WE’RE CONFUSED. Every aspect of fashion moves at warp speed. The internet has become a catalogue of a million shallow aesthetics (think of just about any word, and then add the suffix “-core”). Influencers promising they have the scheme to perfectly type your colour palette, body type, or style essence are a dime a dozen. ZARA replenishes their entire catalogue in a cycle faster than my period. It’s hard to nail down a seasonal trend, but that hasn’t stopped any of us from trying.
I interrupted a group of well-dressed girls (Saman Zaidi, Sinead Costello, and Caitlin Roehrig) at lunch to ask where they’re getting their style inspiration from. They gave me a laundry list of nostalgic movies and television shows featuring well-dressed characters: Gilmore Girls, Practical Magic, early 2000s Disney Halloween specials, Charmed, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, to name a few. Nothing recent, if you didn’t notice. It seems the pre-9/11 HBO show look is in. We long for a time when fashion was more of an everyday subtle art than a port to access one’s identity. Gone are the days of having rhythmically released, communally consumed content. You can’t ask your friend if he picked up the newest issue of VOGUE, or if she saw what Carrie Bradshaw wore last night. Now, any real “moment” in fashion is immediately responded to by the advent of a hundred sickly mimics from fast-fashion laboratories: you can look like a sweatshop version of Taylor Swift from head to toe for $35. In our desire to return to a simpler time, we may find ourselves soothed by a blouse found on the $10 rack at White Tiger Vintage. I say embrace it!
As the weather becomes colder, clothes must become more functional, especially outerwear and shoes. A lot of creativity comes in reaction to restriction, and fashion is no different. Being able to layer brings a whole new dimension to our wardrobes. It can be a tangible comfort to finally slip into your sweater. I stopped Sofia Gandola and Martha Mengesha on their way to the library to see if they had any burning hot takes.
“I was really excited to wear sweaters the whole time. I was trying to force myself into sweaters, like, the first week of school,” Gandola shared.
“I fuck with a turtleneck,” Mengesha added.
In the realm of shoes, tried and true leather boots are dominating Ring Road. “Invest in a Blundstone, or a Doc Martens,” Gandola advised.
“Timberlands,” Mengesha added.
Uggs are out, said just about everyone, lingering on a mental image of a damp suede bootie. You’ll notice all of these options were once considered solely workwear.
“We’re much less formal now, and workwear is the one thing besides formal wear that comes
from a long tradition… Boots are supposed to make you feel rugged, and strong,” my all-too-fashionable boyfriend Parsa Salimi informed me. So workwear boots might allow us to tap into a tradition we wouldn’t inherit otherwise.
I experienced a speedrun of the five stages of grief when it was rightfully proclaimed that knee-highs are out. The next day, I wandered campus aimlessly in search of someone in a pair of frilly cotton knee-high socks. I came to accept their reign as the chic sock of choice is over when I realized how many people were wearing bold, geometric-patterned tights, often in combination with wide hems and narrow shoes. They’re at once striking, functional, and sophisticated. Tights are also cheap. I get mine at the Dollarama on King Street.
For outerwear, bigger is better this fall. Zaidi shared: “I think I just like the look of big and baggy for fall especially. You don’t need to be tight for winter when everything needs to be closed up.” That means looser silhouettes, stronger shoulders, longer lengths, and solid colours.
“Scarves of any size,” Roehrig advised. Play with flared hems or prominent shoulders. While fashion magazines are calling for blacks, reds, and metallics, any hue will do as long as it is dramatic.
Want to try your hand at something played out? What might be most important is your commitment to the bit. Take the “Christian girl autumn” look: big hair, clunky scarves, long suede boots over skinny jeans, floppy hats. The quintessential pumpkin-spiced-latte ‘fit.
Mengesha said that the look wasn’t for her. “But if you’re doing it full, then get into it. Get into those long boots.” After all, nothing under the sun is new — it’s all been done, then done again ironically, and again post-ironically. It’s not worth wondering if things are cringe or overplayed anymore, so long as you have the moxie to go through with it. So whatever you do, you better commit to the bit.
