With many of our local colleges starting classes today, it seems like an appropriate time to promote collegefashionista.com and reminisce about my own college fashion.
To give some perspective, I went to college in the early 1980s at a state university in the Midwest. The Midwest would imply that our fashions were fairly conservative, which they were. We didn't have the Internet for guidance on trends, and instead relied on things like catalogs, magazines ("Elle" and "Vogue" were, and still are, favorites), movies, and this new thing called MTV. While I can't say that I personally took my fashion cues from popular movies of the time like "Flashdance" and "Footloose," I saw girls who donned legwarmers, tights, ripped shirts, and the obligatory big hair. If anything, I was guilty of the "preppy look" - crewneck sweaters, oxford shirts, jeans and penny loafers. Think Tom Cruise in "Risky Business," only unisex. When I wasn't wearing this look, it was jeans paired with a polo in warmer weather and a sweatshirt in cooler weather. I probably owned more sweatshirts than I ever care to admit to, but that was a very popular look on campus in those days. Except for the sorority girls in their pearls and nice duds, most girls I knew didn't dress up for class. Dressing up meant trading out the jeans for a skirt and knee-high socks (preferably argyle) while keeping the penny loafers. Only when feeling really adventurous did a skirt and pumps, or better yet, boots, make an appearance in class.
I envy college girls these days, who, thanks to YouTube, can basically model outfits online and get feedback from all over the world in videos commonly called OOTD, or "Outfit Of The Day." The girls who do this really well seem to get legions of followers along with a few critics. While I'm pretty sure sweatshirts, especially those with your college logo, are still pretty popular on campus, jeans and loafers are now replaced by skinny jeans paired with everything from ballet flats to boots of every height imaginable.
Even the accessories for college are much better than in the Eighties. We carried our books in backpacks, and well, backpacks. Nowadays, in addition to backpacks there are messengers and slings, all with the requisite laptop compartment. I'm sure the resourceful co-ed has even figured out a way to carry her books in a large stylish purse, like a hobo.
Which brings us to collegefashionista.com, a site I read about just last week. I look forward to following it, especially as we progress into cooler weather. Hopefully, I'll be able to re-visit the site on this blog again in the near future.
Oh and by the way, since this a blog about leather, I don't recall owning much leather to speak of back in college. However, I do remember a nice tan leather jacket and a pair of Halston black leather dress boots, both which came from our local JCPenney Outlet Store. The boots were one of my first real leather deals - $18 for boots which originally retailed for $80 the year before. Interestingly enough, I saw these same exact boots sell for $200 on eBay several years ago, which made me wish I had kept my own pair. It just goes to show how a timeless piece of fashion can hold its value!
