Fashion Club Discusses Trends across Cultures
Aaron Lloyd
Have you ever wanted to learn about the different fashion trends from around the world? The newly formed Fashion Club will invite you to do just that, as it studies fashion throughout the globe.
Fashion Club was formed in order to think about how fashion plays a significant role in society. “It’s all about studying trends and concepts that dramatically impact our culture,” said Shereen Antony, a junior accounting and economics major. “Fashion is more than a shallow showing of clothing, but has roots that can and do upturn our society. Fashion Club is a place for people to gather together who are interested in learning and sharing about how fashion, in all its facets, does exactly that. Fashion is a powerful tool that can grab hold of a society and change it––for better or worse.”
Antony, along with her fellow club leaders Cassy Dibley, Ashton Krider, and president, Precious Bounphiasi, held their first Fashion Club meeting in February. Antony said that her favorite example of fashion is how baggy jeans became popular for men. “Some say it started with inmates having baggy pants because they weren’t allowed to have belts,” she said. “Then, prison fashion spread into mainstream fashion by those who were protesting inmates not being allowed to wear belts.”
Like other clubs on campus, Fashion Club has certain items on their agenda to discuss each meeting. On March 2, for example, they will lead a session on arm-knitting a scarf, charging attendees $3 for the first ball of yarn and providing the second one free of charge. Other topics that they are planning on covering are helpful details like how to sew on a button and how to tie a neck tie. They also want to talk about past, current and future trends, and not just the popular ones, but also the controversial trends. They want to have fun by asking whether man-buns are acceptable and whether leggings are a satisfactory replacement for pants, but will also examine the larger social implications—often involving gender, race and class––behind those issues.
Fashion Club also wants to include men in their discussions—because fashion is not just for women. “We had a few men at our first meeting and we love them dearly for coming,” Antony said. “Fashion isn’t a ‘girl thing.’ We aren’t sitting around putting on makeup and doing each other’s hair. We want to talk about all kinds of trends. If it is a ‘girl trend,’ then we want male opinions and vice versa. We also would love to cater to all genders and so we are welcoming of suggestions on how we can do that.”
For those of you on the verge of attending Fashion Club, Antony has one message for you: “I love you.” She would also tell you: “Isn’t it cool that you are a part of fashion? That by wearing what you wear, even if it is the t-shirt and sweatpants you went to sleep in, you are making a statement and you are expressing who you are. And that when you look back, say through your Instagram pictures, you get to see who you were in that moment simply by the clothes you wear.”
Fashion Club meets on Wednesdays, from 8-9, in ACEN 146.