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Rave fashion: What people wear when they can wear anything
Exploring the one-of-a-kind styles grown out of a community that respects all
Amber Greer
Sean Hunter, who goes by The Kandi Man at raves and as a DJ, trades kandi with a friend
Amber Greer was convinced by a friend to attend her first electronic dance music (EDM) show on New Year’s Eve of 2022. She was unsure what to wear, so she searched TikTok for answers, eventually crafting an outfit which was outside her normal comfort zone.
It featured the flashy colors that were typical for her as a member of the theater world, but revealed a lot more skin than she was used to.
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It scared her a bit.
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She anticipated dirty looks and judgment.
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But when she arrived at the venue she was met with hundreds of other people wearing equally daring outfits, and each person offered her the respect she had hoped for.
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“I got a lot of compliments for my outfits that I never expected, especially being a plus size girl,” Greer said. “I always thought, especially with the guys, that they would be like ‘Why is she wearing that? Put some clothes on.’”
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She appreciated the community and was drawn back to EDM shows again and again. As she attended more shows she added more rave staples to her fashion arsenal.
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Greer experienced the same type of growth that many who begin attending EDM shows do. The evolution of personal fashion afforded to ravers by a community built on respect.
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“Rave fashion is whatever you truly want it to be because you're going to a place where you are not going to be judged for where you came from, who you are, what you have done as long as you are going there respecting everyone else,” frequent attendee Ryan Poydock said.
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So what do people wear when they can wear whatever their heart desires?
Kandi - A unifying force
Though people are encouraged to wear anything they like, common styles and accessories emerge that enable ravers to balance style and utility, represent an EDM sound they particularly enjoy, or engage in community rituals.
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Across a multitude of genres worldwide, you will find ravers arms covered in kandi—bracelets designed to trade at shows made of colorful pony beads which usually feature short phrases that can be humorous, spread positivity, or represent an artist.
EDM fans come to shows with kandi to trade, which often leads to meaningful connections.
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“That's how you meet people. It's how you connect with people. You see these people with bracelets all across their wrists and when you're trading them you're getting these stories,” Poydock said. “Then you have these memories that are not just mental but physical as well.”
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Friend groups sometimes engage in pre-show kandi making parties to prepare.
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Often ravers have kandi with extreme sentimental value, like the first that Marr ever received, which she did not take off for years, or Greer’s yellow “HONEY” kandi.
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“It’s something that my friend had made for me,” Greer said. “I always make sure I put it on a specific arm. I'm like, ‘OK, if I do trade, that's not leaving.’ That's definitely something that I will always treasure.”
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The ritual of trading kandi involves a handshake that coincides with the principles of PLUR—Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect—that ravers are expected to abide by, starting with touching peace signs, then forming a heart, pressing your hands together and interlocking your fingers to slide a kandi from one participant’s arm to another’s.
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“It comes from the heart. When you trade it with someone it’s like a transfer of good vibes to that person,” Marr said.
EDM Empowerment
Monica Marr
Greer's prized "HONEY" kandi
A Project Glow attendee wearing many kandi bracelets and necklaces
Two Project Glow attendees with matching outfits
A man wearing a Subtronics baseball jersey, kandi bracelets and cuffs, and cosmic pants
Monica Marr wearing fake blood, a reflective fanny pack, and platform boots
Women get rave braids done at a show
EJ Beardsley
AKA Pizza Slut
April Colavecchia AKA Sparke Farts the Unicorn
Sara Benyo
Ravers tend to wear outfits that would be viewed differently in the world outside EDM, and in the case of women this is often because of the more revealing nature of their outfits.
Greer recalled a story of harassment experienced on her walk to a show in Buffalo while wearing such an outfit.
“I definitely was more exposed than I wanted to be,” she said. “And I remember specifically it was really dark. I was by myself and there was a group of people and they're cat calling and hollering and one of them tried to grab me.”
But the consensus is that the judgment-free community at EDM shows is the antithesis of this behavior and can make people feel beautiful no matter what they arrive in, which can come with profound effects for women's confidence.
