There’s a slight chill, the air is starting to smell like pumpkin spice and cinnamon, and with just one blink of an eye the fall season stands before us.
Each year the summer colors die down and pinks are replaced with oranges. Crop tops are traded in for sweaters and sandals are shoved towards the back of the closet to make room for boots.
Everything is changing, so why should our fashion stay the same season after season?
After a year of quarantine and sweatpants, people want to show off a new wardrobe. It feels good to get back out and present yourself in a new way, and Fall gives the perfect excuse to reinvent yourself for a season.
The fashion is changing on Capital University’s campus as quickly as it is changing on the streets of Columbus. It seems that a lot of students are waiting for the weather to cool off before fully bringing out their best attire, but some have started to slowly bring out the sweaters and flannels.
When interviewing fourth-year Chiamaka Okafor, she was wearing a puffy sleeved yellow sweater. When asked what her favorite pieces were for the upcoming season, she said, “My favorite piece for fall is definitely a sweater that has arms that are a little bit bigger…it’s a sweater piece that you can take off and on”.
Sweater pieces are great for both the upcoming season and now, as they are versatile for the rollercoaster Ohio weather gives us. To Okafor, they are an essential item in the closet.
Fall also tends to give some wonderful patterns that go with the darker color scheme. Plaids are usually marked as an essential, but to students like Okafor, are not needed. Okafor said, “Warm, solid colors. I know for a lot of people patterns and stripes and stuff are cute, but a nice solid warm color is even better.”
Students like second-years Will Fortune and Jordan Chapman would disagree. When asked, Fortune said, “I love stripes on a button up shirt”.
When asked what their essentials for Fall looked like, Chapman said, “Dickies – they’re some nice work pants, or Chino pants… bomber jackets, they’re pretty cool”.
It seems that women’s and men’s fashion can be different for Fall based not only on gender, but social groups. Chapman and Fortune both considered themselves to be “skateboarders”, something that both young men saw as a contributing factor to how people dress for the seasons.
Okafor may not consider herself in that group, and that may be a major change among a few between the two groups.
No matter how you celebrate Fall, it is surely a turning point with the weather and activities changing, as well as the way we dress.
It gives life to a season that is associated with the dying of flora outside. It elevates people’s reaction to their surroundings, and makes them feel good and refreshed. It certainly is something that needs to be unique to the wearer and puts a smile on their face.
