College Fashionista Feature!!!

       Name: Caroline Elizabeth Wilson

       Year: Junior

       Major: Textile and Apparel Design

       Favorite Designer: Anna Sui

       One fashion item that you can’t leave the house without?

       A pair of sunglasses.

How did you find out about College Fashionista and how did you get involved and became a writer/Style Guru?

Sammy, our head style guru for UW Madison photographed me at a TASA event freshman year, actually! She was in a design class with me and I decided to inquire more about the website because it seemed like so much fun and a great opportunity. I love to write and since I didn’t major in writing (I love creative writing), being a style guru for the site was the perfect chance to make my voice heard.

How long have you been a writer/Style Guru for CF?

I started my sophomore year during fall, so it’s been about a year and a month now!

What do you love about being a writer/Style Guru for CF?

I love how we can photograph any type of person or look. Looking back at all of my old posts, there’s just such a variety of different Fashionistas and Fashionstos throughout them. It’s great how we can pull in all of these different people with their varying styles and have them all on the site. 

What do you usually write about, women’s wear, men’s wear, hair, make-up, accessories? Do you have a specific focus?

I’m the accessories style guru along with one other guru named Maria and our posts come out on Fridays. I focus in on shoes, bags, scarves, jewelry, hats, and belts of course! I absolutely adore accessories myself, and I’m always always wearing a belt so this category was perfect for me. I choose to focus in on Fashionistas and Fashionistos that have an entire look that’s fabulous as well as one accessory that really sticks out, which I then write most of the post about. Before we were assigned categories each day I would focus in on really stylish or interesting people around campus. I find Fashionistas a lot more often than Fashionistos, but I like to photograph both and wish it was as easy to find stylish men! A lot of the time I tend to be drawn towards “hipsters” because I love vintage, indie style myself!

What do you do to keep yourself updated with current fashion that helps you aid with your writing for CF? Read magazines, blogs, fashion websites? What are your favorites? (examples Style.com, Marie Claire magazine, New York Times style section).

I adore style.com and blogs like the Satorialist, and Tavi of the Style Rookie is my favorite style blogger ever, but I don’t always read blogs as often as I should. I like to say that I’m “bad at the internet” if that makes any sense, even though I write for the site. I much prefer to have something in my hand to read than to read it online. I love Nylon, Vogue, Elle, and the British versions of some magazines. I don’t get Teen Vogue anymore (so sad!) but it’s still such a fun magazine with how they mix prints together and all of that. This reminds me that I need to subscribe to WWD also!

You cover an array of street style at UW Madison, do other people’s style influence and make your personal evolve? What is your personal style?

I definitely come across people that I photograph or see on the site that inspire me! I love pulling from street style and mixing it with ideas from high fashion on the runway, and then coming up with things on my own too.

If any of our TASA readers wanted to become a CF Style Guru, how can they become one?

They can e-mail Amy, our editor, or ask one of us Style Gurus to recommend them! It’s a great experience and I love being a part of it!