For my Journalism 302: Infomania class, I worked all semester on a curation project to turn in as a final. Below is an explanation and analysis of my findings. I loved this project because it correlated well with my ASOS internship. I hope to elaborate further on this topic and to be honest, I'm just stoked my professor said it was "fascinating." Enjoy! I apologize for the wordiness, what is a college project for anyway. Shockingly enough, this is chopped down a bit for a shorter read!
My initial goals for the project are as follows:
- Find
fashion patterns and trends on campus.
- Compare and contrast style on
campuses across the nation.
- Learn more about fashion around the country and
why students dress the way they do.
- Use social media wisely to research and
report my findings.
I met my goals based on the fact I collected a solid base of photos of
different styles from different campuses. I also read multiple articles and
reports in relation to men and women's fashion on college campuses, what makes
them significant and how this style is achieved. These articles hailed from a
variety of magazines including
Cosmopolitan,
GQ,
Teen
Vogue and
Seventeen Magazine. All of which are recognized in
successfully covering and reporting fashion. I also discovered a few articles
from renound fashion blog,
Refinery 29.
Refinery 29 is
constantly recognized for covering both men and women fashions. I used the
medium of Pinterest because of the access to quality photos and articles in
relation to fashion. It was a great place to collect from different users and
sites, while still being able to contribute my own pictures, links, and
thoughts. I currently have 263 followers on this particular board, which means
my research and collection can be used in others' projects, or to simply get
fashion inspiration for next semester.
Tools:
In accordance with Pinterest, I also relied on my own photos and the polling
of seemingly fashion conscience students. For quality pictures, I used my Nikon
D60. I brought it with me weekly in order to capture the progression of fashion
from summer, fall, then winter. From there, I took notes of what I found on my
own campus and constantly checked the aforementioned blogs and magazines of
reports for other areas of the country and their styles. I also interviewed
students on my routes around campus. I found this material by background
knowledge: I am an avid follower of Refinery 29, and used Pinterest to gather
other articles from popular men and women magazines that covered and reported
what I wanted to know. All sources provided valuable pictures on what was the
"popular" styles and "must-haves of the season." I then organized this material
in one board on Pinterest, adding the picture separately in order to lay them
out for constant overview. There are also the links to the articles I referenced
as well as links to blurbs I created about my research. Although it was one
board, I found it easy to organize and identify the information I wanted and
needed.
West Coast, Best Coast:
As for my findings, I discovered an overall trend on the amount of clothing
on campuses. Ranging from the West to the East coast, the amount of clothing on
women become more and more, the least residing in the Golden State. Although
this is a very broad observation,
Teen Vogue examines the care-free
style of the west coast by attributing it to the beaches and constant sunshine:
"California Daytime ensembles feel slightly beachy but still collegiate, for an
ideal equation of casual meets oh-so cool (Knebl)." The same can be said for the
male population of the coastal states, by constantly residing in flat-front
shorts and sneakers. Popular and notable trends for women include: crop tops,
high wasted shorts, skater skirts, flip flops, and free flowing, natural hair.
Teen Vogue reports the most fashionable students are those with
care-free, but careful style. They maintain a sense of comfort while still
looking put together for class. This breed of college attendees have a tendency
to wear what KU students wear to the bars and parties, to class. It is more a
matter of the weather, trends and popularity of image that effect how these
collegiates dress.
So-Not the Flyover States:
Migrating towards the heart land, again another broad area but necessary in
the debriefing of the project, I focused on the students of the University of
Kansas. Kansas students tend to focus on a look migrating more toward comfort,
while still maintaining an image of style. Leggings seem to be a necessity for
women as well as sweaters and lace-up boots in recent weeks. "Norts," or Nike
brand shorts, are also a necessity along with name brand tennis shoes to be
comfortable around campus. However the dressier students migrated more toward
neon/bright colors and long boho skirts. Both are easily accessible in the
summer and fall months and enable students to look dressed up, while still being
able to run to catch the bus. Men styles are not too different in comparison to
the care-free, Cali style. Flat front or basketball shorts are often worn to
class for comfort and accessibility to which ever clean shirt was available.
However, the most fashion-forward males were constantly seen in button ups and
khakis. "This trend is huge both here and in the southern schools,"
Cosmopolitan claims. "It is a way to respect yourself as well as the
teachers when you appear to care, therefore giving you the A's you deserve (No
Author)." When polling on Wescoe Beach, I came across Stephen Moore, an avid
believer that one should dress for success. He claims, "I feel confident when I
look put together. Especially on test days. I take those days by the motto
'dress well, test well' I can not concentrate in sweat pants or hoodies, I feel
like I'm still in bed (Moore)." Upon asking other fashion- forward students,
most had generally the same excuse of looking nice and putting their best foot
forward. Rachel Mertel claims, "I have cute clothes that I spend too much money
on. I should wear them while I can (in reference to the sunny day this occurred
on), I do not like looking and feeling like a slob (Mertel)." Images of these
two can be found on my Pinterest board, and their style, on campus.
East Siiide:
Finally, the east coast brings an undeniably quirky, but envy-creating style.
By focusing mostly in New York City, I mainly came up with the fashion that
reined from the art and fashion institutions that sprinkled the
coast.
Refinery 29 had a great piece that covered the fashion in New
York City, "46 NYC Students that Aced it!" They state, " The results yielded
from days of field testing at Big Apple universities proved us right: College
truly is a time when personal fashion
really begins to flourish
(Harris)." This is a powerful statement that can more than likely be applied to
those choosing to dress fashionably to class. From there,
Refinery 29
provides 46 images of students, both male and female, from a variety of east
coast school. This, along with other images and articles from Pinterest, alludes
to the trends of heavy coats, scarfs, and denim pants. No leggings on women were
seen and no shorts on men appeared. Consider the students of KU, their style,
and the differences between these NYC students. Given, not all students on our
campus are fashion savvy, or even care, but the vast differences of KU students
and those residing in NYC are evident in that fashion blogs do not come to the
midwest in general to snap pictures for their sites. This is not a determiner of
who is or will be more successful, but rather a simple and quick overview of the
trends of three major areas in the country. I would rather go deeper in depth
than present a broad and vague analysis of this project, however my personal
goals were met when I analyzed and interviewed how and why students create a
fashionable and careful image.
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/aashleyhightt/campus-style/
More trends to contribute or a rebuttal? Post below!
