Welcome back to Fashion on Fifth, a beloved Free Press series showcasing New School students’ unique and wide-ranging style. After seeing how this creative community translated their personal looks to Zoom, our reporters are taking to the streets of Greenwich Village once again. This semester we are bringing you more in depth profiles and thoughts from your peers about their style evolution throughout the pandemic and since being back in New York City.
Maeve Kelly
Maeve Kelly, a second-year student at CoPA, described her style as “simple, but elegant,” loves expressing her personality through her fashion and cannot wait for “sweater weather.”
To her interview, Kelly wore black skinny jeans from Banana Republic with thigh-high, black heeled boots from Showpo. She paired those with a pink satin shirt from Forever 21 with a lace-up back and a black leather jacket from Marc Jacobs. Kelly accessorized with a gold butterfly necklace, star and moon hoop earrings and sparkly eyeliner.
Kelly is originally from Wilmington, North Carolina where there are very specific expectations for the way people should dress. Kelly described “the look” as “a lot of really bright colors and Lily Pulitzer.” At first glance it could read as “fun fashion” but Kelly said it really was just the norm, and that it wasn’t fun at all since everyone was always wearing the same thing. Living in New York City has dramatically widened the scope of possibilities for Kelly.The “total freedom of expression” Kelly feels in the city has opened the door for endless fashion opportunities. “In New York you can wear whatever you want and no one will bat an eye,” said Kelly.
As a performing arts major, Kelly hasn’t felt much expectation to dress in any particular way within her program, but said she does feel some pressure from other New School students. “Getting into the elevators every day with Parsons kids that are dressed to the nines – there is definitely pressure to meet that bar,” said Kelly.
Kelly is more excited by this pressure than overwhelmed though, and finds it refreshing to see what people here are wearing everyday. It’s a welcome change from the “boring” fashion she grew up with in the South. Kelly said that having friends at school who are also interested in fashion has also facilitated her comfort in exploring new ways of expressing herself.
Kelly’s go-to outfit for class usually consists of a black bodysuit, a fun skirt, some boots and some simple jewelry. Kelly is looking forward to “sweater weather” and the opportunity to incorporate more layering pieces into her everyday looks as a self-proclaimed “cardigan lover.”
Kelly loves to see how people’s personality translates to their individual style. “You can tell so much about people by the way they dress,” she said. For Kelly, the most exciting part about fashion is “being able to convey parts of [herself] through her outfits and makeup.”
Kayla Dantz
Photograph by Alexandra Nava-Baltimore
Kayla Dantz, a second-year fashion design student at Parsons, described her style as a “collective” — something ever-changing. “If I spend a day watching a TV show, like ‘Gilmore Girls,’ I want to dress like Rory or Lorelei,” Dantz said. “I’m so affected by what’s around me.” She experiments with preppy looks to more streetwear-inspired ones to everything in-between, she said. Dantz prefers to mix-and-match her more “basic” pieces with “unique” ones.
Dantz wore a silky black blouse that has “good morning” embroidered on the front and an image of a coffee cup on a tray across the back — which she purchased from Beacon’s Closet on 14th Street — with denim shorts from Mango. She paired that with cowboy boots from Garment District, a thrift store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To finish off the look, Dantz accessorized with the jewelry she wears every day, including several pieces from small businesses in NYC, Paris and around her hometown of Southborough, Massachusetts. Her black chunky stone necklace is from a shop in Salem, Massachusetts.
When Dantz gets dressed, she considers comfort one of her priorities. If she is in a drawing class where she might find herself working with black paint or charcoal, she gravitates towards darker colors. After her sewing classes, she is typically covered in thread, so on those days Dantz likes to wear lighter colors because it doesn’t show as much. “To me, that’s comfortable because it just helps my workflow,” she said. “I’m not distracted by what I am wearing.”
As a fashion design student, Dantz feels pressure to look “cool” and have one distinct aesthetic, but as the semester has progressed, she has been thoughtful about putting less pressure on herself and has been happier with her outfits, she said. “Honestly, I have such a bad memory when it comes to what’s in my closet that I will wear the last thing I remember that I look[ed] cute [in],” Dantz admitted. “I’m such an outfit repeater.”