“Women's ability to wear less and be confident was huge to me when I first started and for the first time made me feel like I'm hot, I'm sexy, I can walk around and feel like I'm not going to be trampled on,” Monica Marr said. “I felt like I could just stand up and be me and be loud and proud for the first time in a while.”
Greer agreed that the community can change your self-perception when dressed in rave attire.
“I feel like a whole different person to be honest,” she said. “I feel powerful in a way. I feel like I can do anything.”
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Men at raves also have an opportunity to practice body positivity and express themselves in ways that are outside normal gender conventions like showing more skin regardless of body type, wearing non-traditional accessories like cat ears or chains, and wearing makeup.
Greer feels that those outside the EDM scene misunderstand these aspects of rave culture.
“Just because we're wearing these things doesn't mean we want to be touched or groped or we’re these sex addicts or strippers or anything like that,” she said.
Sometimes wardrobe malfunctions can result from the boundary-pushing outfits, like when Marr packed nothing but platform Demonia boots for multiple days at the music festival EDC.
“I wore them the entirety of day one and the entirety of day two,” Marr said. “Day three, I had initially gone wearing them but then my feet were hurting way too bad. So I was like ‘You know what? I got some pictures. I'm just going to put on a T-shirt and flip flops.”
Greer had her own mishap while waiting in line while snow and hail fell in Buffalo.
“I think we waited for maybe an hour and a half to two hours, and I had gotten this fuzzy sweater at a hot topic. And I was like, ‘OK, this might keep me warm.’” Greer said. “And that did nothing for me. It just looked cute.”
The rave staples
Outside the EDM scene people wear jerseys to represent their favorite sports team. Inside the scene people wear jerseys to represent their favorite DJs, complete with suitable numbers and names across the back.
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“I want to have jerseys that I can wear and show off and have people be like, ‘Is that a Subtronics jersey?’ I'll be like, ‘Yeah, I saw him when he came to Buffalo here.’ Like, ‘Is that an excision jersey? I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, I saw him when he did a two-night show here,’” Poydock said.
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Funky hats and sunglasses prevail across all sounds, but styles across genres can vary, like the floral and patterned button up shirts common in house music, or the demonic and dark aesthetics found at heavy dubstep shows.
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“You’ll have people who are very heavy bass heads. They won't have a lot of big bulky stuff on them because they'll be head-banging,” Poydock said. “And if you do see the people who are head banging with a lot of stuff, they'll have that stuff strapped to them.”
Even specific festivals can elicit their own themes.
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Marr has worn a dinosaur onesie to Lost Lands, reflective daisies at Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), and fake blood for Sullivan King’s “Thrones of Blood” tour.
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“I'll literally look at the online poster and I'll try and gather the vibes. Like, ‘What's this tour about? What artist is it? Do they have a particular color that they're always in?’” Marr said. “The ones where you can get spooky are my favorite because I'm a very spooky person.”
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Greer does much the same.
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“The last show I went to was Grabbitz and I noticed his thing was all butterflies. And I was like, ‘OK, butterflies are really cute, what can I do with that?’” Greer said. “It just so happened I had a sunflower rave outfit so I incorporated sunflowers into my makeup so it looked like I was a flower that a butterfly landed on. I tried to make a little story to it.”
Women often wear rave braids to shows. These chunky colorful braids can take a significant amount of time to get right, and usually require someone who's had a lot of training, but the result is a flashy hairstyle not found anywhere else.
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In addition to the unique cultural aspects, EDM shows present unique considerations when it comes to physical and mental wellbeing, like high temperatures and overwhelming light shows, meaning that attendees must incorporate aspects of their outfits which combine utility and style.
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Fanny packs filled to the brim with tools of the trade are common. Chewing gum, portable chargers, Narcan, chapstick, and trinkets such as rubber ducks to give out are all mainstays.
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Attendees are also encouraged to wear ear plugs or other forms of hearing protection to mitigate potential hearing loss caused by long term exposure to the high-decibel music.
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Backpacks with a flexible tube ending in a nozzle connected to a water bladder called hydropacks keep people hydrated while engaging in high intensity dancing, moshing, and walking at music festivals.
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A single hand-fan can be used to cool off entire groups in hot environments.
