CULTURE
Coachella and Cementing the Teenage Years
By: Arieza Maglalang Edited By: Tessa Reiner
Coachella is a place where all inhibitions are thrown away, and from Friday to Sunday, all that exists is music and youth. The annual music festival is held over two weekends and gets its appeal from not only the music industry but for fashion purposes as well. Treated as a chance to showcase past and present trends, Coachella cements the teenage style, and this year, 2014’s studs and boho chic are back.
With the trend cycle predictions, it’s clear it’s the time for Tumblr’s comeback- and this manifests in the yearly festival of Coachella. The lineup reflects the resurgence of artists such as Lady Gaga, Charli XCX, and Missy Elliot: sounds that bring you back to 2014's nostalgia. These artists were hot and popping back then and have had recent breakouts in the media such as Gaga’s “Die With a Smile” and the cultural impact of “Brat.”
With the lineup sparking nostalgia, it’s clear the outfits are too. Coachella lookbooks are full of boho chic, but it has quieted down for the past years in the age of maximalism. Y2K thrived and cemented that part of the trend cycle with outfits of all the colors of the rainbow; the quiet chic hasn’t been present. Vanessa Hudgens was the ultimate inspo for the look and a queen of Coachella.
Even with occasional absences from “Coachella” queens, the outfits have remained around the same realm. When you think of Coachella, you would think of Woodstock, almost hippie, style. All deriving from the era of Tumblr, which really showcased this content. It was a main focus for Youtubers at the time, such as the “Savage Squad” with early 2014 trendsetters Teala Dunn, Ava Gutowski, Sierra Marie, and Meredith Foster.
This is the type of content that made outsiders want to live in the moments of Coachella. The festival, the hype, and all the opportunities to be a “proper teenager.” Even when, in recent years, more and more content creators reveal that it is not as glamorous as everyone makes it out to be, there is still something that attracts people to attend.
The backbone of this movement is clear: nostalgia for teenagehood. People are willing to spend $200 on jean-shorts just to have a piece referencing that time of their lives. The fall fashion trend displays this idea with the recent obsession with Isabel Marants. With the comeback of this style of studs and boho, it seems like a way to tap back into this era of the internet.
Coachella cements the teenage years because it is a capsule of time that looks to amplify that period of adolescence. Yes, it's propagated by internet trends, but every style will always come back. Coachella is just where 2014 lives forever.