She shops mostly from small boutiques and thrift stores, like Beacon’s Closet, because she can find unique pieces that not everyone else has, she said. When she’s in her hometown, “Savers” is the go-to thrift store for Dantz and her friends. “It’s kind of like Goodwill, but I feel like they have a bit better selection,” she said. “And you can just find really quirky things.”
Growing up in a mostly female household, Dantz was encouraged to be confident and always felt supported in her interest in style and fashion, she said. “My parents, never put any pressure on my sister and I [to] dress a certain way. I started dressing myself when I was in preschool.”
Paul Chevallier
Paul Chevallier’s style can only be described as a unique curation of all things “Paul”. The fourth-year culture and media student has customized many of his clothes in one way or another, such as tie-dying his shirts, sewing designs onto some pieces and making major alterations to shoes.
Photo by Christian Richey
To his interview with The New School Free Press, Chevallier wore a Gildan hoodie that he tie-dyed and embroidered with an image by the artist Steven Harrington. He paired it with Lululemon shorts which he personalized with various patches and Nike Air Force 1 Drop Type Lows which Chevallier has deconstructed and adorned with artificial flowers.
Chevallier began customizing shoes and selling them in late 2019 — first making small, simple alterations and then expanding to more intricate, bold creations.
“I started with the classic ‘painting flowers on a pair of Air Forces’ or something, really just nothing crazy,” Chevallier said. “As I started doing that more, I was [also] making videos of it and posting it to Instagram… I started making them for my friends and other people who would contact me [through social media] and I sort of had a little business going for a while.”
Chevallier began experimenting more with his creations and expanding his business but ultimately decided to wind it down toward the end of 2020 due to his decreased interest in the project.
Chevallier said he feels some stress when considering what to wear to his classes, considering the university’s reputation for student fashion. Regardless, he tries to put his best foot forward with every outfit.
“I always want to be my best self and I think that I express that through fashion, and I think if I show up to class in a suboptimal or just like a normal outfit…I feel like I’m letting myself down,” he said.
However, Chevallier opted for more casual looks, like plain T-shirts and sweatpants, during the pandemic and subsequent Zoom classes. But since returning to campus he’s tried to show off the best of his style.
“I’m trying to wear my cool stuff,” Chevallier said. “’I’m literally in New York City, the most [fashionable] city in America, and that’s quite a change from being inside of my house in suburban San Diego.”
Regardless of location, or external pressures, Chevallier dresses strictly by a code of his own.
“I have these rules like, ‘oh I only wear brown pants’ or… rules about graphics or how high socks can be or how short shorts can be or how long sleeves can be,” he said. “I don’t think they’re diehard fashion rules that everybody has to follow, I just kind of built them in my mind because that’s what I like and what works for me.”
Sydney Task
Sydney Task’s style shifts constantly, changing each day with a new throwback outfit. Inspired by the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Task said her eclectic style comes from an appreciation for the quality of older clothes as well as their aesthetics.
“I think clothes were made better [in the past] — they weren’t as mass-produced,” Task said. “I just appreciate the craftsmanship. … I really like the hippie style, and the kind of bright colors challenging the ‘50s housewife look.’”
Hailing from Newark, California, the fourth-year illustration student usually wears some combination of wide-leg pants and an interesting top. But to her interview with The New School Free Press, she wore a brightly-colored smock dress she purchased from an online vintage store, paired with patent leather dress shoes from Zara. She wore socks she got from an artist out of Oakland, a bag she borrowed from her roommate and earrings she picked up at Goldwater Thriftique.
Task also showed off her tattoos, which she views as an integral part of her style. “I kind of see tattoos as like a little scrapbook or art collection, rather than some scary permanent thing,” she said.
Task said her style has changed over the years, as she gradually valued comfort more and more. Now, she said, comfort comes above all else. In high school, Task always attempted to push the boundaries of her school’s dress code — which mandated collared shirts and covered shoulders and forbade blue jeans — as she tried to put an interesting spin on her attire without getting in trouble.
During her freshman and sophomore years at The New School, Task tried to dress up for class every day, pressured by her major, fashion design. After switching her major to illustration — and with the changes brought about by the pandemic — Task began to focus on comfort and what made her feel confident when it came to her style. ”There’s a lot that happened that kind of added up to this more carefree attitude about how I dress,” Task said.
“At this point I’m like ‘you know what, I’m going to be comfortable. I have work to do,’” she said. “As long as I feel good in what I’m wearing then I’m happy.”
