Good morning my lovely roasted coffee beans. Do you also feel like a newly harvested coffee bean, roasted, ground by the hands of an adoring coffee addict and being brewed through a French press? If so, we are one.
Speaking of coffee, the fashion trends on campus this fall semester are something in and of themselves! Long gone are the days of dressing like a construction worker. Au revoir to the days of black leggings, ripped American Eagle jeans and knee-high suede boots. Camo cargo pants had their moment for a hot second in 2019, never to be seen again. As life goes, fashion trends are here one day and gone the next.
These days, you can’t even tell who is rushing a sorority or fraternity due to all the rushees wearing an unspecified uniform for recruitment. Real question: where do girls rushing sororities find out what the uniform is for the days when there is no dress code? I remember when I was a first-year student and every girl who was rushing wore a white t-shirt, a jean skirt and Adidas Stan Smiths. While I probably just noticed it more for the female population despite not rushing myself, I was in awe of the uniform apparel choices.
COVID-19 has really made fashion trends on campus seemingly non-existent, or maybe just for me since I do not find the clothing choices being worn to be specifically enthralling. Students do not have to ~really~ get dressed since most classes are online and are done from one’s humble abode and no shade, but I miss seeing all the funky ’fits around campus.
Sweatpants and sweatshirts lend themselves to be the most comfortable for hanging out around one’s room or house, and when you only need to leave your place to get groceries or food from the dining hall, finding the motivation to dress in ’fits that are poppin’ off is difficult. These factors have undoubtedly had a positive impact on the leisurewear market’s demand, as I have mainly noticed sweatpants and sweatshirts to be the main getup.
This trend of leisurewear is applicable to any and every gender, but for the singularity of fashion trends for the female population at URI, many appear to be wearing colorful athleisure wear and activewear. Gymshark apparel and bold monochromatic leggings and tanks can be spotted anywhere, not just in the gyms.
For the male population on URI’s campus, the trends this year are all in the hair. Every male you walk past on campus has the flow. For those of you that may not know what I mean by that, the flow is the longer-style hair that goes to about one’s mid neck or just past the ears, commonly seen on lax-bros and snowboarders. While I am not sure where this style came from, we can infer that it started during the quarantine when hairdressers were closed, everyone was staying home and the need for looking clean cut or being forced into a haircut by one’s parents was unable to exist.
Two of my sisters recently visited me on campus and could not stop exclaiming how many people around campus were wearing URI merchandise. While I may be immune to the vast majority of the URI population wearing university apparel, for outsiders there is an apparent school spirit in the student population around campus. Whether this is a trend or just a constant aspect of students’ apparel choices on campus, it’s hard to say!
Perhaps I am just a jaded senior or maybe my findings have some merit to them. Either way, I miss the days of seeing everyone’s personal style shine through in their apparel choices while in class and around campus.
If you decide to be bold and step out of even your personal norm core, go for it, plan a new outfit! Follow your inner, “#goingnowherebutscrewitimgettingdressed” hashtag.