Today’s lack of a uniform fashion statement

Ashley Garner/Staff Writer 

Yasmin Alli shows off her style by pairing hats with jackets, boots and accessories.
Ashley Garner/FIUSM

The 1960s had the beatniks and hippies, the ‘70s had punk and glam rock, the ‘80s just had more glam and the ‘90s had grunge. As we move further into the 2000s, it is becoming clearer that we are a generation without a subculture or at least a generation without a subculture that actually stands for anything as a collective.

For example, all of the previously mentioned groups created these uniforms to express that they were people that believed in certain social or political platform. Their clothing represented everything they believed in. Today, the youth of our generation – us – doesn’t necessarily get dressed as an expression of being a part of a group unless of course you are in a sorority or fraternity. Instead, we get dressed as an individualistic statement.

Yasmin Alli
Ashley Garner/FIUSM

The more and more that I try to figure out what the 2000s will be remembered for stylistically, I get excited at the fact that I can’t figure it out. We seem to have broken away from this need to define a look for our generation and instead live each day constantly redefining who and what we, as individuals, can be.

I recently had an encounter proving this statement with freshman biology major Yasmin Alli.  The first time I ran into her she was dressed head to toe in black and white with a beanie saying ‘Whatever’ in the front and a juxtaposing graphic shirt provoking us to check her out. All in all, I found the outfit to be a light-hearted joke making fun of many of the types of girls I meet in college and hinting at Alli’s witty personality. The second time I ran into Alli, I didn’t even recognize her until she mentioned that I had taken her photo once before. She was wearing a bright orange long-sleeve, short-hemmed dress layered with a denim vest and a camo-printed shirt tied around her waist. Her hat matched her camo-orange pairing perfectly and to juxtapose her loosely laced Timberlands, she accessorized with oversized heart shaped gold earrings and a matching bracelet.

Though each outfit was drastically different, the consistency lied in the fact that each one was different, paired with her witty use of juxtaposition and irony.

Yasmin Alli
Ashley Garner/FIUSM

This example, however, is not to say that the only way to prove yourself as an individual is by changing your style each day. In quite the opposite extreme, there are many people that wear the same thing each day and define their individualism by creating a uniform for themselves. For example, I have never seen fine arts major Aldo Pereyra without the same pair of suspenders on every single day despite the fact that he doesn’t wear pants that need suspenders. When I asked him about it he said, “The suspenders make me the ringleader,” turning his accessory into a status symbol; one might even say it’s a self-proclamation without the actual words printed across his chest.

What Alli’s and Pereyra’s drastically different choices of style show are that you can be the type of person that approaches each day as a new opportunity or with a uniform mentality. Either way, this day in age really is an “anything goes” mindset when it comes to fashion and there is something extremely beautiful and liberating about that. There are no rules, no restrictions and nothing stopping you except yourself.

ashley.garner@fiusm.com