At last, the influencers and reality show contestants can hang up their bedazzled bodysuits and cowboy hats and Instax Minis, because Coachella is over! With the summer festival circuit just around the corner, however, I suggest they keep them in an easily accessible location, at least until Stagecoach, or wherever they’ve been flown off to next by the “Coca-Cola CREATE Lab in partnership with Frito Lays and Nerds Ropes™: ‘Stretch Your Imaginations.'”
As that merry band of misfits jets off into the sunset on their comped, 30-minute private plane excursions, stylists across LA are packing up pulls and yelling at assistants and brand reps on the phone, wondering if their next energy healing session is a better deal than the offer code they got for cupping at a strip mall in Century City. While the art of putting celebrities on clothes might feel like an eternal hamster wheel, the looks themselves have never been more ephemeral. Each year, dozens upon dozens of lists like this are published, each touting the very best and very worst seen at awards shows, festivals, charity galas and more.
But this is PAPER, and we do it a bit differently. Rather than arbitrarily sorting the looks seen on Weekend 2 of Coachella, we’re going to discuss those worth discussing at all. As it was the quieter of the weekends (and certain artists have given exclusive image rights to publications other than this magazine) I’ve rounded up the pressing conversations everyone missed over the weekend. Shall we?
Tyla
Might as well start with the biggest hubbub from the weekend. Global sensation Tyla wore a look reminiscent of Britney Spears’ now legendary “I’m a Slave 4 U” performance with the snake at the 2001 VMAs, which was correctly pointed out by observers on social media. Tyla, surprisingly, then responded to one of the posts drawing a connection between the two.
It was just about the funniest thing she could have done, short of bringing out a printed copy of the post on a morning talk show and defending herself and her team against it. I appreciate a messy bent from pop stars amongst their fanbases, especially at her current station in the industry, if only because it gives us vultures something to chat about.
There’s an interesting disconnect at work between Tyla’s perception of her image and creative team and the fashion commentariat. It’s come up before, when the singer wore a look directly cited as being “inspired” by Dilara Dindikoglu for the “Art” music video. Since it was credited as being based on Dilara’s designs, I think both sides of the debate had merits to their argument. But there’s likely a reality where somebody was “inspired” upstream, and that inspiration was not communicated to someone who did not grow up with American pop culture. Worse yet for my Botox bills, she was born after that performance.
If anything, the look got the girls talking. The same could not be said for the following fashions.
Tré Cool from Green Day
Tré here is an honorable mention, before we get to the actual looks. The outfit is simply hideous — most of all the belt and pink Converse. But he got his lick back at Charli XCX, who wore a “Miss Should Be Headliner” sash last week. Very Brat, which is in itself very Green Day. Kudos to the team!
JENNIE
It’s nice to see K-pop divas lift from country culture for a change, instead of Black culture. Wait, hold on.
Jokes aside, JENNIE leaning into the Indio Valley’s faux-Americana aesthetic is interesting, considering her entire schtick and the festival’s slow descent into pop-star-mega-act-influencer-hell. There’s a sheen to the outfit that’s generally pleasurable, if immediately derailed by the odd fit of the shorts and belt and top. I do like that the leather jacket also acts as fingerless gloves! Ventilation is important in 100-degree weather.
LISA
While we’re on the subject of K-pop stars, I have something I’d like to point out about LISA’s bodysuit by Asher Levine. Outfits like this are the bread and butter of the modern pop star, and have been for decades. Then RuPaul’s Drag Race happened, and then it became a global phenomenon, and now, when I see bodysuits on pop stars, all I can hear is the words of Michelle Visage: “Another bodysuit?”
It’s not Lisa’s fault! While she might have made the Daily Mail’s worst dressed list (“She had on a red bodysuit that looked like it was covered in lizard scales, with spikes on the arms and around her waist that resembled a monster.”) I think it’s actually quite cool. Sexy in the way that a Soul Calibur or Tekken character is sexy, and interesting enough to warrant a second look, let alone two whole paragraphs from me.
T-Pain
I love that anywhere we go in the world there’s T-Pain, dressed like a supporting character in a Fallout DLC set in a junkyard somewhere outside Pittsburgh. He and his merry band of misfits, who you save from some irradiated nomads on motorcycles, give you a quest to stop the automatons from overrunning their traveling circus, during which you’re swept up into broader political machinations that ask surface level questions about human selfishness, the meaning of life and capitalism. All that is to say: This outfit fucking rocks.
Benson Boone
I don’t advocate for physical violence, and this is not an admission of my own desires, nor is it a call to arms. But looking at Benson Boone’s freewheeling sartorial choices over the last year, from knock-off Freddie Mercury cover act to Elvis impersonator, one has to wonder if anyone around him has ever smacked him upside the head. I’m speaking in metaphors of course, because I’m a writer and metaphors are the tools of my trade. Please don’t smack Benson Boone upside the head, because the whackings he’s taken online the last few months serve mostly the same function, which is to say no function at all. He must have a pretty thick skull, considering he’s traded in the bedazzled jumpsuits for American flags and lapels and heart shaped buckles with the aviators.
C’mon, Benson! Get real! Male pop stars are in a crisis of glamour and intrigue; this we can all agree on. But the solution isn’t to traffic in gimmicks. It’s to develop an image that at least reads authentic, even in its manufactured plasticity. Keep trying, buddy! And stay away from the Prince costumes and George Michael floral t-shirts!
Photos via Getty Images