We Thought This Was the Unofficial Fashion Week for the Fringe...

Maybe Coachella ticket prices were bumped up for the festival's tenth anniversary; it also could've been the icky "R" word of the year. That could explain why, from the looks of the latest disappointing coverage, no one brought new clothes or creativity to this year's party.

It also seems that lazy photographers and fashion editors are serving up the same batch of the same fash as last year. Case in point: Who What Wear's "best-of" collages from this year and last year (below, left; and below, right). WWW gushes, "We spent three days examining music enthusiasts and separating the true tastemakers from the run-of-the-mill hipsters." But it actually takes just three seconds to find the 2008 and 2009 snaps inseparable. 

In the past decade Coachella has been established as a sub-Fashion Week for those on the fringe (the hipsters, models and teenaged wannabes), which means an annual exuberance of colorful candids on Style.com and WhoWhatWear. Its magnetism was the fun-factor, because fashion certainly isn't only about the big names, the big tents and the big budgets--it was also about ripped and torn fabrics, funky prints, neon hues and folksy sundresses.

It's too bad the creative-types that convene and costume there are dramatically less creative, their costumes now more like uniforms because of the same old style formula. I immediately recalled a T-shirt spotted on a sullen teenager that announced to a cruel and unforgiving world: "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same."

Well, that puts the Coachella kids in an awkward position. They may be different from the fanny-packin' plebe majority on the streets in their neon aviators, crazy leggings and kooky florals, but their aesthetics of differentness are all the same as each others'. It would've been nice to see some Harajuku-influenced costuming, or DIY Margiela surrealism, like the mile-wide turtleneck (Fall 2008).

Fingers crossed for a more exciting show next year.

Jamie Penaloza, Style & Stamina
		About the author:
		Jamie has written and styled for the South China Morning Post Style Magazine in Hong Kong, covering fashion, travel and technology news.  She is currently based in London, pursuing an English degree at King's College London as well as the rich fashion and food culture in the city.
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