This photo published by the LA Weekly pretty much sums up why I don’t want to go to Coachella. Pretty girls, sure, lot of skin and useless accessories, but are these people really attending a music festival or are they attending a fashion gig? Are they just here to show off their highly-researched bohemian look? Has Coachella become a fashion show?
I think it has! So many Fashion & Style magazines like Elle, Marie Claire, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Racked LA,… are all over Coachella fashion, and it is becoming a real obsession for these people to look good on the Indio grounds. It may have reached a ridiculous level at this point, as these people couldn’t care less about AC/DC, Jack White, Drake or any of the bands playing during the 2 weekends, they are here because they have spent so much money on their outfits they want everyone to see them.
I find really absurd that people spend $375 (the price of a 3-day pass) to sashay all day long. Plus you have to count all the rest, the ticket is just the smallest part of a Coachella budget, the LA Weekly interviewed a woman who estimated to spend about $1,200 for her weekend!! Sure you have to count the gas to get there, the hotel rooms, the over-priced food and drinks and the $200 outfit…
When did music festivals got so expensive with such a ridiculous a dress code? Everywhere you read, ‘Coachella essentials’, ‘Festival must haves’, and sites are full of photos showing young girls wearing ultra short denims, fringes, crochet bras, feathers, flower crowns, while showing a lot of skin,… a sort of Victoria Secret runway for hippies. Look, there is Claire’s Spring collection with Katy Perry’s ‘Forever Festival’, Net-a-Porter has a Coachella Cool hub, with an $11,190 Saint Laurent crocheted mini-dress!
Noisey style editor Kim Taylor Bennett describes the situation very well: ‘People are constantly documenting not just what’s on stage, but also what their friends are doing. They’re not as concerned with the experience as much as they are with what they’re going to project later on social media.’
Have we reached this Instagram/Facebook/Twitter thing getting bigger than the live music experience? We are right there, no doubt about it.
‘People are going to pool parties that are in the middle of the day to have free booze and get photographed and then end up on the style blogs,’ adds Taylor Bennett. ‘It’s ideal for brands because there are all of these really hot people in one place. They can leverage those people’s cool and spread the word about whatever it is that they’re promoting. It isn’t really about hardcore music fans going to see bands, it’s about people going to get fucked up and party with their friends and, oh, if Arcade Fire is on, that’s cool.’
What a mess Coachella has become! If these people want to have a very expensive pool party in the middle of the desert, they really don’t need all these bands around. What a waste!
‘People really think about what they’re going to wear now,’ also says Vanessa Spence, design director of British e-tailer ASOS. ‘The viewpoint on festival as a season has changed. People want to dress up and plan their outfits.’
Forever 21 has some festival merchandise starting in March, Free People has a festival shop in late March through August, but I get the impression they do it all-year long. H&M has a pop-up shop line right on the festival grounds, where festival-goers can purchase exclusive pieces from its Coachella-branded. Every brand is cashing on Coachella and other festivals… Even this super-chic West-Hollywood boutique offers a cashmere-silk t-shirt printed with Indio on it,… and priced at $540!
Honestly, when I go to a festival — and my biggest one so far has been the FYF fest — I wonder how some girls can still stand up wearing the shoes they are wearing all day-long… I see so many unpractical outfits for the sake of fashion, that I pity these people… or not! I always go for comfy sneakers and pants with lots of pockets, but that’s just me, I have never cared for fashion, and I can only laugh at these rich people’s fantasy for a bohemian life… Coachella is more than ever a poser’s dream and I am no poser.