Fashion enthusiasts have turned to wear comfort-chic styles such as loungewear, soft fabrics and the occasional button-up top for routine Zoom meetings. Choosing what to wear has been an easy decision while stuck at home, but opportunities have arisen to engage with the outside world and students are once again expressing themselves through avant-garde trends.
Armando Antonino, an integrated strategic communication major and president of WSU Vancouver’s fashion club, alongside Hayley Miller, a fellow fashion club member and digital technology and culture major, shares where their passions for fashion came from and how it has influenced their personal styles.
Before high school, Antonino explains he didn’t have much of an understanding of fashion, but soon found sharing expression through clothing could serve as a therapeutic tool for self-discovery.
“I would say not until high school, I was fashion illiterate. Meaning, I had no idea what anything was, I had no idea what Converse were or designer fancy clothes. I sort of just worked with what I had. And I was the kid who wore the same thing over and over in middle school and high school,” Antonino said. “By high school was when I started discovering myself. I’m gay, so I think that really related to my exposure to fashion because I used to wear very neutral things. Very subtle, nothing crazy. And then as I started discovering myself more, I started dressing completely crazy.”
Comparably, Miller says that her fascination for fashion is rooted in her childhood. When she was younger, Miller rebelled against her mother’s choices of outfits, but concludes her personal style is now heavily inspired by her mother’s influence.
“When I was a kid, my mom would set out my outfits for me to wear and I would always come out and see the outfit she had made me, and be like ‘I’m not wearing that,’ and go back in my closet and pick another thing out to wear. … [But now] it’s very influenced by what my mom wore when she was my age,” Miller said.
With both Miller and Antonino having a long-lasting interest in clothing, the fashion club members reveal their predictions for the trends of spring and summer of 2021. Both expect to see many people dressing much more extravagantly than last year and as the weather changes, more outside activities are becoming safe and available, urging people to express themselves in much louder ways than an at-home Zoom call might allow for.
“I’m predicting as a result of being locked away for almost a year and a half now, it feels like the movement of ‘hot girl summer’ or ‘city girl summer.’ So people are really enjoying the weather and wearing maybe less clothing than they might have because it’s nice weather, but they have also felt a little trapped inside, so they’re ready to be free,” Antonino said.
Antonino explains that monochromatic styles are becoming quite popular, along with oversized trousers, patchwork pants and streetwear. While the spring season almost always reintroduces floral prints into popular style, Miller notes how this year specifically, style trends of the 1970s are making a huge comeback in modern-day clothing.
“I think the ’70s are making a comeback. I think so many colors [and styles] like tie-dye and [gogo boots] are coming back. Every spring, floral makes a comeback, but it will be [in addition to] white dresses and longer skirts,” Miller said.
Being a year into the new ‘20s fashion decade, this spring offers a chance to get out of the house and dust off those closet staples, whether you are following the current fashion trends or not.