ADVERTISEMENT
For better or worse, it's just no longer acceptable to roll up to a festival in any old jeans, a cagoule, and an Eastpak. The muddy walkways of Glastonbury, Latitude, T in the Park et al are now bona fide fashion stomping grounds. But somewhere along the line it all got a little reductive, and the idea of festival dressing slowly became commodified, with just about every high street brand offering up their own ready made selection of what you should be wearing to watch LCD Soundsystem in a field. The result? Everywhere from Governors Ball to Benicàssim becoming a throbbing, homogenous sea of fringing and flower crowns. It's like the Wild West meets the Chelsea Flower Show.
One person who has always offered something unique, whether she's setting foot on Worthy Farm (Glastonbury) or the Empire Polo Club (Coachella) is our own Alexa Chung, who has shaped festival wardrobes more than anyone over the last few years. Expect her denim hotpants/Breton top/over-the-knee socks look she first introduced to Glasto in 2008 to continue to be replicated by arduous fans this year.
But Alexa also confesses to being anti-festival fashion. And so she has used her wonderful fashion app VILLOID (seriously, check it out) to create some mood boards, which we are premiering here, to offer some guidance and tips to avoid looking like a festival cliché.
Over to Alexa:
“Oh festival fashion. When did it become a thing? My guess is about a decade after the dawn of the internet age. Gone are the days when you could roll around a muddy field, watch some bands you like and indulge in some hard earned binge-drinking without worrying someone might tag you in a picture of what you actually look like when doing all three simultaneously.”
“So now what? Well, without social media and fashion coexisting we wouldn’t have Villoid so stop complaining right now and read my How To Guide for Festival Fashion which is a real thing whether we like or not (not). Please note I do have Glastonbury Festival in mind as I write this so I must apologise to those of you unable to attend and my advice to you would be turn on the radio and a hose, invite some pals round, and all try and fit in one sleeping bag.”
Scroll through to take a look at Alexa’s suggestions for rocking Worthy Farm. There’s not a flower crown in sight, promise.
VILLOID is free to download from the App Store. You can download it here.
ADVERTISEMENT