Students sharpening their critical-thinking skills at college this year may find getting dressed for class is their first test
It's not all jeans, trainers and sweatshirts packed in those duffel bags headed to college campuses in the coming weeks. There might also be a ripped-from-the-runway look from Zara or H&M that mimics Celine or Chloé, and maybe - just maybe - a bona fide Diane von Furstenberg dress or Alexander Wang jacket.
Dr Martens are a must-have.
It will all get worn, with the possible exception of the sweatshirt, says Amy Levin, founder of the blog site CollegeFashionista.com. "College students love to change up their look... They can do it by translating the most up-to-date looks for their lifestyles and budgets."
For some students, Levin says, going to class is a reason to get dressed up.
CollegeFashionista has regular contributors from more than 200 campuses in the US and 35 campuses in the UK, Scotland, Ireland, France, Venezuela, Brazil, Australia, India and the Philippines, chronicling clothes worn by their peers. The fact that today's students are so plugged in certainly helps in staying so stylish. They can look at photos from designer collections and red carpets around the world in real time - and change their look in the time it takes to dig through their drawers and dirty-laundry piles.
A shift in style doesn't take long for this crowd to digest. They are hungry for the next big thing and usually aren't married to a particular look. "You'll see in the US that campuses in major cities are usually ahead of trends," observes Levin, and Londoners and students in Australia are even more fashion-forward.
The college sweatshirt students' parents still buy when the acceptance letter first arrives are too generic, says Levin. "They might put their school name on a shirt, but they've done it in some creative way themselves. Everyone wants to be individual - no one wants to dress alike," she says.
New York University film student Carolyn Amurao, a Vancouver native who just moved to hip Williamsburg in Brooklyn, says she doesn't pay much attention to celebrity fashion anymore; she'd rather be inspired by what she sees on the street.
She has borrowed a few looks from her fellow students - such as wearing socks with platform heels.
As a CollegeFashionista contributor, she says she has trained her eye to see it all. "There are so many different styles on campus. There's grungy and polished, more tailored, more sporty or hip-hop. I think that inspires me."
Elizabeth Taufield is fairly dressed up during the summer since she's an intern at the office of designer Tory Burch, and Burch's town-and-country style serves as one of her influences year-round. She usually likes to put her own spin on things, but there was one outfit she copied head to toe.
"Tory Burch had these camouflage jeans, and they were styled with a black-and-white striped shirt and a black vest," says Taufield, a soon-to-be-second-year-student at George Washington University. "I literally wore the exact same thing. My suite-mate said: 'I'm not sure if those things go together', but I eventually told her that it was straight from the runway."
Anyway, she adds, mixing seemingly mismatched prints is one of her specialities. One of her favourite recent outfits was a peacock-print skirt with a striped shirt. "I try to wear what I think looks good. I'm tall... and I can't wear heels, and I wear looser pieces. I'll wear tight jeans, but I'm rarely seen in a tight shirt."
Other than Burch, Taufield keeps tabs on what Proenza Schouler and Prada are doing. "Obviously, I'm not purchasing a Prada dress, but I like referencing it."
While she's in New York, she'll pop into the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, but she's usually just shopping for ideas - and then takes those to H&M.
Cost is a factor for Amurao, too. She puts a lot of planning into her clothes so they don't look cheap.
She offers her maxiskirt look: "You can get one at Forever 21 and you can work it into an outfit so it doesn't look like it's US$8 [Dh30]."
Levin says her bloggers are particularly proud of bargains. They'll boast about putting together an outfit for just a few dollars, but, for something they really love, they'll save and then splurge, she says.
Taufield seems pleased to be a student of style.
"I don't want to say I have innately good taste and style, but I do think that style and fashion is something you have or you don't. You can read Vogue and all the magazines and study the trends religiously, but you have to know how to apply the concepts instead of just copying them," she says. "It's like critical thinking in maths or science class."
