For adherents of the annual Glastonbury music festival, whose idea of going to church is listening to the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner croon from a muddy mosh pit in Somerset, Kate Moss, Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller and Suki Waterhouse have become canonised as the acme of festival style.
Away from the main stage, which has played host to the world’s biggest acts delivering memorable performances (see: Radiohead in 2000 and Amy Winehouse in 2007), the fashion flocking to the mud-ridden Worthy Farm has perpetually endured as a consummate display of what makes British fashion so covetable: gritty, grimy and oozing with grunge.
Since Glastonbury’s original festival in 1970, the contemporary performing arts festival has been regarded as the zenith of British counter-culture, with the style worn by its attendees relatively unchanged over the decades-long history of the event. Unlike the perpetually sun-ridden Coachella festival in the California desert, Glastonbury is a historically rained-out occasion, with the grey environment providing the ideal stomping grounds for eschewing any ‘perfected for Instagram’ ensemble.
It’s true to say your style is a reflection of your environment, so while Coachella offers VIP packages allowing you to dance next to an inconspicuous Timotheé Chalamet or Caroline Reznik and St Agni-adorned Kendall Jenner, the begrimed camping grounds of Glastonbury provides a blank canvas for a fast and loose week of unabashed debauched ‘fits and rebellious style.
In sartorial terms, this means that crochet dresses are forfeited in favour of tiny waistcoats. Leather anything reigns supreme, with the durable fabric showing up in sturdy soft-as-leather motorcycle jackets to leather pants à la Moss at the 2007 festival with then-boyfriend Pete Doherty.
Hunter Wellington boots are the only acceptable footwear choice—don’t you dare think about packing your fisherman sandals for the muddy paddocks—and a colour palette so muted you’re inadvertently camouflaging yourself with the dreary climate in which you find yourself in. The latter point is not necessarily a negative thing, considering the colour grey has been reclaimed as the hue of the season for Summer 2023.
Indeed, Glastonbury’s quintessential style has found itself the epicentre of fashion festival discourse, and as we near another year of the festival, it’s remiss of us to not acknowledge the boho chic aesthetic of Sienna Miller and twee-meets-rockstar-girlfriend style of Alexa Chung that cemented the event’s style as a bedrock of British fashion.
Below, behold the best fashion looks from the Somerset farmlands of yore.
Alexa Chung’s ensemble from 2022 is the epitome of a contemporary Glastonbury fit. The combination of lace-up Victorian-era boots with a thigh-skimming Issey Miyake Pleats Please dress and Celine Triomphe glasses is masterful in every sense of the word.
Before Suki Waterhouse was tearing up the stage at festivals around the world, she was another Brit It-girl braving the grounds of Glastonbury. We wonder if these John Lennon glasses were the precursor to her 70s-inspired Daisy Jones & The Six style era.
As the daughter of a musical legend, seeing Stella McCartney wade through the mud at Glastonbury feels like celestial bodies aligning. Although this McCartney look wasn’t the outfit she wore to see her father, The Beatles and Wings alumni Paul McCartney, performed in 2022, this nylon rain jacket proves that although Glastonbury fashion is practical, it doesn’t make it any less stylish.
Ultimate 90s muse, Sinéad O’Connor, took to the Glastonbury farm ground in 1992 to stay true to her Irish roots with this unequivocally defiant anti-Monarchy ensemble.
Glastonbury is one of the few places where pairing an ultra-mini dress with an oversized coat is not only appropriate, it’s encouraged. Poppy Delevingne’s addition of a navy hoodie only makes this look all the more delicious.
Almost Famous‘ Penny Lane emerged from the 00s’ as one of the most influential style icons, with her indisputable impact seen here with Poppy Delevingne wearing her signature Afghan coat in 2022.
Taking cues from her older sister’s festival style, Lottie Moss put a Californian spin on a classic Glastonbury look, see; an oversized shirt and micro belt, with the addition of a wide-brimmed hat and cowboy boots.
Our perennial festival muse and the original Glasto girl, Kate Moss is seen here in 2008 proving why the uniform of a leather jacket, shrunken waistcoat, micro-shorts and wellies is the ultimate style template.
The look that started it all. Rumour has it that we still have this picture of Kate Moss wearing a bum-cheek grazing sequin dress pinned to the walls of our teenage bedrooms.
Seen here again in 2005, Moss cemented her crown as the reigning queen of British festival fashion with her low-slung leather belt emblazoned with the phrase: “Glastonbury Rocks”. Her magnum opus, if you please.
Nine months after giving birth to her daughter, bourgeoning model Lila Grace Moss Hack, a 29-year-old Moss laid the framework for the indie sleaze ensembles she’d soon sport. From the slouchy oversized shirt fashioned into a dress by a tied-up scarf to the suede pirate boots, Moss’ festival fashion shows no bounds.
The new vanguard of Glastonbury fashion, models Iris Law and Mia Regan showcase a Gen-Z-meets-Y2K take on edgy British style.
Gwyneth Paltrow once said she’d rather smoke crack than eat cheese out of a tin. We wonder what extremes the Goop founder would go to revive this bohemian look.
The ultimate rockstar girlfriend. Moss’ military style jacket is the pièce de résistance in her ensembles of outfits from 2005.
Studded leather boots, a studded leather bag, mid-thigh denim shorts and a camouflage corset—Emma Watson’s Glastonbury outfit is the embodiment of the 2010 trend cycle.
Before Dua Lipa was a pop supernova, she was trotting around Somerset like the rest of us. However, if you look closely, the foundations of her signature pop star wardrobe were already emerging. Case in point: her Versace-esque chainmail cowl neck. It’s not her co-designed La Vacanza collection by any means,
Behold, Alexa Chung in all her twee glory. Just off camera, Chung’s then-boyfriend Alex Turner donning another classic Glastonbury fit.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA International.