Features

The Fall of Festival Fashion

Coachella 2025

Jazz Pettis, Reporter • April 30, 2025

Since Coachella’s debut in 1999, it has been the hotspot for influencers, musicians and aspiring artists.

With the rise of social media over the years, one of the main attractions of the event is seeing celebrities outfits.

One of the most popular looks has been the bohemian-chic style, consisting of ruffles, feathers, bold animal prints, and flannel garments.

Today, the staple hippy look has been replaced with a more edgy-Y2k flair.

Although this change in fashion has birthed many new trends, others believe we should go back to the traditional music festival fashion.

Julia Fox

Starting with arguably the most hated look of the event: Julia Fox’s desert-inspired look.

Fox wore a sand-colored corset with exposed undergarments to match a brown leather jacket and knee-high leather boots.

While Fox has showcased trail-blazing looks in the past, fans felt her outfit this year fell short.

Though the vision was there, the idea wasn’t executed correctly, making her outfit look unfinished.

In addition, the unnecessarily exposed skin felt forced rather than empowering, as her revealing outfits usually are.

James Charles

Next, we have James Charles.

Charles has been one of the most highlighted Coachella influencers for many years; this year, critics flooded his comments with remarks of how odd his style choices were.

Charles channeled his inner siren, wearing a grey top with a dripping, water-like effect, paired with a basic pair of dark gray jeans.

For his makeup, he did a soft-glam look with a pop of rainbow eyeshadow–an homage to his famous Morphe x James palette.

Soon after posting his GRWM (get ready with me) video, numerous fans took to the internet to talk about his inauthenticity.

Charles has been leaning towards a softer audience the past few years, appealing more to the “clean girl” aesthetic. This look seemed to be a step backwards; pleasing his former audience that appreciated more trendy, “IG model” looks. Altogether, the look reached the wrong side of the internet.

Charlie D'Amelio

However, not all influencers disappointed supporters.

Charlie D'Amelio's all-black rockstar look was ideally styled.

D’Amelio wore a dark lace top paired with a sheer, western mini skirt.

The two-piece perfectly shaped her figure, accentuating her natural curves.

D’Amelio tied the ensemble together with natural, desert toned makeup, two long pigtail-braids, and a variety of silver-ebony accessories.

Tyla Seethal

Ultimately, whether a look was good or bad is entirely debatable.

Nevertheless, one look in particular was the target of this year's fashion controversy.

Tyla Seethal, a South African performer who became all the craze after her hit song “Water” was released, ruffled many feathers with her stage costume.

Seethal debuted a green bra with jean cutoffs adorned with emerald string.

Critics were quick to point out the comparisons between her outfit and Britney Spears 2001 VMA costume.

The main aspect tying the two looks together was their matching lime tops and jean shorts.

This scandal rapidly overtook social media with fans of both artists debating whether or not Seethal took inspiration from Spears without credit.

The discourse attracted so much attention that Seethal herself made a statement on Twitter, saying “Love her but I just thought the outfit was fly..no inspo.”

Her comment made the discourse even worse, with news outlets rushing to shame Seethal.

They accused her of being a fraud with a history of copying many pop stars, such as Rihanna, Aaliyah, and, of course, Spears.

Still, Seethal is adamant there was no inspiration taken and that her outfit was entirely original, tweeting that everyone needed to shut up – though she used stronger language than that – to haters before going radio-silent online.

The Fall of Festival Fashion

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