Back to school fashion
A look at current effortless fashion trends that are perfect for the careless student
Hayden Pattullo
Staff Writer
Emma and Travis show off the casual wear style, a stylish way to dress with little effort
Photo: Hayden Pattullo
Many things have become synonymous with going back to school. Back to school. Back to social hermitage. Back to financial desperation. Back to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. And of course, back to a 24-hour a day lack of fuck-giving capacity. Realistically, your motivation was already gone the moment you walked in the doors. So today I’m not going to tell you to plan a different shirt and tie combination every day, I don’t want to make the case for waking up an extra hour early to do your make-up, and I definitely won’t argue for why you should shower daily. However unlike the hygiene department, dressing like a lazy and broke student fashion-wise doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Thanks to modern trends like the recent athleisure movement, traditional symbols of fashion laziness, like the sweatpant, have been reimagined for the mainstream. But where stuffy designer fashion loses, you win.
In the past, the definition of a good casual look was fairly limited (especially for men) in what combinations and fits you could wear. All “good” fits were slim and all “stylish” clothing pieces were fairly mainstream. Times change. Today, good casual fashion can be almost anything, so you can technically wear comfortable sweatpants and a hoodie everyday and look stylish. But the sweatpants are called “joggers,” which have a tapered fit with elastic cuffs, and the hoodie comes in an infinite variety of interesting textures, patterns, and colours. Best of all, you can pull off many of the same looks across any gender.
For example, if you’re like first year open studies student Emma (pictured here) and regularly go for laid-back comfort ‘fits (read: sweat-shirt, sweat-pants, sweat-everything), take advantage of the athleisure trend and go for a look that’s both comfortable and stylish. First and foremost, trade in your parachute-esque 90’s sweatpants for more shapely stylized joggers. You can get them in anything from cotton to polyester from most stores; I recommend a neutral solid colour for maximum versatility in things dressing up or down. Then put on a basic shirt, and throw a sweater or cardigan over top for an effortless and comfortable layered casual look. Bonus nonchalance points: find any cheap flannel shirt to tie around your waist as an easy accessory, and/or do an all-black or mostly-black colour palette.
However, leisurewear hasn’t been the only trend to get the carefree modern style treatment. For those who like to wear a classic denim-based look everyday such as jeans and a button down, this simple look has also been reinvigorated. Take a look at information design student Travis here for example, going for a full Canadian tuxedo (denim on the bottom and denim on the top). You can easily pull this look off with a t-shirt and some Converse or Vans sneakers. But opt for an unbuttoned collared shirt and high boots like Travis here to get new-age “businessman/businesswoman who also rides a motorcycle” kinda vibe. The best part is that you probably don’t even have to buy anything new for this, and if you do, you can find almost any rugged rock-inspired clothing at a vintage or thrift shop.
