“Who Is This?”: Doja Cat on Boobs, Britney, and Influence

The iconic Doja Cat is on this year’s Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people, with an entry written by none other than Interview favorite Baz Luhrmann. A couple days before the annual Time Gala, our editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg called Doja from Paris to get the tea on her look—a custom-designed Skechers dress, made of deconstructed sneakers—and find out what it means to be influential.

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DOJA CAT: Hi, dear.

MEL OTTENBERG: Good morning.

DOJA: Good morning. How are you?

OTTENBERG: Welcome to New York. I’m in Paris. I’m very jet-lagged, but it’s great. You look really hot. I love your outfit.

DOJA: Thank you. I just got my boobs done.

OTTENBERG: Did you really?

DOJA: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: They look really great. They still look like the same girls.

DOJA: They’re just more full and they’re up. I didn’t want them bigger, I just chose the smallest thing that they had and they put that in, and then lifted.

OTTENBERG: You have the craziest figure. They look real, babes.

DOJA: Yeah. They’re very sturdy. I can put on little Dorito tops and nothing happens, nothing moves.

OTTENBERG: You know what? Amen, girl. Yeah. So are you in New York because you’re one of Time‘s 100 most influential people in the world?

DOJA: Yes, and other reasons as well. Which is amazing.

OTTENBERG: You’re so influential, Doja. You’re so influential.

DOJA: Thank you.

OTTENBERG: That’s really cool. What are you wearing tomorrow night?

DOJA: What is tomorrow?

OTTENBERG: I think it’s tomorrow. Is it today?

DOJA: It’s tomorrow. Okay. No, it’s tomorrow. Brett Alan Nelson, my stylist, collaborated with Frisk Me Good to make this dress. I’m wearing a custom Skechers top and skirt, but it’s deconstructed Skechers. It’s the Uno sneaker, but it’s black, and then they just ripped it apart and put it back together into this cutout corset piece that I love and it’s brilliant. I don’t know the girl’s name. But it’s amazing and Brett would know, so we need to text him about that.

OTTENBERG: Brett will be texted. No worries. I love Skechers. I’ve always loved Skechers. I love Skechers ads in the subway of New York City for the last 25 years I have lived in New York. Skechers is iconic and only for the greatest of pop stars. Do you agree?

DOJA: Yes, I agree. I saw that Britney did something that was just like-

OTTENBERG: Yes.

DOJA: It was amazing.

OTTENBERG: It was. Britney is very Skechers. Christina did Skechers. You’re doing Skechers. Skechers is perfect for you. It’s like sassy and bitchy and fun.

DOJA: I kind of want to take a different road with them. Because I feel like they’ve done a lot of pop star type vibes and I feel like it would be fun to make them go in a different direction. I don’t want to give away too much. It’s hard.

OTTENBERG: Well, you’re a new version of many pop things. That’s what makes you so exciting. But wait, what exactly are you doing with them?

DOJA: So I have the Uno that I’m pushing now that I’m very into, and then I have another sneaker that I’ve been working on for maybe a year now, it feels like. But that’ll be coming out soon. And it’s the best sneaker in the world and I’m so proud of it. And I wear them. I wear the prototypes around, I work out in the prototype. I’m constantly wearing them. They’re my favorite shoes.

OTTENBERG: Sick.

DOJA: So that’ll be a big thing for me. And there’s going to be a ton of different colorways. And we’ve been sitting down and just editing different blueprints and whatnot for the shoe. But yeah, there’s a lot of really beautiful color stories and I’m excited.

OTTENBERG: And you can dance and work out and shit in Skechers, you can do whatever.

DOJA: Absolutely. Especially the one that I’m coming out with, the last shoe that I’ll be releasing will be that kind of shoe. I wanted to make something that you can work out and dance in that feels cute, but also is a functional shoe that compliments the body. And there’s a lot of things that went into it that I’m really confident about.

OTTENBERG: That’s exciting. Wait, in all seriousness, it’s so sick that you’re on this Time 100 list. Was that a surprise? How does it feel?

DOJA: Yeah. I am flattered and I’m honored and I feel good. I’m glad that people enjoy what I’m doing at all, right? I love doing it. I love doing it. But the fact that it pours out into other people’s lives and makes them feel good and makes them feel like I deserve that, great, cool. I remember going to the Time 100 page and seeing them post me there and I was like, “Wow, cool.” Then I opened the comments section and almost every single person there was just like, “Who is this?” It’s kind of a funny thing that happens, but it’s fine. It’s more than fine. I’m very happy and very honored.

OTTENBERG: What’s your favorite color Skecher in the Uno?

DOJA: My favorite? Probably black. I’d probably wear black the most. I like to think of them in that way. Like, “What would I wear for the rest of my life?” I would go with black but I think there’s every fucking color under the sun. They’re more like primaries, solid. There’s a bright pink, bright green, bright blue, an orange, everything for every colorful girl.

OTTENBERG: What else have you got going on right now that you can tell me?

DOJA: What else do I have going on right now? I am working on my album right now. I don’t have an album title, we’re working on that. It’s done. It’s basically done. I think I have just a few sessions here. I have two or three that I’m going to be going in and adding some stuff or taking things out. It really is basically finished. And so I’m really excited about that because it’s something very different than what I’ve been doing forever.

OTTENBERG: Ooh. You probably can’t tell me any more than that, but I’ll wait. We’ll all just have to wait.

DOJA: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: Any vague timing?

DOJA: Soon.

OTTENBERG: Okay. Good answer. What flavor is your thing that you’re smoking?

DOJA: Chili Mango and it’s so fucking good. And it’s zero nicotine.

OTTENBERG: Oh wow. It’s zero nicotine?

DOJA: Yeah. I haven’t smoked nicotine in like 10 weeks. And then Elle just came out with a shoot where I’m smoking a cigarette, but it was when I was smoking. They’ve had these photos in this interview for a thousand years, and now people are like, “Oh my God, she’s smoking again.” But I don’t smoke. I’m nicotine free. And I love nicotine free vapes. Any zero nicotine vape doesn’t hit, it just feels like you’re breathing and it’s like, “What is this?” It feels pointless. But this thing really feels… It hits, it has the same effect. I also got hypnotherapy.

OTTENBERG: Hypnotized, yeah.

DOJA: And it worked, like immediately. I did it and then just didn’t smoke after that, forever. But yeah, it actually hits. It hits and it’s delicious. It’s so good. It’s by Foodgod.

OTTENBERG: Oh, it’s by Foodgod. I saw Foodgod at Matsuhisa. Anyway, I was too starstruck, I didn’t talk to him, but I was gagged that he was there. Well, I’m excited to see you in this dress, this custom Skecher’s gown. Thanks for getting on the phone with me.

DOJA: Thank you.

OTTENBERG: Have a good day in New York City.

DOJA: You too, babe. Love you.