Another Coachella has come and gone, and as a first-time attendee, I have to admit, I had no idea what to expect. What was once an item on the bucket list I kept as an angsty 13 year old on Tumblr has now been crossed off more than 10 years later. As someone who grew up watching Vanessa Hudgens and Alessandra Ambrosio frolic along the Polo fields in Indio, California, to attend the country’s largest music festival, I thought I knew what to expect from attendees: cowboy boots, cowboy hats, cowboy vests… you get the idea. Coachella, as a concept, has been torn apart and put back together by shiny TikTok algorithms. In a digital-first world, it’s the fashion community’s first stomping ground to set trends for the upcoming summer. This year was no different.
