5 style mistakes to avoid if you go to Coachella

Coachella is arguably the most famous festival in the world. Back in the days when Lana del Rey sang West Coast in 2014, Coachella was at the height of its myth: teenagers from all over the world dreamed of California escapism, went into raptures reading the huge line-ups, dreamed of California, meadows, desert parties. In that period the contemporary imaginary of Coachella was formed: girls dressed in macramé and crowned with flowers, faces painted with glitter, colored bandanas, the atmosphere of a big garden where the Olympus of the beautiful and famous stretched out on the green lawns laughing and dancing. Coachella has above all an aesthetic uniform, a series of boho-chic and fully summery outfits that have become synonymous with the festival. The problem is that these outfits have also become a series of clichés over time - which is why we wrote this article, in the lucky event that one of our readers was planning to make a trip to Palm Springs. 

Here are 5 style mistakes to avoid if you're going to Coachella

1. Native headdresses

In the age of hipsters and back in the days when Lana del Rey played a biker in the Ride video, the Indian headdress was a cool accessory, an epic symbol of the American aesthetic that boys and girls wore without much thought. Fortunately, the rise of a common consciousness on and off social has turned it into one of the epitomes of bad taste. Remember: other peoples' culture is not a party costume. A cap will look just as good on you.

2. The basic flower crown

The idea of this list is to avoid clichés, and right now there is perhaps no cliché more trite than the flower crown at Coachella. Wearing it in 2014 was on trend, wearing it in 2022 is a bit basic. Especially after Midsommar ruined for the entire audience the idea of a girl crowned with flowers. Let the fluttery dresses, macramé tops, denim shorts, sandals pass, after all you have to be comfortable, but this year the flowers leave them in mom's vases.

3. The douchey tank top

We know full well that you've spent the winter working on your biceps and pecs - and a t-shirt, even a sleeveless one, will show them off without a problem. But if I'm going to be dancing all day in the scorching California sun, I'd like as much as possible to avoid touching the sweaty skin of muscular strangers and seeing the occasional nipple sticking out of their tank top. And it's not a tank top issue - it's a very sexy garment, after all, but one that should be worn in friendly, informal situations, never on public occasions, to avoid the show-off feeling. In fact, for many it's the go-to garment for douchey jocks, gym bros and Love Island contestants. Trust me that with an oversized shirt slightly unbuttoned, maybe even with a pendant that winks from the neckline to draw the eyes in the right direction, you will get the same result. 

4. Out-of-context shoes

On this category better to lay down the arms. It's not even a matter of aesthetics but of practicality. Coachella takes place, for the most part, on a lawn or on the ground. So sandals, sneakers and casual boots are perfectly appropriate - less appropriate are the ballet flats Amy Winehouse wore back in the day to get a photo with Danny De Vito, less appropriate still are big floppy suede boots and shoes that don't respect the height/opening ratio like pseudo Roman sandals or the open toe version of the cowboy boots Lindsay Lohan wore so many years ago.

5. Indiana Jones hats (and Fedoras)

Anything that looks like it belongs in Johnny Depp's wardrobe, should stay in Johnny Depp's wardrobe. This includes men's Indiana Jones-style wide brimmed hats, a supremely romantic and rock accessory but now a symptom of boundless pretentiousness. The problem, as with flower crowns, lies not in the hat itself but in the cliché that the hat represents. You go from simple sin to mortal sin when the fedora is made of woven straw - because at that point you stop being boho-chic and become boho-cheap.