Southern Style: Shaky Knees Festy Dress
For the third year running, Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival brought an intensely curated, nationally-acclaimed indie rock showcase to the streets of downtown Atlanta. Each year the fest has changed locations – two years ago the Masquerade Music Park hosted, last year the concrete jungle of Atlantic Station. After trial and error, the promoters finally have settled into a homelier park locale – Atlanta’s own Central Park, located in the West Old Fourth Ward. The new location also translated into the ability to host more guests. This year’s daily attendance hovered around 30,000, which, in my humble opinion, is THE magic number for an intown festival. Congratulations, Shaky Knees, you’ve done it!
Prior years have been muddled with monsoons and mud, but not this year! Shaky Knees welcomed sunny skies, light cloud coverage, spurts of breeze and a HOTT 90 degrees. WHOOSH! Friday’s steamy temps had festival attendees fading fast and rethinking all ideas regarding dress. If there was any fashion theme for the weekend it was this: minimize body coverage, maximize air flow! And be cute to boot. Ladies wore crop tops and tailored tops tied up in the front, lacy bralettes, flowy tiered skirts, mesh sundresses, and crochet. Add a sheer shawl or scarf, some spaced-out cat-eye sunglasses, top it off with a wide brimmed sunhat or cute flat bill and you’re good to go. Men took the manly approach – patterned tanks, stylin’ haircuts, top hats, bandanas to keep cool, and at times, no shirt (no problem here).
Running around the festival, I met a whole lot of fashionable cats, many of whom were from Florida. I guess Floridians naturally just know how to stay classy AND cool.
My good friend Deanna and I were pleasantly surprised at the lack of women’s high-waisted jean cut offs, a current fave trend. We would like to thank all attendees for their taste in thinking outside the box and invite you to join our new campaign: “Just say no to denim diapers.”
Some tips on Festy Fashion Do’s and Don’t’s:
DON’T wear a shirt from a major regional festival you have previously attended – that’s just plain tacky.
DO wear a tee from prior years of the festival you are currently attending.
DON’T wear a shirt for a band that is playing the festival, especially on the day said band takes the stage. Unless you plan on getting your shirt signed…but then the question arises – why are you wearing that anyway? You’ll just end up with a sweat-drenched mop that no band could possibly sharpie.
DO wear a tee for a band that’s not playing the festival, especially if said band is local.
DO support local music!
