fashion

"Oh, faithful fashion god!!! What will we ever do without your insightful fashion takes??"

Fear not, I am here.

 I began working on a piece for the crimson white over the break. My working title was "Battle of the Brands." Idk. It felt like my entire feed was hauls of obscure "fashionable" influencer's merch/clothing brands. I was going absolutely crazy. I won't double up and write an unedited piece about those brands here. Fret not, I'll leave that for the newspaper. But here, however, I feel inspired to talk about fashion. 

First and foremost, I am cognizant of the fact that I am fully an ignorant teenage girl who knows nothing & spends too much time online. Take this all with a grain of salt! Who knows, maybe I'll eat my words in a month.

I guess I have to briefly talk about my fashion journey. I shopped at boutiques in my hometown for my adolescence because I thought it was cool. I would wear whatever. Blah Blah Blah.. In 2018 I was obsessed with youtubers and would beg my mom to roll our rusty 2007 Toyota up to the pearly gates of Urban Outfitters. I thought I was in heaven. Overpriced, poorly made tops were MY STAPLE by the end of eighth grade. It still wasn't a curated style. Just a walking billboard for Urban. Or maybe the opposite. The outfits were so heinous I probably was a giant, flashing red light warning people to not shop there.

In 2020 I got obsessed with 70s fashion. I poorly tried to curate looks with the remnants of Urban Outfitters pieces and pieces from my new love: the thrift store. I repressed all of those bad outfits. All I remember is an emerald green pair of ill-fitting bootleg pants. 

By my senior year most of my closet was from the thrift store. I couldn't even say I had a style at that point. I would just buy random things I thought looked nice. Some of it was trendy and a little on the nose (I would wear ribbons in my hair. At 8 am. Would walk into lit class with ribbons in my hair. At 18 years old. I digress.)

Then came college move in. I knew going to a giant SEC school would change my fashion. And to aid this progression, I decided to give away my entire closet. You can ask my friends- they were gifted with seven trash bags worth of clothes. I was wearing strictly lululemon for a solid three months. That was probably the most miserable I've been in a long time. Sure, there was probably a myriad of reasons for this state of depression I was in, but I do feel it necessary to note my major fashion glow down. I never even did my hair! Call the police because SOMEONE is pretending to be me if I don't do my hair! 

Now. 2025. I am slowly rebuilding my closet. Yet again, I am searching and scanning various thrift stores and vintage shops. Still irritable on the fact that I had a cute closet this time last year. But I digress. Wear what you want! Have fun!

-A.K (the all knowing fashion forecaster [kidding])

The inevitable doom of doomscrolling

     Catchy title, right? My entire for-you page on TikTok has been infiltrated with Supreme Court rulings over whether the app will be banned or not. I have reminisced with friends over the countless edits I have of semi-attractive men that will somehow vanish into the void of the unknown on January 19th. As psychotic as it might seem, I get outwardly upset about the amount of time I have spent as an avid user of the app. Since sixth grade, @adys0nkdancer_26 has been pushing out lipsync video after lipsync video on Musical.ly. Even in middle school, I slowly rekindled my love with the newly-named app, watching countless funny videos. Now, I spend upwards of six hours a day scrolling... I don't even recollect half- or even three-fourths- of the videos I consume. But this app- at least for me- holds my "eras" so to speak. T.V. shows, movies, characters, books, makeup, celebrities: all bookmarked in my TikTok Favorite folder. Along with this sappy feelings towards the app, there is a part of me that hopes this fixes the obvious issues attached. My brain is hardwired into opening that app day in and day out; the moment I hit my alarm, TikTok is already the background noise of my day. While I'm watching a boring lecture mid-day, I scroll on TikTok in hopes of soothing my boredom somehow. As the app's lifespan slowly dwindles, I can only hope to fix my attention issues. But with that comes the constant worrying that this will all either A. blow over like 2020's potential ban did or B. content swiftly moves over to Instagram or god forbid another app. 

As I've seen in text conversations with friends or posts by people my age, it seems like the consensus is somewhat similar: We want our lives back, but we also want the same level of entertainment. With this comes the idea that TikTok has fully disrupted a generation of growing young adult's and teen's minds and attention spans for the worst. Even if the app goes away, the problems will remain. Sure, doomscrolling can end on TikTok, but why couldn't it just as easily move to Instagram or Youtube? And as I continue to type this, the more and more I decide I do not care. I am f**ked either way. 

And as of right now, I am sitting in my college dorm on the 12th, about to scroll on TikTok for the umpteenth hour. Just to reminisce, obviously. 

A.K.