In 2009, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein wrote a blog post for NPR detailing her history of obsessing over show outfits. From the bright magenta t-shirt and zipper pants she wore to her first concert, Madonna in 1985, to the flight jacket and Doc Martens she wore to see Sonic Youth and Nirvana in 1991, Brownstein lovingly describes getting ready for a show as a ritual that’s almost as memorable as the show itself.
“Why are outfits important to the concert-going experience?” Brownstein pondered. “Perhaps less so as adults, but certainly in our youth, what we wore to shows acted as cultural signifiers. Our clothing exemplified and demonstrated our level of fandom, our knowledge of the artistic and social context from which the band or musician came, who we were, who our friends were and who we wanted to be.”
This is the motivation behind all of history’s fashion-forward music fans, from the hippies who wore florals and fringe at Woodstock to the punks who stuck safety pins in their faces. It’s also why modern concerts that cater to Gen Z are something of a touring Met Gala, where fans pull out all the stops to impress each other and their favorite artist in person and, most importantly, online.
At younger-skewing shows and festivals, the expectations to dress up have risen through the roof. In the past ten years, events like Coachella have been known for the fashion just as much as the music, and the numbers are starting to back it up. According to a survey from Censuswide, over 7.5 million “single-use outfits for concerts or festivals” are purchased per year in the United Kingdom alone.
To put it in terms closer to home, if a major tour came through North Texas and sold out AT&T Stadium, that could potentially mean that 80,000 outfits were purchased just for one night. Two events happened last year where this was a distinct possibility.
Attendees at Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour, the blockbuster tour that came through Arlington last summer, set a new standard for concert fashion. Just as Queen Bey performed her shows in custom looks from luxury brands like Loewe, Versace and Telfar, her fans also made a point to dress their best in shimmering metallic outfits to match the disco dance party vibe of the tour. (This comically led to a shortage of silver clothes in North Texas.)
Taylor Swift’s ongoing Eras Tour, which played for three straight nights at AT&T Stadium last March, is another highly publicized setting for this trend. Fans spent weeks planning their outfits, which range from recreations of previous Swift looks to gag costumes inspired by fans' inside jokes.
Some fans will scour clothing stores looking for the perfect pieces to complete their look. Others will make their entire costume from scratch. Some of the best costumes of the night will go on to be featured on Taylor Nation, Swift’s official fan accounts run by her marketing team. Fans consider it an honorary acknowledgment from Swift herself.
Ashley Mendoza, who attended The Eras Tour wearing matching outfits with her sister in Las Vegas, is one fan who was featured on the Taylor Nation Instagram account.
“We saw our picture and we screamed,” Mendoza tells the Observer. “We were so happy Taylor Nation posted us because it meant they really liked our matching outfits! We right away called our mom, who accompanied us to the show as well, to tell her they posted us. She was so happy for us and couldn’t believe it either.”
Mendoza and her sister wore costumes inspired by a dress and cloak combo Swift wears while performing the song “Willow.” Las Vegas was the second stop of the tour; the costume in question had been unveiled the week prior. The sisters had seen it during a live stream of the opening night and knew it was worth pulling together at the last minute.
“We live in LA and were traveling to Las Vegas for our show,” she explains. “We thought it was a perfect song to be inspired to dress for, since we are doing what Taylor wrote in her song, ‘Wherever you stray, I follow.’”
Madison Truscan attended the third night of The Eras Tour in Arlington, also dressed according to theme. She repurposed a dance costume she had worn in high school to create a look reminiscent of Swift’s “ME!” music video.
“Any show that I’m attending where I am a loyal fan and know the majority of the music will be a show I dress up for,” Truscan says. “It gives me a way to express myself and is part of the fun of attending the show.”
As much as she enjoys dressing up, Truscan feels that social media has exaggerated its importance. Reusing clothes like the dance costume helps her put the music first.
“Personally, I’d rather spend my money on getting a better ticket, or merch at the show, or upgrading to a VIP experience, rather than spending hundreds just on the outfit,” she says.
Other fandoms have since jumped onto the concert fashion bandwagon. Up-and-coming pop star Chappell Roan, who played at House of Blues last Halloween, goes as far as to set a dress code for each of her shows based on a revolving list of costume themes, such as "Pink Pony Club" (a Western theme) and "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" (a spacey, futuristic theme).
