-loving superstar executed numerous costume changes — including donning a set of steel ‘armour’ pieces by a longtime fet scene favourite, Spanish designer Manuel Albarran — she left the embrace of more hardcore fetish looks to other Coachella performers.

Of those looks, perhaps the most visually arresting were the ‘alien reptile’ bodysuits (seen above and immediately below) created for Thai K-Pop superstar Lisa (Lalisa Manobal) of Blackpink by designer Asher Levine in collaboration with Lisa’s stylist Brett Alan Nelson. Not only did these reptile outfits sit provocatively at the intersection of sci-fi creature and more traditional fetish style. They also represented a growing Coachella trend for artists of a certain standing to work with specialist, technical movie/theatrical costume designers rather than ‘just’ the elite fashion designers and couturiers who might previously have satisfied their need to stand out from the crowd.

Top image: Thai superstar Lisa (Lalisa Manobal), famous as a member of K-Pop girl group Blackpink, performed at both weekends of Coachella 2025 in reptile skinsuits created by designer Asher Levine in collaboration with stylist Brett Alan Nelson (more Lisa pix below)

Two more views of the sculpted reptile skinsuits created by Asher Levine for Lisa’s Coachella 2025 appearances. Levine also made the black coat Lisa is wearing over the red suit on the left

That’s why we’ve chosen Lisa and her creature costumes (see above) to head-up this look at what, for us at least, were the most interesting outfits seen over the two weekends of Coachella 2025.

In fetish fabric terms, leather was again more widely chosen than latex, but the fact that quite a bit of the leather was black and BDSM-ish suggests that traditional kink style has not yet lost its power to enthrall at such events. And some might even feel that the widespread celebrity embrace of colourful latex has actually inspired some erstwhile lovers of such looks — Megan Thee Stallion for example — to get back to pervery’s roots by getting back to black this year (see final image below).

Singer-songwriter Amaarae (left) – the first Ghanaian artist to appear at Coachella – and Venezuelan musician/record producer Arca (right – photo: Emma McIntyre) both performed at Coachella 2025 in Rick Owens leather ensembles

By complete coincidence, the first two artists in the A-Z section of our Coachella 2025 roll of honour both performed in black leather ensembles by designer Rick Owens. Singer-songwriter Amaarae (above left) — the first Ghanaian artist to appear at the festival — chose a black leather batwing top and shorts combo teamed with thighboots for her debut. Online research indicates that her Coachella debut won Amaarae substantial column inches in Ghana’s homegrown media.

Venezuelan musician/record producer Arca, meanwhile, went for a substantially fuller-coverage Rick Owens look (above right) comprising black leather top, skirt and leggings over which she wore a leather coat (if that’s the right term) that mirrored the ‘open’ construction of cargo or climbing nets. It conferred on the gothic-looking singer the appearance of a predatory spider sitting at the centre of her web, which might well have been the exact aim!

Julia Fox graced Coachella 2025 in a leather ensemble from London brand KNWLS, comprising mini-cape, back-laced bustier and side-laced mini-chaps, over a bodystocking and G-string (photos: Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin)

Julia Fox (above) is one of those people whose value to major events like Coachella lies increasingly in her willingness just to turn up. She doesn’t have to perform onstage — her performance is embodied in the outfits she chooses to wear in public. These are frequently characterised as ‘eccentric’, and can lead to her making it onto either the best- or worst-dressed lists of the fashion pundits monitoring such events.

The Italian-American actress, model and media personality — whose myriad other occupations have ranged from dominatrix to movie director — kept the camera-shutters of Coachella 2025 paparazzi busy with an eye-popping leather ensemble from London brand KNWLS. It comprised brown mini-cape and armlets teamed with cream back-laced bustier and side-laced mini-chaps over a body-stocking and G-string, all finished off with brown knee-boots.

Kylie Jenner (left) at Coachella in a simple lemon-yellow Poster Girl latex minidress matching the can colour of her new Sprinter mango-flavoured vodka drink (photo: kyliejenner/drinksprinter.com). Right: Lady Gaga performed in a variety of outfits, some of which could be called ‘fet-ish’, such as the armour, above, by Manuel Albarran (image: Kevin Mazur)

Another regular at events like Coachella is Kylie Jenner (above left), whose performance usually consists of turning up to promote her Sprinter vodka soda brand. Since Sprinter just launched a mango-flavoured variant in a lemon-yellow can, it was entirely appropriate that Kylie wore a colour-matched skintight latex minidress from London designers Poster Girl. Some people might go as far as to say that one appearance by Ms Jenner in a dress like this goes a considerable way towards compensating for the decrease in latex elsewhere at the event, but we couldn’t possibly comment.

Meanwhile, we’ve chosen the image, above right, of Lady Gaga in her Manuel Albarran armour as being the most striking fet-adjacent look of her many Coachella 2025 outfits. Some might argue that the all-black gothic costume she adopted for another big production number was more authentically kink-core, but its styling was unusually plain for a Gaga look.

Lexi Renee (left) at Coachella 2025 rocking ‘a little latex number’ by Hollywood designer/stylist Venus Prototype, who is also Lexi’s partner. Right: Megan Thee Stallion (image: Kevin Mazur) performed in this and another black leather bikini outfit at the event

Hollywood stylist and designer Venus Prototype, who has clad, in latex, many of the successful and aspiring artists who perform at events of this kind, sent a very special brand ambassador to Coachella 2025 in the form of Lexi Renee (above left), who is also Venus’s beloved. Venus is known for a her colourful and exotic latex creations, many of which feature printed latex from Venus & Violet, the designer’s collaborative brand with her daughter. But for Lexi’s appearance at the festival, a black latex, belted bikini outfit heavily adorned with spikes and other shiny metal bling was the order of the day.

Last but not least for this Coachella fashion round-up, another established Venus Prototype fan — Megan Thee Stallion — appeared onstage in a couple of black bikini outfits that definitely leaned towards the ‘bikinki’ end of the spectrum. But on this occasion, both costumes appeared to be leather rather than latex, and had no designer credits anywhere that we could find. Still looked great though!

The next edition — Coachella 2026 — will take place on April 10-12 and April 17-19, 2026.