Groupie’s Guide to Truck Festival: What to Wear
We all know the typical festival fashion show is often reserved for a certain calibre of person, say the influencer conquest of Coachella pre-covid, or iconic Glastonbury looks from Kate Moss over the years and Alexa Chung 2008’s knee socks, when she was dating Alex Turner. But who says going all out is reserved for big festivals, or celebs for that matter?
We’ve been mulling it over and have decided that we are destined to be fashion icons, and think you can be too. So here are some of our top style tips for festival season, and our expert advice on what you should wear if you’re going to Truck festival. As a prologue, one of our favourite quotes from The Guardian after Glastonbury 2008, “Festival fashion tip: If cold, wear neon legwarmers NOT sensible trousers. Then don sunglasses to fool brain into thinking it’s sunny”
Tiny Dresses, Big Belts
One of the first main things you need to decide as a festival fashionista is what you value more. Style or comfort? Hotness or warmth? Sandals or wellies? Skimpy dress or warm jumper? Obviously some of these are weather dependent, and as we all know as Brits, the weather is as unpredictable as freestyle jazz. On that note, it is always a safe bet to bring a waterproof of some kind. Don’t get me wrong, the first natural knee jerk response to being told to wear a waterproof is to reject it at all costs. The creeping memory of a parent insisting you take a frumpy probably beige jacket to an event, or camping trip, or Duke of Edinburgh walk. A jacket that ended up having to be wrapped around your waist the entire time, ruining the outfit you’d meticulously planned, or making you overheat unnecessarily. And if not that then taking up a massive space in your bag that could’ve been reserved for other, more important items. What we’re saying is, we get it. It feels uncool, and makes you cringe. But bring it. An alternative way to get around the possibility of rain is to wear almost nothing at all. A lightweight dress, tshirt and a pair of shorts or a tiny little skirt that will look like a fashion choice if you're soaked through, and will dry off as soon as you dive head first into the mosh pit. The total staple of festival fashion has always been The Welly, aforementioned icons Kate Moss and Alexa Chung managed to make wellies look sexy, so why can’t you? If it's muddy, like really muddy, like if i fall over I will be covered in mud for the rest of this weekend kind of muddy, you're going to want to bring wellies. And even if it's not, wellies are an iconic part of any festival wardrobe, and they'll keep you warm long into the night, or at least your feet. Another and totally real possibility is that it won't rain at all. Look at Glastonbury this year, no rain whatsoever. Wearing bikini tops as real clothes type of weather - which could also work for the rain. As much as we’re praying for sun kissed skin and blue skies as far as the eye can see, we firmly believe you should be as prepared for anything as possible. Our first official wardrobe recommendation is “Indie Sleaze Welly Wearing Supermodel Chic”. It looks like tiny shorts, skirts, and tshirts. Throw in a teensie dress paired with a huge belt to complete the weekend's wardrobe. The only shoes you’ll need to bring are wellies, we recommend bringing big long socks to protect your feet from residual rain, mud and welly sweat. Accessorise with humongous sunglasses to hide your celeb status and chunky jewellery to try and distract people from the lack of clothing on your body.
Coquette, Adam Sandler and Cowboys
Festivals are a perfect place to explore how far you can take your personal style without the worry of semi-normal people judging you. Some of our favourite styles at the moment are the renaissance of the Coquette aesthetic, Adam Sandler core and COWBOYS! It seems that the boom in Coquette girlies has been directly affected by the comeback of Lana Del Rey, seeing more ribbons involving people’s hairstyles than ever before. It's incredible. A band that we’ll be seeing and admiring at Truck fest that have embodied Coquette in their identity are The Last Dinner Party. Ribbons, bows, ruffles galore. To replicate their style, wear floaty white and beige dresses, lots of lace, and a corset if you have one. To accessorise, put ribbon everywhere, hair bows, ribbons as bracelets and necklaces. Other accessories to keep in mind while packing are sunglasses, necklaces and rings. Our advice with this is to keep accessories light, and stick to a colour theme. It's basically the clean girl aesthetic but 1800s. On the other end of the style spectrum is Adam Sandler core, or Skater Style, whatever you call it the premise is the same. Baggy, comfortable and pretty damn cool. Billie Eilish is a fashion icon that has adopted this style from the beginning of her career. This style is perfect for festival season, huge t-shirts/ dress shirts allow more breathing room, so less of a sweat issue. Huge shorts or Jorts have the same effect and are a Sandler staple. Footwear wise, you can never go wrong with a statement trainer, and they’re perfect for walking long distances to see your favourite acts. Accessorise with a baseball cap (to keep the sun out of your face and avoid burning), and some thin sunglasses to complete the 90’s-esq look. The whole cowboy look has been around for a while, coming into the mainstream fashion sphere a couple of years ago. If you’ve been following groupie for a while, you know that we had a cowboy phase last year, and it’s fun to be a cowboy isn't it? The style obviously originating from the USA, its purpose built for hot weather. To choose flares or shorts, a shirt or a tank top? Any clothes can be cowboy-ified, with a hat, a chunky belt and some cowboy boots, you’ll have the cowboy flare whatever the weather or outfits you bring. Stick to leather and denim where possible. Layer with a fringe or denim jacket for warmth when the evening comes. If you want to go full Cowboy, see Mae Muller at Capital FMs Summertime Ball earlier this year. The full denim and suede get-up is just perfection.
Steal our looks
As you may or may not know, our Truck team is Willow Shields (editor-in-chief/writer/photographer/presenter), Briony Graham-Rudd (photographer/presenter), Hollie Sackett (writer/presenter), and Rosie Norman (writer/presenter). All with unique styles and influences, Willow leaning towards coquette, Briony being a 24/7 70’s style fashion icon, Hollie leans predominantly towards streetwear and Kate Moss’s Glasto looks for her festival wear and Rosie being a combination of everything with some insane statement pieces in her festival wardrobe.
See you in the field! X
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