This weekend has been a flurry of “fit checks,” especially with Revolve Festival at Coachella — often heralded as the “Olympics for influencers.” As influencers, headliners and Coachella attendees dressed to the nines, it was also an incredible weekend for creatives as they had their works showcased through a plethora of Instagram photos and performances.

But before I go full-Coachella, the women’s NBA draft pick has also been an incredible showing of athletes in their best outfits. Number one overall pick, Caitlin Clark, made history by being the first athlete to be dressed in head-to-toe Prada at an NBA or WNBA draft.

Okay, back to the music — or for me, the lack thereof. I myself was devastated to not attend this year. Typically, I don’t mind missing out on major festivals, but I have a deep love for Lana Del Rey and only felt my FOMO quadruple as a leaked video of her sound check included her unreleased song, “You Can Be The Boss.”

But, that didn’t mean I went down a rabbit hole of Lana Del Rey and festival fashion. One artist who stood out to me was Doja Cat.

In true Doja Cat fashion, she took performance art and avant-garde to a new level. In an interview with Vogue, she explained how she wanted the show to feel like a “textural fever dream,” her outfits serving as a “‘scientific’ exploration of the self — a dissecting of the mind, and deeper understanding of what makes us the way we are.”

Performing hit songs such as “Attention,” “Paint the Town Red,” “Tia Tamera” and “Need to Know,” her outfits consisted of a hazmat suit, silicone muscles, faux fur two-pieces and the most fabulous of all: hair extensions to the floor with long-haired boots to match her dancers, also in floor-length hair and hairy, full-coverage bodysuits.

The all-natural human hair costumes were made by Charlie Le Mindu, a French hairstylist and creative director who has previously worked with iconic artists on their hair pieces such as Lady Gaga’s blonde hair lips. It made me think about fashion as functionality, if we can truly have both.

Clothes are obviously functional if we look at the definition of the word, according to Oxford Languages: “of or having a special activity, purpose, or task; relating to the way in which something works or operates.” Clothes cover us up, help us with weather exposure and sometimes even aid in the performance of particular tasks, such as creating illusions of shapes and silhouettes.

Ironically, “functional” also has a second definition of “designed to be practical and useful, rather than attractive.” But if we go one layer deeper into practicality, I can easily argue clothes are quite versatile, as the fabric itself can help mop up spills, serve as tourniquets and be folded into a makeshift bag.

Still, the concept of fashion and practicality is the age-old debate of whether fashion is an industry or an art. When functional clothing tries to be both fashionable and practical, the fashionable element is always an accessory instead of part of the design.

For example, vintage charms serve the purpose of being an addition to your bracelet or necklace, but it is extra fun when you can open the hatch to a jack-in-the-box, twist around the horse on the merry-go-round or hide something in a mini gold safe.

Just as such, the opposite can be true: having an illusion of functionality behind pure accessory — the Diesel skirt belt, the Acne Studios mini skirt in the shape of a leather bag (with a pouch attached) or Ganryu’s “quintuple waistband” jeans.

It might just have to do with the difference in being fashionable and having day-to-day style, particularly with the interchangeability of the two in terms of how we may or may not implement and execute expressions akin to artists and creatives in our everyday lives.

We may think we are mundane, and our lives have fallen into a rhythmic clunking that puts us to sleep, but just as we and our circumstances are ever-changing, so is fashion. Perhaps the spark we need to perk us up lies in taking a daily task as simple as putting on clothes into shifting our mindset to crafting an outfit.

As a result, our verbs and actions become more exciting as we give ourselves and our tasks more purpose than we originally intended.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.”

We can aim higher, wear louder, create more and make our presence bigger. If we have been told our world is our oyster and we live in self-centered worlds, then why not run with that narrative?

Our narratives keep us grounded and rooted in our deepest, most innocent and uncomplicated desires. If we can honor our narratives and let them come to surface in the warm West Coast weather, then I think we can be unstoppable.

One of my favorite songs is Jake Runestad’s “Let My Love Be Heard.” So go out, and make yourselves be heard. If that means wearing a floor-length wig, then I encourage you to do so. The world is your oyster, and the clothes you wear are your drawing board — go forth and make your mark!

Hadyn Phillips is a junior writing about fashion in the 21st century, spotlighting new trends and popular controversy. Her column, “That’s Fashion, Sweetie,” runs every Wednesday.