College Fashionista

 

BY: Kelley Rowland

“Your Campus is the Runway.” That’s the slogan for the fashion site, College Fashionista. The website is an intended portal for college females and males alike who have a love of all things style through the sharing of pictures of panache students, taken by selected style gurus. Though a website I visit only sporadically on a night of homework avoidance, my roommate and I decided to parooze the Syracuse University section, utterly unimpressed by the fashion displayed.

With the exception of a few outfits, everyone seemed to be dressed rather ordinarily, an opposition to my expectations. Not that any one looked particularly bad or poorly dressed, it just wasn’t fashion that looked current, fresh, or unique. I know there are plenty of well-dressed, stylish people on this campus. I see them every day, just not necessarily on the College Fashionista site.

Fashion is a very subjection thing, like all forms of art; there is no black and white, bad or good, yes or no outfit. Yet, I think we can all agree that those who are fashionable stand out and the outfit posts of late, do not. Not that I expect girls to be strutting down University in “avant garde” attire, I just think that if a picture is chosen to be on the site, the outfit should be a little more creative than a pair of blue jeans or leggings, paired with a t-shirt.

Or perhaps it is my own fault. Maybe I am distraught that I have never had my picture taken by one of the on campus style gurus; or maybe my expectations are too high from the reading of other blogs, like the Sartorialist, a site ran by photographer Scott Schuman that emphasizes and displays the relationship between the fashion world and daily life. Shuman captures unique, eclectic street style that is clearly inspired by the runway and high fashion. Yes, he may be traveling to cosmopolitan cities and have a wider audience to work with, but as mentioned, there are plenty of fashionable people in Syracuse, too.

Which ultimately leads me to my conclusion that is practically inconclusive. Is the issue with the site it’s gurus, its subjects, or is college fashion just isolated from the actual fashion world? We live lives so very different than ones in the world outside of college.