Fans of Roan converge in online spaces like Instagram and Reddit to ask each other for fashion advice:
“Are we going all out?”
“How slutty is too slutty?
“Would it be weird to not dress up?”
That last question was the name of a Reddit thread written by a fan who didn’t own any clothes that fit their show’s theme and wasn’t keen on buying something new.
“[I] am not a huge fan of buying clothes for a concert that I won’t ever wear again,” they wrote. “Would it be weird to just wear jeans and a t-shirt?”
Responses were mixed. Some promised that the dress-up element isn’t mandatory and that comfort is more important, but there were more asking, “Are you sure there’s nothing in your closet you can wear?”
Others recommended making a costume from scratch or buying something new and then reselling it after the show.
The one characteristic these responses had in common was that they were intended to be supportive.
Olivia Rodrigo’s recent stop in Dallas was a sea of teens dressed in her signature shade of purple. Some outfits at the show were recognizable as ones Rodrigo had worn before. The rest looked like something she might wear in the future.
We talked to some fans on Rodrigo’s official subreddit about this trend and why young music fans are upping the ante on concert fashion.
“I do plan on buying a whole or mostly new outfit,” says an anonymous user who’s attending an upcoming Rodrigo show. “This is not a normal thing I do for every concert. I’m treating it as a costume event.”
Did this fan feel pressure to dress up from social media? They say no. Kind of.
“Not pressure, [in my opinion], but inspiration,” they say. “Like, seeing people go all out for a masquerade. I wanna participate at the same level.”
Of the questions we put forth on Reddit, this fan chose to skip one: “Do you plan on re-wearing your outfit?”
That’s another snag in the concert costume phenomenon, the risk of overconsumption. As fans keep buying entire outfits just for one night, the sustainability of this trend has been called into question.
The Eras Tour, The Renaissance Tour and last year’s Barbie movie have been linked to an increase in fast fashion consumption. Fast fashion refers to inexpensive clothing produced rapidly in response to fleeting trends. Brands like Shein, Zara and Fashion Nova have been quick to pump out new products to meet the demand of these events.
If you look up “Eras Tour” on Shein, for example, you’ll find pages of copies of outfits that Swift has worn onstage the past year. Swift’s costumes were custom-made for her by Roberto Cavalli and Christian Louboutin. The Shein knock-offs typically go for about $25.
Fast fashion is often linked to questionable supply chains, including unregulated overseas factories, and there's concern about the environmental impact of mass-produced clothing that is largely seen as disposable.
"It requires natural resources, takes a lot of water, energy, trees and land to make our clothes, and sometimes we aren’t thinking about that when buying fashion," says Elizabeth Cline, a professor of fashion policy and consumerism and sustainability at Columbia University, in a statement to USA Today. "That might not be front of mind when going to see their favorite artist."
Lexy (whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons) is a concert fanatic. Her favorite bands are Fall Out Boy and Waterparks. She’s seen them each 18 and 45 times, respectively, and loves to dress on theme for their shows.
“I definitely have found myself shopping specifically for shows before, and it does make me feel wasteful,” Lexy says. “I try to combat that by wearing pieces that I could otherwise wear either to other shows or in daily life.”
Fall Out Boy superfan Lexy decked herself out in stars for the So Much For Stardust Tour.
Courtesy of Lexy
“I paid homage to that, I guess, by wearing a big Metallica shirt and Waterparks booty shorts,” she says. “Business in the front, party in the back.”
Despite buying it as a joke, Lexy says she frequently wears the Metallica shirt to bed. She also clarifies that it’s easy to stay on theme when you’re seeing multiple shows on the same tour.
Truscan is also a big believer in reusable and sustainable concert fashion. Her Eras Tour costume, which was itself repurposed, has already found new life in the year since she wore it.
“A girl messaged me on Instagram asking where I got my outfit from and we chatted for a bit,” Truscan says. “Long story short, I ended up mailing it to her in Florida so she could wear it for a later date of the Eras Tour.”
“It absolutely can be sustainable,” she says. “Never underestimate the power of borrowing something from a friend’s closet.”
