On a regular Monday at Palomar, as you walk to your classes, you’ll see each person, or even a group of people, show a distinct sense of style. Fashion is a huge part of day-to-day life. Students treat clothing like paint on a canvas, layering confidence, culture and creativity into something unmistakably their own.
Now, while we can assume people will be wearing clothing to school, we can’t predict what kind of clothing, shoes, accessories, hairstyles, piercings, or tattoos that person might choose. Each person has their own personal sense of style that’s authentic to them, depending on their interests, hobbies and overall lifestyle.
The clothes tell the story of the person wearing them.
We often choose outfits and appearance according to how we feel; fashion becomes a reflection of who we are, almost like a snapshot of our identity.
While walking to class on a Thursday afternoon, whether it was freshly dyed hair, unmissable piercings, pins, tights, or bold tattoos, it was clear each person had a loud appearance that told their story.
They are perfect examples of fashion being a language of the soul.
Mia Cherabie, 18, is an art major with a focus in illustration. Her vibrant purple hair and spunky accessories spoke for her. In an interview, she described herself as a maximalist with a chaotic personality that could be seen through her fashion choices.
“Everything everywhere all at once,” Cherabie said when asked to describe her personality.
Her hands were covered with silver and crystal rings, arms stacked with bracelets, and necklaces layered around her neck. The plethora of jewelry is a prime indicator of Cherabie’s love for maximalism and what it looks like in her style. Cherabie has a great interest in what catches her eye and will do anything she can to show her admiration for it.
Having lived in America for five years and lived in different places around the world, including countries in Europe, Cherabie believes she has taken a bit of culture from each place, becoming a diverse and open-minded product of her environment and story. Never finding herself fitting the social norms of other teens, she always resorted to dressing however she wanted. She stated it’s very “freeing having that mindset.”
arm tattoos. (Johnston Skinner)
Colin Presto, 21, is a freshman at Palomar, majoring in architecture. Presto has found influence for his fashion and his life in the real world.
“Right now I’m young, I don’t really care … I wanna have fun,” Presto said.
Before studying at Palomar, Presto went to San Francisco State University, where he met friends in the city who introduced him to art and media studies. Presto spends his free time hanging with his friends, skating, and going to underground punk shows in San Diego. He describes his style as influenced by his friends, lifestyle and environment around him.
Presto was draped in dark, baggy clothing, his arms covered in bold, styled tattoos and face dotted in piercings. His style choices match his young, wild, and free mindset, radiating edgy punk-inspired fashion.
Yasmin Binkier, 20, a ceramics major, walks the Palomar halls radiating confidence. She said that as she’s grown, her sense of style has changed and expanded completely.
“I used to be insecure, but allowing myself to accept change made me more confident in myself and what I choose to wear,” Binkier said.
She explained how life experiences like relationships and getting older have led to increased self-assurance. After these valuable life lessons, she wears outfits her past self would never have dreamed of; self-love opened a whole new world of confidence in herself and her fashion.
“It took losing someone to realize I was more confident in myself and happier in my own skin,” Binkier said.
She has an eye for art as a creative and finds it inspirational, whether it’s music, theater, painting or sculpture; she adores it all. Today, people look to social media for what’s trending to find the next best thing to add to their closet; instead, she is inspired by the art that she turns to in her life.
At Palomar, there are nearly 29,000 different people, stories, backgrounds and interests. Each person is a canvas, painting a picture of the life behind the eyes. Fashion is a form of language for students here at Palomar; you just have to understand it.
