Work Loud Fashion Trends While Doing Homework
The First Installment of Fashion Advice Column for Busy College Students
By GRACE TWOREK
From the latest slang to the coolest sneakers or hashtags on Twitter, the world is full of trends… whether we like it or not. I am not here to tell you how to dress. Rather, my goal is to fill you in on what is trending in the world of fashion and recommend ways in which the average Harvard student can implement these trends into their daily lives and make the most out of being fashion forward.
What makes the fashion world so exhilarating is that it is always changing. I’m sure that you have looked at a popular item of clothing and thought, “I will never wear that,” just to be seen sporting it a year later because Kylie Jenner made it “cool.” And there is nothing wrong with this! Trends change while tastes evolve and people grow with fashion, making it truly exciting to take part in.
Our college years are meant for exploring the unfamiliar and stepping outside of our comfort zones. This is what makes now the perfect time to experiment with fashion trends. Sometimes it can be hard to implement these fashion movements into a daily school routine…it is hard enough to wake up early for class and look presentable in the morning, let alone fashionable — and that is what I am here for.
The first trend I will discuss is one of my favorites of the season: animal print. Unfortunately, animal print is often linked to a sense of tackiness, think early 2000’s Jersey Shore. However, if done right… in small doses… it can be incredibly tasteful.
Animal print can be intimidating — no one wants their outfit to be mistaken for a Halloween costume gone wrong. In my opinion, the best way to implement this pattern is to choose one focus piece with animal print and let the rest of the look take a back seat. This focus piece can be anything from a belt, a pair of booties, a backpack, gloves, or my favorite – a scrunchie.
It sounds like a super underwhelming way to approach a bold trend, but you would be surprised by how many times you hear, “I love your scrunchie! Where’d you get it?” when you try it out.
At the end of the day, animal print in your wardrobe can be as loud or as quiet as you want it to be. But, however much you decide to rock, make sure to do it with confidence because that completes any look.
The next recent trend to which I would like to draw attention to is the re-emergence of neon. Rather than describing how I would implement this trend into my daily outfits, I want to approach this look from a different perspective, one which is still very applicable to the everyday college student.
One might wonder how to incorporate the neon trend into your style without putting it on your body. Not everyone is ready to step out of their box when it comes to expressing their sense of fashion and rock a neon green jumpsuit to class. Luckily, there are many subtle ways to insert neon into a look. We’re students, we go to class – or at least we usually do.
We can start here then… What do we need for class? A laptop? Some notebooks? Our phone? Something as simple as a neon phone, laptop case, or even some neon-colored notebooks is the perfect place to start with this trend.
These subtle touches don’t scream the “Neon Out” theme of your high school football game, but they definitely do the trick of being on trend. Like animal print, neon can be scary, so start off small if you’re hesitant so you can always feel comfortable and confident.
Fashion isn’t always about the clothes you’re wearing, but instead about the confidence with which you wear it and the everyday accessories that you choose to represent your personality.
Trends are ever changing and sometimes when you finally feel comfortable enough to implement one into your style, something else is already newer and cooler. This is why I encourage you to take advantage of this time in which you get to define your own style, rather than conforming to the business or business casual look that we will be wearing for the rest of our lives.
So, step out of your comfort zone when it comes to fashion trends because it might be another 10 years before animal print or neon is “in” again.
Grace Tworek ‘21 (gracetworek@college.harvard.edu) loves giving fashion advice.