Every summer, hundreds of thousands of influencers, Youtubers, celebrities and civilians travel to Southern California, within the arid Colorado Desert, to the famous Coachella music festival.

When it comes to Coachella, who does it right and who does it wrong? As of late, people have taken to rating their favorite influencers’ outfits and some can be quite controversial. As Coachella is a Southern Californian music festival, the unspoken theme is usually always desert boho. Sometimes people don’t follow the theme and it works, but sometimes they don’t and it looks ridiculous or boring. 

So let’s start with some outstanding outfits!

Tik Tok fashion influencer Sophia Silva was absolutely the best dressed person at Coachella. For Days 1, 2 and 3, Silva’s outfits knocked it out of the park and were some of the coolest outfits of the whole weekend. For Day 1 in the desert, Silva styled an ethereal 1920s Art Deco flapper themed outfit. The look featured a long flowing silver and a

white dress made up of different fabrics, gold and silver large jewelry and long white laced vintage boots that evoke 1960s style. For Day 2, Silva wore a  short silver and black dress made up of different shiny fabrics, metal materials, star patterns and watches. This dress also has a separate neck choker piece made from some of the same fabric as the dress and a large watch. It was styled with a silver and black fan and knee length black boots. Of her three looks, this was the most unique and her best of the weekend. For the final day, Silva wore a golden three piece skirt, corset and shoulder cape set that was completely embroidered with beads and embellishments. Little specks of blue blended with the gold and metallic material to make it shine even more.

Next up, an influencer who was determined to represent her culture at Coachella:Tik tok influencer Hershy was upset with people constantly wearing South Asian ethnic clothes and jewelry to Coachella without giving credit to its origins. So, for this Coachella, she decided to wear only South Asian Desi clothes and jewelry to represent and celebrate  her culture. Hershy’s Day 1 outfit, the best of her looks, featured a blue and orange set with glittery stitching and embroidery. Stunning isn’t enough to describe the intricacy and details in this set. Hershy paired the set with gold jewelry and sunglasses. For Day 2, she styled a pink desi cowgirl themed look and definitely delivered. She wore a pink lehenga blouse with golden embroidery and beaded tassels that very much give Coachella vibes, jean shorts with an orange and pink belt, the cutest pink cowgirl boots, a red hat covered in gold stitching and of course she had to add the gold south asian jewelry. For the last day of Coachella, Hershy wore a stunning outfit that she made herself. She styled a mermaid desi themed outfit with desi blue and green chrome pants that are fabulous, a handmade top with metallic, mirror-like, pieces sewn in and lots of silver jewelry. Overall, all of Hershy’s outfits were beautiful and the celebration of her culture made them unique.

There were also some Influencers who had great outfits but not for every day. For Tara Yummy, her weekend looks started out fairly promising. While still pretty basic, her Day 1 outfit uniquely incorporated a black frill into every part of the look. The black frill boots, black frill tube top, black frill choker and bracelets and micro jean shorts with smaller black frill shorts layered underneath made the outfit cohesive and creative. However, her other outfits were not as stylish. For influencer Tabitha Swatosh, her Day 1 outfit was perfect. Tabitha wore an ethereal looking two piece set made by the same designer behind singer Zara Larson’s iconic outfits. This set was beaded with blues and greens that formed vines and flowers all over the top and the skirt. She also did beautiful eye makeup to mimic Zara Larson’s colorful looks. Lastly, influencer Zoi Lerma’s Coachella outfits are usually ones to look out for, but this year, most of them were lacking and only her Day 2 look was worth noting. On that Saturday, she wore a custom Audrey Blake dress made of white woven cloth that formed a stunning silhouette and pattern. To add to this outfit, she styled a turquoise frill bag, turquoise earrings and brown leather boots! 

Now moving on to the more controversial looks.

This year, the fashion company Revice brought many influencers and celebrities to Coachella through brand deals, a tactic that has increasingly been seen by brands every year.  Typically, when clothing brands bring people to Coachella they have them wear items from their fashion line to promote them. This year, Revice put almost all of the people they brought in the same outfits, which not only looked lazy but limited the amount of clothes they could actually advertise. Even if the outfits were cute the fact that the company had everyone wearing the same thing took away the look factor and ultimately worked against them. 

Next, if you were on Tik Tok during 2020 or during Covid you know Charli Damelio. Her outfits this year could be described with one word, bland. Her outfits were just boring and not giving Coachella. What’s the point of going to Coachella if you’re going to wear plain outfits? For the first day she wore a simple white dress connected in the middle with a purple circle that was loose and uncentered. The circle kept hanging off the front of the dress and was just looking a mess. Her Day 2 outfit was cute, but not for Coachella. She wore a two piece black and white polka dot set with a long fluffy maxi skirt and a small twist tube top.

Definitely something that could be worn on a beach vacation, but not to Coachella. 

One thing Coachella suffers from every year is extremely wealthy celebrities in tremendously boring outfits. Most people know Kylie Jenner from her famous family and their show “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.” Jenner now owns her own makeup and skincare brand, called Kylie Cosmetics, and has a net worth of around 700 million dollars. You would think with all of that money Jenner would be able to dress in more than just basic clothes for arguably the biggest  music festival of the year. For Day 1 of Coachella, Jenner wore a simple outfit of white pants and a frilly long sleeve white shirt. The outfit is cute for a night out with friends or maybe just for an average day out, but it’s so boring for Coachella. It just doesn’t make sense to have that much money and dress like you don’t. 

Coachella, Hello! Everyone knows famous influencer James Charles for his makeup tutorials and Youtube channel, especially during his “hi sisters!” era. Unfortunately, he has never served a cute outfit at Coachella. Charles loves to wear controversial outfits to Coachella that always get torn apart on the internet, and this year was no different. For Day 1, Charles wore these makeshift black jorts that also somehow looked like a giant skirt with the weirdest pocket placements. He then wore a custom black leather corset with cutouts to almost look like skeleton bones that also had grey fur on top, and a large crystal hanging on the front. There was just too much going on already. Charles then continued to layer a thick and large black leather belt on top of the jorts. But that’s not it, he also added an arm length giant fur keychain to his jorts. He then styled this outfit with black finger gloves, a black leather bag, black sunglasses and silver jewelry. There is just way too much going on and it looks like a wolf halloween costume. But, somehow,  this was not the worst outfit he wore this year. Day 2 was even more of an absolute mess. Charles started the outfit with multicolored jeans and a blue bedazzled belt. But then the top? Just plain ugly. He wore a jean shirt/vest with metal ties and loops all over connecting the front to the back. It looked like something a pre-schooler could make. The rest of the outfit might have had potential without the shirt. James finished the outfit with a pair of chartreuse sunglasses and a silver bag. The best advice someone could give him would be to fire his stylist. 

While Coachella is widely known as a music festival, you can’t deny that it has become known for its outfits. Obviously everyone is free to wear whatever they want, but at Coachella, you gotta step it up or be ready for the criticism by the ruthless fans who love to pick apart these looks!