Tamara Belopopsky, in blue shirt, and other students at the State University of New York at Purchase define themselves by their style.
CAMPUS AS A RUNWAY, by Ruth La Ferla (NYT)
JULIA FLYNN was darting to her classes at Columbia University last week in a Marc by Marc Jacobs daisy-patterned dress and high-heeled Chloé boots, her polished turnout accessorized with a Starbucks venti latte. “I’m really loving the whole Chanel, Valentino and McQueen shows,” she said. “They completely inspired me.” She had gleaned her information that very morning from Style.com.
Ms. Flynn, 24 and a sophomore, is one in a small but self-aware and increasingly vocal contingent of college women who dress to impress. The campus is their runway, a place to show off a style sense that is derived in part from their friends but more often attained through a click of a mouse, a gesture that affords them instant access to the once arcane universe of fashion shows and to the style blogs and shopping sites so many imbibe with their morning brew.
If at one time college women subscribed to a regionally prescribed uniform — twin sets and loafers in the East, frayed jeans and ponchos farther west — now, thanks to the democratizing influence of the Web, trends are disseminated at warp speed, traversing regional borders and, paradoxically, encouraging a more individualized approach to dress.
Whether students’ tastes run to an urbanely preppie composite of mannish shirts, slim skirts and blazers, flowered dresses and Ferragamo flats, or to a cutting-edge pastiche of long loose-fitting sweaters, calf-length skirts and platform booties, their absorption with fashion points to a sea change, suggesting that the style bar has been raised, reaching a level of sophistication all but unknown a mere decade ago.
“The stereotype used to be that college students live in sweat pants and don’t care about fashion,” said Zephyr Basine, the editor of Collegefashion.net, a blog written by college women. “But today that isn’t so.” If at one time coeds signaled their cool by a kind of willful dishevelment, arriving for 8 a.m. classes in trench coats tossed over pajamas, today that sort of carelessness marks them as out of touch.
“People now put more thought into what they’re wearing,” said Amy Levin, 24, a recent graduate of Indiana University and editor of Collegefashionista.com, an influential blog. “Getting ready for class is important. Students want to up their game. That means looking a little more serious, not just throwing on a graphic T-shirt and jeans.”
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