While the opposite may be true for most college students, those attending fashion school often dress up more for class than for any other daily activity. It’s par for the course as they discover their personal styles and work to define the future of the fashion industry. As they study fashion design, advertising, merchandising and other industry skills, these students push the bounds of campus fashion daily.
“I love going to fashion school because you can wear anything you want,” says Gianna Caldera, a second-year fashion marketing student at LIM College and online creator. She and her peers are always looking to advance their style, bouncing off of each other for inspiration.
Photo: Courtesy of Gianna Caldera
“Really anything goes,” echoes Skye Andrews, a third-year advertising and marketing communications major at FIT. “People take risks and have fun and will wear anything and everything. It makes you second-guess your own closet. [Fashion school] definitely brings you out of your comfort zone. I have more fun now with my clothes than ever and take more risks.”
Fashion students occupy a unique corner of the apparel market — while their budgets are often small, their taste is advanced and constantly evolving, given how well-informed they are when it comes to clothes. “I look at the inside of garments to see what the finishes are, to see which stitches are used,” Iris Riddle, a third-year fashion design student at Parsons, tells Fashionista. “I can look at something and tell if it’s durable.”
To ensure the quality and fit of garments, fashion students overwhelmingly favor in-person over online shopping, and opt to shop secondhand.
“The majority of my closet is secondhand,” Andrews says. “It’s cost-effective, as well as environmentally friendly and sustainable. Some of the coolest, most unique pieces you can find are thrifted or secondhand.” Thrifting is also a calming and grounding pastime for many students. It’s a way for them to decompress while finding inspiration. “I enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and the process of digging to find something has been loved in the past, but now I’ll be able to cherish it,” Kieva Brady, a senior fashion design student at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) tells Fashionista via email.
Photo: Courtesy of Skye Andrews
The secondhand and vintage stores loved by New York City-based students include Select Vintage and Second Street, while students across the country enjoy searching Depop, Poshmark and eBay online and regularly attend sample sales. If they’re shopping for new pieces, they prefer to shop from local businesses and “sustainable” retailers such as Reformation.
“My go-to online retailers are Ssense and The RealReal,” Maddy Osborne, a junior fashion design student at SCAD Atlanta tells Fashionista over email. “Back in my hometown of New Orleans, I support women-owned, small businesses that have unique and vintage items, like Century Girl and Blue Dream. I prefer conscientiously curated vintage stores such as these.”
When their purchases aren’t perfect, they take to the sewing machine, tailoring items to fit themselves and their friends. “The beauty of being a fashion major is I often buy things to upcycle and transform into something more functional for myself,” says Van Le, a senior at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. “Learning how to knit and make things from scratch — that’s really fun.”
Not only do thrifting, upcycling and designing one’s own clothing cultivate individualism, but the practices also grant students an avenue for avoiding fast fashion, which is a seemingly universal no-go on their campuses. “Socially, you’ll get shunned [if you wear fast fashion] — which, rightfully so,” Andrews says of FIT’s student body. “The tide is turning to the point where it’s not acceptable, and people know the negative impact and the harm that comes from it.”
The environmental and social impact of the fashion industry is a pillar of modern fashion curriculums. However, many students recognize that fast fashion is often the most accessible option for young consumers, themselves included.
“At first, fast fashion is literally your entry point to fashion,” says Imani Woodard, a third-year FIT student majoring in entrepreneurship for fashion and design. Woodard worked in fast-fashion retail before starting her bachelor’s degree and says going to fashion school “opened [her] up to a whole different world” of fashion.
Photo: Courtesy of Imani Woodard
“Studying at FIT has really helped me to understand quality versus quantity,” she says. “When you’re a teenager and you want to replicate what’s on the runway, you don’t understand the impact. As a student, I’ve learned that I can engage in trends in a more sophisticated way.” She does so by “investing in high-level products” that she will want to wear even after trends pass. “I think people really have to decide who they are, to decide what to invest in and what not to invest in,” Woodard says.
For those with the means and time to build a more sustainable, timeless wardrobe, getting to know one’s style is key. Without direction, it’s easy to buy into passing trends that exacerbate the feeling of not having anything to wear, leading to unsustainable shopping habits.
“I believe if more people invested in knowing themselves a bit deeper, shopping would be more enjoyable,” Woodard says. “Our culture is so focused on chasing trends that we’re not focused on creating a wardrobe. I actually think that if you build a wardrobe that you love, a wardrobe that makes you happy, you won’t need to shop for a very long time.”
Waiting for the right pieces to come along is another vital aspect of curating one’s wardrobe, according to these students. Riddle shares that she spent the better part of her summer in search of the perfect pair of capri pants. After three months, she found a pair that she was confident in purchasing. “We want to purchase things immediately and we end up settling for something less,” she says. “It often ends up costing more than what you really love and could have waited for. I’ll usually sleep on something [to decide] if I really, really want it.”
“I am trying to slow down both how frequently I am buying garments and waiting longer between purchases so I can spend a little more on something that will last me much longer,” Hollis Maxson, a senior fashion design student at SCAD, shares with Fashionista via email, “attempting to slow down my cycle in personally important ways no matter where the garment comes from.”
Of course, not everyone will wait months to find an item they’ll wear for years to come. “We have the privilege of not purchasing fast fashion, but the reality is that there are so many people that don’t have that [privilege], and fast fashion is really their only option,” says Erin Bond, a fourth-year fashion design student at Otis College. “Unless we can build and create fashion that is not only quality and long-lasting but available to people with limited budgets, [fast fashion] is always going to exist.”
If they could leave consumers with one suggestion, it would be to buy secondhand whenever possible. “Not everything is going to be 100% clean fashion, but with places like Depop, you know it’s secondhand, you know you’re not contributing to the waste issue,” Caldera says.
Source: Fashionista.com