From just a quick glance at Elsewhere Clothing’s website, it’s not hard to see why Fairfield University senior Soly Zarrini is this week’s Campus Celeb. What might be harder to comprehend is that Soly is a co-founder of this awesome futurewear brand. As a Finance and Information Systems double major, Soly was able to turn his passions and ideas into reality this past summer with the launch of his clothing company, Elsewhere Clothing. Read on to learn more about the brand, and Soly’s opinions on personal style and style here at Fairfield.
Her Campus: So this brand….Soly laughsHC: I noticed it over the summer from your Instagram posts.Soly Zarrini: That’s good, that makes me happy – very happy. That means Instagram is working. That’s getting the word out.
HC: Okay, so explain how Elsewhere Clothing got started.SZ: It’s a brand that my best friend from home and I started. I would give him (Julian Moran, UConn) more credit as to the backbreaking laborious work just because I was doing my internship. We had the idea last summer, we had all these plans and ideas, but we didn’t know how the school year would play out. It didn’t seem feasible to do. Then one day this summer he came over and was like, “Dude I have a huge surprise for you.” He had this booklet for Elsewhere that made everything legit. It was a full-fledged, completely official company.
HC: Tell us more about the brand.SZ: Its contemporary street wear, but we use the term futurewear as something we created based on our vision. We take cues from the past, bring them forward, and add a modern aesthetic to create a new progressive street wear type of look. That’s why you can see we use vintage floral prints and dip-dyes. The different dip-dyes and ombrés harken on the tie dying or the acid washes from the sixties and seventies that we really like. We just try to flip it so it’s more modern.
HC: Do you have any current style inspirations for the brand?SZ: I’m a big Tumblr guy. I follow a few fashion blogs. From an inspirational standpoint, a big thing would be street style. Tommy Ton, TheClassyIssue.com, Band of Outsiders, APC, and other high-end street wear brands have influenced us in our fashion eye.
HC: How would you describe your personal style?SZ: I think contemporary. Growing up I was really interested in street wear brands and hip-hop was a big influence, but there’s also my preppy side.
HC: Do you have a favorite brand, besides your own?SZ: Zanerobe, it’s an Australian brand. And J.Crew as number two because if you look at my closet, most of my stuff is J.Crew.
HC: What is your day-to-day involvement with the brand?SZ: Trying to get word out as much as possible. Posting on Instagram, Facebook, social media is a huge tool for us. We’re always talking about the direction of the brand.
HC: What are your future hopes for the brand?SZ: For it to be extremely legit, that people everywhere would recognize it. I think as you grow your business model starts to change or actually develop, so we were just like alright lets put out a line, what do we want, it’s summer so lets try t-shirts and a few long sleeves. But we have visions beyond just making t-shirts because fashion is something we both really enjoy.
HC: Do you have any plans to try to bring the brand to Fairfield?SZ: We’re planning on something for October, as we put together our Fall/Winter line. Maybe get a little pop-up shop, bring Julian down [from UConn], and expose Fairfield.
HC: What is your opinion on the style here at Fairfield?SZ: I think girls do a really good job of dressing and I think any guy would tell you that. So keep doing that, girls. With the guys I like it, it’s preppy and very yacht club, Vineyard Vines-y. It’s all fun to see.
HC: So you’re soon to graduate as a business major, but would you say designing clothes is your dream job?SZ: Yeah it would definitely be a dream job. Obviously the industry is extremely competitive but having that business background allows us to maintain focus on the brand. The business aspect keeps me proactive. The dream is there it’s just a matter of taking the baby steps to get to it. It’s all about the baby steps.
Fingers crossed for the Fairfield pop-up shop this fall! Until then, check out Elsewhere Clothing online and be sure to follow their Instagram account @elsewhereclothing.