All around the country, college students, TikTok influencers, and models are preparing to head into the desert for three straight days of music, blistering heat, and one single water refill station. That’s right—Coachella is upon us.
Unlike years past, people seem particularly blasé about Coachella right now. The preeminent three-day festival usually sells out instantly. At its height in 2015, every last ticket had been purchased in a record-breaking 40 minutes. Now, tickets are still available for a festival that begins tomorrow.
It feels like there's a similar sluggishness about festival fashion. With the trend cycle accelerating at warp speed, there doesn’t seem to be a predominant fashion trend that everyone is on board with. (Though, we wouldn’t be surprised to see cowboy hats galore from people who loved Cowboy Carter but wouldn’t be caught dead at Stagecoach.)
Coachella peaked during the brief, but glorious period between 2012 and 2016 when Rihanna rolled a joint on her bodyguard’s head, Tupac Shakur’s hologram took the stage with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and Frank Ocean emerged as Odd Future’s prodigal son.
The festival’s fashion seemed to peak around then as well (the obvious caveat being the cultural appropriation that has since served as a “what not to do” guide). Lacey boho numbers, floppy hats, and jorts were abundant. But nothing seemed more omnipresent than the flower crown. It seems like a time capsule: from Gigi Hadid prancing around with then-boyfriend Cody Simpson, to Vanessa Hudgens earning the (well-deserved) title of Queen of Coachella. Fashions of the time feel that way, too. Obvious, even. And that is far from a bad thing. The question wasn’t “What do I wear?” but rather, “Which flower crown should I pair with my macramé halter top?”
Today, there seems to be no shared sartorial experience, which is part of what made Coachella feel like an escape. Arguably, Burning Man and its new wave population of wooks, tech bros, and yuppies have filled the void that Coachella left, but to an extreme that doesn’t appeal to nearly as many people. Perhaps one day, we will find ourselves unified in fashion once again. But who knows if it the festival will recover in time?
