When people think of being a student, they don’t immediately jump to fashion or the decisions that go into everyday life. Some plan outfits the night before, meticulously laying out their clothes for convenience in the morning, or the less responsible of them, using the hour spent before school scrambling to find something even salvageable to wear.
When you take into account the delicate decisions made just to make it possible for you to go to school confidently, it does make you question how to express yourself while still dressing conventionally.
School takes up 40 hours a week for most, and is the sole opportunity to get to wear what you want for some. But what goes into each and every outfit over the span of five days?
Tashyka Zundel and Jett McCall are two fashionista seniors attending Wilsonville High School. This week, their outfits were photographed each school day.
When asked to describe her style, Zundel responded, “I’m not entirely sure I could fit it in a box, but probably more alternative.” In contrast to Zundel, McCall responded without hesitation, “Eccentrically avant-garde”.
When asked what she takes into consideration when planning an outfit, Zundel says, “I always check the weather before I plan an outfit and think about what I’m gonna have to do.”
She accounts for “How functional the outfit is gonna be, if it’s wearable, like if I’m doing a lab in anatomy that day, I’m probably not gonna wear a dress.”
So how do you still express yourself with your clothes?
The practicality of an outfit is important, but that’s not the only factor that plays into account when it comes to school fashion.
“Using accessories is a really easy way to incorporate creativity into an outfit; different patterns, textures, and metals can make your look more interesting,” Zundel states.
However, when at school, Zundel wears “a watered-down version of my actual fashion sense, it can get really overstimulating, like a bunch of jewelry or a bunch of layers.
Fashion is the peephole into one’s personality, obviously, at a larger public school, you don’t have the chance to talk to each and every one of your peers. So at the end of the day, the only thing you have to base them on, is their presentation.
So the bigger question is, how does fashion tie into one’s personality? Should we make judgments based on what the people around us wear? And how do you want to be perceived?
McCall responds, “Fashion shows who someone is on a more profound level, although the way it’s being shown is through a very surface-level expression. You can show so much of yourself through what you’re wearing, but despite the fact that it can give people a baseline idea of who you are, it means a lot more to people who actually know you and your personality.”
Unlike Zundel, McCall says he refuses to conform no matter what the environment. When asked what influences his choices, he responded, “This is gonna sound so cocky, but whatever I feel like that day. Like ‘Ohhhh, am I feeling a sassy all-over black outfit or a more chilled, relaxed fit?’ I have an awful tendency to not check the weather or the plan for what I am doing that day.”
Overall, fashion at school should be a way to express yourself. Finding a healthy balance between comfy and chic is essential to these style icons. Students may get motivation from different places; their influences may vary, but in the end, they all come to school in killer outfits.