Olivia Harris
I have always loved fashion. For years, my afternoons have consisted of flipping through magazines, cutting out my favorite images and pasting them onto blank pages to create styles of my own. Scrolling through blogs online, I would admire the pictures like the works of art that they were, my eyes darting from one image to the next, soaking in colors and patterns and textures. But sometimes, my love for fashion and style was met with a condescending smile. Some people believe that fashion is superficial, that style doesn’t matter, that I should stop worrying about clothes. But what they don’t understand is that style is about so much more than clothes. It’s about attitude, perspective, culture, and expression. It allows people to speak volumes without saying a word and gives the world an opportunity to see all that goes on inside your head. Style is about showing the world who you are and what you stand for. Fashion can be anything you want it to be, and that’s what I love about it. It can be abstract, political, thought-provoking, and unique. It can bring people together and start conversations. It can bring color to a world that is too often plagued by darkness. And style is the product of all those things. Style is about how you take fashion and make it your own. I love it. Even if I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt, I’m wearing things I love, things that make me feel good, things that make me smile. And that’s a pretty incredible thing. I wanted to explore this idea of style as much as I could, so I asked a couple students what fashion and style means to them. Here’s what they said. “Fashion is fun. It’s fun in the sense that I get to admire what other people wear and take inspiration from them. People can be so similar, but wear things that are so personal and special to them.” -Joyelle Van Eron “Style is a way for me to express my individuality.” -Ioanna Karras “Fashion is a way to express my emotions. I dress how I feel.” -Anwar Mohammed “Style is everything. Getting dressed is a way to present the best version of myself.” -D Aisanya “Fashion is a huge part of expression in general. I consider myself an artist because style is a creative outlet for me. I like to go against what is popular and make my own trends.” -Alexa Ramirez “Fashion to me is putting things in my cart online, then deleting them and knowing I can pull off those looks another way.” -Jennifer Nguyen “It’s a way to express how you feel towards life. I like to shows what I can do with different fashion trends, and change it to be my own. -Anees Goparaju “Fashion to me is about expressing your personal message. It’s fun to change my message to others based on what I wear.” -Charlotte Ryan Style is a beautiful thing, and it should be celebrated. This led me to create the Student Style Section, a place where I could highlight personal style at Latin. In every issue, I will interview a different student about their personal style, what inspires them, and what fashion means to them. And I want to hear from you. Whose style do you admire? Who inspires you? Who do you want to see interviewed? To nominate someone to be featured, email me at [email protected]. So keep your eyes open. For the next Student Style section, yes, but also for inspiration. Beauty is everywhere. Innovation is everywhere. Fashion is everywhere.]]>“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only…Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” -Coco Chanel
