What is style? This has been a question I’ve been asking myself since I developed an interest in fashion at a young age.
I think my love for fashion started when I was a little girl in ballet class. I loved the simplicity of the pink leotard and tights with my hair pulled back into a little bun. Moreover, I became even more excited when I got to wear sparkly tutus and shine on stage. All of this excitement for pieces of clothes began to ooze into my daily style, but I didn’t exactly comprehend what my fashion taste exactly was.
For years, I would flip through countless Vogue magazines in the hopes of forming the same or similar style I’d seen within these fashion bibles. I believed what was seen in Vogue created the concrete laws of fashion, but as years went by, I realized this wasn’t the case. I wanted to be different from others and not look like a mannequin in the store.
In my free time I indulge in fashion documentaries, such as Iris, which is a biographical film about Iris Apfel, a woman with known eccentric style in the fashion industry. What stuck out about Iris’s style was not only her bold jewelry, but also that she dressed to match how she felt and what appealed to her rather than following the trends that dominate the fashion world.
Another fashion figure with not only a great sense of humor but a unique and daring style as well is Leandra Medine, the creator of Man Repeller — a humorous fashion blog which began from Medine’s unapologetic style. What I love about Medine’s style philosophy is that it is not to please or satisfy anyone, especially men, other than herself. She just wants to let her personality shine through her clothes.
I asked some of my friends to give their opinions about style. Here is what they said:
Bruna Giampietro (COM’ 20)
Q: What is STYLE to you?
Bruna: Style is a creative way to express my personality and paint an image to present who I am through the clothes I wear.
Q: Describe your style in 3 words.
Bruna: Petite. Relaxed. Colorful.
Sophie Singer-Santoro (CAS’20)
Q: What is STYLE to you?
Sophie: To me, style is the way to express yourself without having to say anything and I think you can tell a lot about someone’s personality by the way they dress themselves.
Q: Describe your style in 3 words.
Sophie: Cozy. Casual. Classic.