Sylvie Therezien / Fashion And Dress History BA(Hons)

 

fashion models

 

Since the seminal music festival Woodstock 1969, a set of beliefs have been incorporated into the DNA of American rock and pop festivals. These beliefs are largely based on the ideologies of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s, which preached a utopian ideal of peace, love, and liberation. Fast-forwarding thirty years, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was founded in 1999 and hosted its first event. This was the rebirth of the American location music festival and largely mirrored the hippie ideals of Woodstock through the presentation of both liminal space and liminal performance, which allowed social escapism for its attendees.

Inspired by the established hippie ideals and carnivalesque liminal space of Coachella, attendees started to develop a certain style worn in this festival environment, also incorporating western characteristics due to the Southwestern desert setting, and modern fashion trends due to the growing significance of marketing at Coachella. Furthermore, due to the setting of the liminal space which allows for inverted social norms, there is a liberation of female sexuality present in Coachella fashion. The increasing presence of social media influencers and millennial celebrities starting to attend Coachella in the 2010s caused major fashion brands, such as Revolve and Levi’s, to begin hosting parties and sponsoring the festival and its famous attendees. This presence served as a catalyst for the international spread of this trend, turning the Coachella style into a significant fashion subgenre worn to festivals over the globe and the festival into the new fashion week for millennials.

 

fashion models at a a festival
Alessandra Ambrosio and her model crew at Coachella 2018. 2018. Colour photograph. Vogue. Instagram.com/alessandrambrosio.