Spring fashion on the campus of Alabama State University is starting to bloom as the season gets warmer and warmer. People are starting to trade more comfortable clothing for more fashionable clothes.
Modeling organizations like Xclusive have begun to show teasers of their new line on social media.
A new era of fashion has the potential to return soon. However in the 2020s, there has been individuality with fashion trends, but with others, there has not been as much.
“I think that a lot of people are doing the same style, and I like seeing when people make that style their own or when someone has their own individual style,” Jadyn Jermon, a freshman marine biology major, said.
Due to the sudden rise of popularity in fast fashion in 2020, five years later, fast fashion and buying clothes online has led the world into buying from the same websites.
“I feel as if fashion at ASU could be better,” Tarrod Lewis, a freshman psychology major, said. “I feel like people need to learn that everything doesn’t have to match all the time. There’s something called layers, and there is something called accessorizing, but you can’t tell the students at ASU anything though because they always think someone is being funny or being mean, but that’s just not the case.”
The lack of originality on campus is common among students.
Another student, Lauren Reese, a sophomore psychology major, expressed her feelings regarding campus fashion.
“The ideology of fashion right now is creativity, which I find ironic because I don’t see much creativity on campus, just hoodies and sweatpants. I guess I’m to blame for that because I personally love to be comfortable.”
On the other hand, some students feel that there is a variety of fashion on the campus.
“Fashion at ASU is very unique, very different, and everyone on this campus has their own style,” Kamani Walker, a freshman theater major, said. “I feel like some days, we all dress together in a sense, and what I mean by that is we all may dress in the same colors but in different styles. ASU’s fashions are very up to par,” which gives a different perspective to what has been said in previous statements.
Last year, the university hosted several fashion shows, had three active modeling organizations, and students would get dressed for the events that the school hosted during the spring 24’ semester.
A month into the spring semester and barely any of the students are dressing up for Fried Chicken Wednesday in the cafe.
“People are putting very cute stuff on, but you can tell when people are just rolling out of bed and putting on the first thing they see. The fashion is okay at most.”
Daliegha Watts, a freshman business management major, said the fashions worn by students is a “hit or miss.”
Fashions among the student body does not only represent the university’s image, but the students’ social lives, their mental health, and the state of the university as well.
Students wearing the same outfit is not only caused by fast fashion but can also be attributed to being young, everyone figuring themselves out, and the Black community is very strict on what fashions are and aren’t socially acceptable.
“I feel like the fashion at Alabama State University is unique, very outgoing, and most people have relatively good style. I transferred back to ASU a month ago from A&M, and people that go to A&M cannot dress. At Alabama State University, people aren’t afraid to be more open and expressive with what they wear. One thing I would like to see more of is people wearing more local and independent brands because although SHEIN is cute, adding independent brands can add so much versatility to your closet,” said Keziah Duford, a business management major, said.
Thrifting, shopping with local business owners, and buying from anywhere that upcycles clothing are all ideas to start wearing unique clothing and take your fashion a step fur.
“Fashion at Alabama State University is just a bunch of people going on Pinterest and copying what they see. “There is no originality,” Jesse Byrd, a senior communications major, said. “Everyone swears they are Avant Garde, but all that Avant Garde is really copying other people’s outfits.”