Coachella 2022, Weekend One: Best & Worst Dressed Celebrities

The spring season brings blooming flowers, chirping birds and Coachella, when celebrities, influencers, and anyone with enough time and money gather in a hot, dusty, desert for the sake of music and fashion. Those not in attendance may not be able to come by a live Megan Thee Stallion performance, but they can still judge the celebrity outfits.

Best Swimsuit Outfit: Chlöe Bailey

Many celebrities wore swimsuits with robes, but few looked as stunning doing so as Chlöe Bailey. Head-to-toe in bright colors, she wore a chartreuse bikini with a matching robe and chunky magenta short sandals, all from Beyoncé’s IVY PARK collection. She stood out because she took her swimwear seriously. Many celebrities looked ready for a casual day by the pool, but Bailey approached her swimsuit as a fashion statement and styled the leisurely look in a runway-ready way.

Best Comfy Outfit: Kendall Jenner

On Day Two, Kendall Jenner wore a cropped white tank top, white wide-leg pants with big pockets, and thong sandals. Her outfit was neat, understated, and comfortable. Considering that Coachella attendees stand, walk, and dance for hours in the sweltering heat, the desire to bring back a practical-dress Coachella is fitting, especially after quarantine’s comfy-cute trend. Besides, Jenner could wear a burlap potato sack and people would still call it fashion.

Best Signature-Style Outfit: Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish performed in an outfit that was unsurprising yet perfect for her image. Her matching set of biker shorts and an oversized t-shirt in a muted beige graffiti-print design put her 2019 looks and more recent looks in harmony, demonstrating confidence in her evolving identity and style.

Worst Outfit: James Charles

James Charles’ first-day outfit is difficult to describe and even more difficult to justify: green and brown fabric with orange stitching covered maybe a quarter of his skin. It lacks shape, it lacks style, and the nature-inspired colors are horrendous. This outfit could easily be made of the scrap material leftover from a kids’ art project. Even still, fans were not surprised. For Charles, this outfit is not unusual at all.

Best Outfit: Conan Gray

For his first Coachella, Conan Gray stunned in a hot pink custom Valentino ensemble. His ensemble pieced together long gloves, wide-leg pants, platform boots, and a beautiful, flowy, sheer, veil-esque full-body cape. Monochrome was a popular trend this weekend, and Gray claimed it as his own.

Most Daring Style: Chloe Cherry

Many Coachella 2022 outfits were inspired by Y2K style and fashion nostalgia, and Chloe Cherry managed to channel the eighties, the nineties, and the aughts all at once. She looked like a sassy, unsupervised preschooler, but she owned the looks and her confidence sold her outfits all the same. Her best garment is a denim miniskirt with playful patches and the bedazzled word “KITTY” on the back pockets from day one.

Best Dressed in Street Style: Charli D’Amelio

Charli D’Amelio’s outfits were cute and simple — and there should be space for simplicity in Coachella fashion. She wore mini dresses for all three days: a white crochet dress, a black slip dress with a long mesh skirt, and a yellow-green butterfly dress. Her attire is best categorized as street style, since it could easily fit in an everyday setting. This casual look was not a faux-pas, though; D’Amelio is essentially famous for being a relatable teen, so it was appropriate for her to dress like one.

Worst Dressed, Consistently: Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen performed in a pink, multicolored floral jumpsuit with frills and cut-outs, paired with white high-heeled pointy-toed saddle shoes — an outfit suitable for the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!” Debuting her song “Western Wind,” she wore a short one-piece garment covered in silver tinsel-like fringe, likely to represent the track’s title. It was, at best, cheesy and frumpy. Offstage, Jepsen wore a white lace dress that would have been cute for a middle schooler in 2013, perhaps an attempt to return to the days of “Call Me Maybe.”

Ultimate Mixed Bag: Doja Cat

Doja Cat wore the best outfits onstage but the worst offstage. Her first off-duty outfit featured baggy, low-crotch, tragic denim shorts that clashed with pointy-toed, mustard-yellow, tragic tall boots. Her next outfit, with a crop top and black and maroon pants, demonstrated effort but was ultimately unappealing, mainly due to pants that looked cheap and lazy next to the elaborate top. However, Doja Cat redeemed this fashion disaster by performing in four incredible, wholly different ensembles that proved to be the best set of onstage looks at the first weekend of this year’s Coachella.

Best ‘Coachella Style’: Vanessa Hudgens

Coachella continues to be Vanessa Hudgens’ time to shine. First, Hudgens wore a monokini and sparkly crochet cover-up in neutral shades. Next, she sported a magenta outfit consisting of a crochet bikini top, flowy pants, flowy robe, and bucket hat. Hudgens’ most striking outfit was a sheer chartreuse dress over a striped bikini with a straw-woven beach hat. Her looks were fun, light, and vibrant. She took part in many of this year’s Coachella fashion trends — crochet cover-ups, swimsuits, see-through dresses, flowy pants, bucket hats, and monochrome outfits — and made them her own.

During the first weekend of Coachella 2022, celebrities proved that in fashion, one or two central colors, patterns, shapes, or styles will go a long way.