Getting Ready With Mia Moretti at Coachella: The DJ Talks Going Sheer in Balmain and Fashion’s ‘Codependent’ Relationship With Music

Mia Moretti has been coming to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the past 15 years, spinning hits at peripheral events, pool parties, after-parties and more. But 2024 is the year she created the soundtrack on the festival grounds at the DoLab stage on April 14, concluding the Coachella’s first weekend before it wrapped on April 21.

With years of experience behind her, Moretti said she was prepared with a look that was well-equipped for the elements.

“I know exactly what I need for the desert, and the wind can be really gnarly at night sometimes — and it can get really dusty, so you can end up covered in dust or get dust in your eyes or sunscreen in your eyes,” Moretti told WWD. “These little things are just things that come with, you know, rubbing it out for a few years. So, I think my style ought to be really, really easy. But also it’s not too serious and not too staged or planned out. But, still fun.”

Moretti chose a sheer brown monogram top by Balmain, blue plaid Ottolinger trousers, white Desigual sneakers and red Celine sunglasses.

She describes the relationship between fashion and music as “codependent” — for her, it can keep an audience in sync with the mood of a performer.

“On a stage, we’re watching, so you can’t not see what someone’s wearing. It’s influencing the entire show, and it totally influences how the artist is performing because you can sort of notice when an artist feels uncomfortable in what they’re wearing, or when they feel amazing in what they’re wearing, and luckily most of the time, that really just helps bring out the best performance possible.”

Moretti kept her glam scaled back, too — which is a major departure from the many cocktail parties she frequents as a DJ, like at WIF Max Mara Face of the Future Award event last November in LA, or spinning at the opening of Banana Republic’s BR Home store on Melrose Avenue.

“I come from the world of playing so many fashion events, especially in the fast-fashion after-parties, and I always had full hair and makeup because it was just part of the routine,” Moretti said. “And now, I’m sort of embracing making music and putting my own music out and playing new shows. Usually, there’s not so many photographers around all the time and there’s no carpet and stuff like that that you have to worry about looking perfect, especially here in Coachella.”

“Everyone’s just having a good time — less is more here,” Moretti added.

A good time they had, indeed. Moretti was joined by her longtime friend Katy Perry, who was clad in a Moretti-branded concert tee that was emblazoned in a figure of a woman wearing a bikini featuring pepperoni pizza slices. “I made merch for the first time ever — I had to because it was such a momentous occasion for me,” Moretti said. “I made a bikini T-shirt. Those bikini T-shirts that you buy like on Venice Beach, California. It’s like a hot body. I gave her huge t–s because I’ve never had them.”

Though the venues are changing as Moretti explores creating her own music, most recently an EP with DJ Minx, her goals remain the same.

“For a lot of people, my job is to make people forget about their day, whatever their work, their family, their stress, and just have a good time. Sometimes those are big shoes to fill,” Moretti explained. “If you’re in a funk or you have a bad day… now it’s like, let’s dust it off, whatever was lingering, and let’s start fresh here. We’re at the party now, and stuff that brings in energy, and spread that.”