This spring has certainly lived up to the old saying, “April showers bring May flowers…”. With the recent rainstorms every few days, and certainly throughout the harsh New York winter, I have noticed an abundance of Hunter boots around campus. As an LA girl myself, Hunter boots were one of my first purchases after I decided to go to college on the East Coast. Little did I know that the colorful rubber boots would become a staple in my wardrobe and a major component of the female, college student “uniform” – at least on this side of Broadway (I go to Barnard).
Trends are funny that way. The Hunter boot company has been around for many years. An American entrepreneur started the company in Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century. The company is the oldest manufacturer of rubber boots in the UK. Fast-forward to the twenty-first century, and you now have a remarkably successful company with a widely distributed product. How did Hunters become so popular?
It is one of those chicken or the egg situations where we don’t know if the trend started and spread to college campuses due to incredible practicality, or if college students started the trend, and it spread to the rest of the world. I like to think it was the latter because we as college students do play an important role in consumerism and the fashion market – especially in New York City.
Our situation is particularly unique because we are in the heart of a fast-paced city that is known for setting global trends. We young New Yorkers feed into the trends, helping to propagate them, but we also play an important role in setting them. Campus trends are started and perpetuated through the adoption of them by our friends and peers.
Styles come and go, but I believe that a major contributing component to these trends is functionality. For example, over the past two years, athletic gear – namely Lulu Lemon – has exploded across campus. We make exercising fashionable and chic by sporting our lycra gear around all day even if we are only going to the gym much later in the day. It has even become acceptable to wear spandex to class.
Athletic gear has become a mainstreamed part of most college women’s wardrobes with all of the different styles available. Lulu Lemon does an amazing job at marketing their pieces to all audiences – from the casual runner to the upscale exerciser. With the fast pace of life around here, girls have no problem with the multi-purpose clothing to get through the day while being comfortable and cute at the same time.
We find ways to be styish while suiting our functional needs. And it is around these needs, that gaps in the market are filled. The companies grow in popularity and expand their influence – just like Hunter boots, which continuously comes out with more high fashion boot designs that go above and beyond their simple use value.
Rain boots used to be bulky, often colorfully patterned pieces that stuck out like a sore thumb and potentially ruined a cute outfit. Now, with the pervasiveness of Hunters and other muted styles, rain boots don’t have to scream “rain boots,” but rather they have become socially acceptable, and in our case, even fashionable. Rain boots now come in every different color and style – from wedges to metallic – so they blend with the rest of your wardrobe.
I also attribute these trends to the interaction between what is available in the market and what we as the consumers buy. For example, this year anorak jackets like those by Barbour and many other companies have popped up all over campus. The distinct khaki or army green colors transition well throughout seasons and go with most other colors as a nice neutral alternative to standard black or brown. The jackets are also functional for layering during colder months yet shift well to spring as a lighter coat. Almost every casual life style store such as J.Crew makes its own version of this type of jacket. With so many variations on this basic theme, everyone can express a little bit of their own style through a similar design, as with Hunters.
Looking from the outside in, these trends may appear to be bizarre. Really, trying to pass spandex off as “pants” probably looks like a cheap excuse for laziness and comfort, and many people find it highly inappropriate. The important thing is that we realize the boundary between when it is and is not socially appropriate to succumb to our desire for ease and comfort.
Moving forward, that is where the challenge with such trends lies. As we slowly begin to enter the “real world” and the work force, we must unfortunately leave some of our college ways behind as we “dress for success.” While we still have the luxury of wearing workout gear and rubber boots, lets appreciate our trend circle for what it is and know not to take it for granted. I know I for one will gratefully continue to sport my leggings and Hunter boots all throughout these “April showers” as I anxiously await the beautiful “May flowers.”