You may not immediately recognize the name Charlie Le Mindu, but you've no doubt seen his some of his outlandish hair styles over the years. Responsible for conceptualizing and coining the term "Haute Coiffure," the French hairstylist has been pushing the limits of hair for the better part of a decade, and bridging the gap between the worlds of high fashion, high art and avant-garde style.
Now, some of Le Mindu's most recognizable work is set to go up on the auction block thanks to Parisian auction house, Artcurial. Featuring a variety of pieces from across his career including hair dresses, masks, hair skulls and the Blonde Lips that Lady Gaga famously wore in the music video for "Bad Romance," the auction marks the first time of any of Le Mindu's pieces have been up for sale.
“I am evolving a lot in my practice and I feel like it is time for me to let go of my iconic pieces,” Le Mindu said to Dazed. “For many years people wanted to buy them and I refused. As I am coming back to costume and fashion, I need to clear my vision and finally trust that they will go to someone that will take care of them.”
Having worked with everyone from Yelle to Brooke Candy, serving up punk chops for Vivienne Westwood and making messages out of chest hair for Art School, Le Mindu's work is as prolific as it is virtuosic, drawing inspiration from European nightlife, and the artist's own sense of whimsy and fantasy.
Among the pieces up for auction include the aforementioned Blonde Lips, which premiered at the end of Alexander McQueen's final show, a couple of hair dresses Gaga wore promoting her Born This Way album, costumes designed for the Berlin State Ballet and hair masks that photographer Richard Burbridge shot for PAPER in 2017. Prices for the works art are set to range anywhere from roughly $10,000 to $200,000.
"Having always been fascinated by hair and its movements, I consider hairdressing as an Art in its own right," Le Mindu says. "Traveling and living in different places, I met people: I fell in love with cultures, of different eclectic personalities, of the electrical energy of cities and forces of nature, plural expressions and difference. I have explored weirdness, the boundaries of beauty and gender. I fed myself of this multiplicity of singularities, which gave me the inspiration and the strength to take hairdressing to new territories, to create hybrids such as Haute Coiffure, Tricophilic Art or hair choreographies."
Check out the full auction catalog, here.
Photography: Richard Burbridge for PAPER
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