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But the fan-favorite rave accessory may be the pashmina. A pashmina, referred to as a pash by those in the scene, is a decorated scarf that can keep you warm in late-night cold, shade you from the sun, or make you feel safe while overstimulated.
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“I had ear plugs in but the light show was just affecting me so badly I literally had to put my head down. I put the pashmina over me and I was still fine,” Greer said. “It helped a whole lot with me not feeling like, ‘OK, I need to leave. I need to go grab water because now it's just too much.’”
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Sometimes a rave veteran will transcend the already otherworldly garments of raves and form a new rave persona.
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Pizza slut (EJ Beardsley), who dresses head to toe in pizza patterns, Sparkle Farts the Unicorn (April Colavecchia) whose personality is just as glittery as the oversized horn atop her head, or the gentleman who never fails to dress dress exactly like the main character from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” complete with a flyswatter, are some of the standouts from Western New York.
Poydock has his own recognizable piece of attire that accompanies him to every show. What started as a plain flat-brimmed baseball cap quickly snowballed into a prized possession as he accumulated dozens of sprout clips—plastic clips meant to be stuck to people's clothing, sometimes without their knowledge for a fun surprise.
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“This past weekend when I went to San Holo I was wearing my hat. I was recognized by three different groups of people who I didn't know were there, all because they saw my hat,” Poydock said.
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He views it as a conversation starter, and something which illustrates his journey from show to show. And the constant ebb and flow of sprouts from the hat leads to connections with fellow ravers.
Styles on the stage and backstage
Considering these highly memorable and flamboyant tendencies renders the phenomena of DJ’s across genres gravitating towards dark and minimalistic outfits even more surprising.
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Though not ubiquitous, it is commonplace for DJ’s, their crew, and other industry insiders to stick to all black.
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DJ Sara Benyo has noticed this trend first hand as she has broken into the EDM industry.
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“There’s been times where I’ve been backstage and if I wear a black T-shirt and black pants I am treated completely differently versus wearing something that truly represents me as an artist,” Benyo said. “It’s almost like people don’t think you’re an artist and they kind of write you off if you’re backstage in a green room and they’re like ‘Oh, that’s just a raver’ or ‘Oh, that’s just a groupie.’”
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Though some may be following the trend to fit in or are intentionally differentiating themselves from the general rave populous, it is also likely some stick to the basics for comfort.
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“I think they want to come off as chill. It's kind of the cool look right now,” Marr said. “But you’re up there for a while, you’re probably sweating, the lights are on you and if you're in the whole get-up every time I'm sure it gets tiring. So I don't blame them for being like, ‘OK, I don't care if this lost lands. I'm just wearing a t-shirt.”
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Benyo hopes to see more DJ’s express themselves beyond industry expectations.
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“You do have to fight a little bit harder to be respected unfortunately, as a woman especially, if you’re dressed in rave fashion in a green room,” Benyo said. “I’ve been in a room where someone who ran a venue shook everybody’s hand except mine.”
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It is however clear that these minimalistic outfits are not the result of laziness, as even the dark T-shirts and baseball caps often reflect higher end brands, their friends' merch, cutting-edge fashion companies, or a broader artistic vision.
A culture of respect
The beauty of rave culture is that fans and DJs alike can wear plain black or neon rainbow and be equally respected.
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“Something that I never really realized until I was actually in it is that this is a community that's very, very accepting and very open to new people because that was a big fear of mine, that I wasn't gonna fit in,” Greer said.
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The unique styles come from the unique culture. When attendees are allowed space to express themselves, beautiful things can happen.
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“There's not really any pressure to dress a certain way, going to a rave, you kind of just find your style and evolve with it,” Poydock said. “I cannot name another place where something like that will happen besides a rave or festival. Because of the community there are things that happen there that don't happen anywhere else, and you just get to experience them all the time.”
A Project Glow attendee in a fishnet top and reflective shorts
A woman dressed as a demonic nun and a man dressed like a Kai Wachi album cover pose for a picture at Lost Lands
A man dressed in attire typical for house music shows
A woman with colorful rave braids
A man wearing a pashmina under his cowboy hat with a sprout clip on the brim
Ryan Poydock poses wearing his signature sprout hat
