Eloan is an exchange student from France doing his junior year at MHS. In his first few months here, he has constantly shown off his baggy, simplistic aesthetic through his outfits daily. In his own words, he says his style is,
“streetwear, but I want to move towards more complex things like business core, or more eccentric things.”
His signature part of his outfits is his timberlands, shoes normally used for workwear but instead are worn by the student daily. He shared,
“I find that a pair of shoes adds a lot to an outfit, but otherwise I think that many accessories add interest to an outfit, such as a tie, chain, ring, or bag…”
Along with other pieces of his outfits, one piece that I find unique is the keychain on his carabiner. The keychain is a Lego figure Winnie the Pooh inspired by his nickname back at home, “Nournors”, which means “pooh bear” in French.
The journey of creating a style that he loved stemmed from a lot of other issues he began to notice in his life. He said his interest in fashion began when,
“I realized that I was ugly, that I really wasn’t liked, that a lot of people made fun of me but I didn’t care the only thing was that I didn’t have any friends and that made me change when I realized that it was partly because of that”
Despite the challenges Eloan faced, curating looks became a way for him to cope. Styling clothes and giving each outfit its unique touch became a way for Eloan to build his self-esteem and create a new sense of self. Being happy and comfortable with what he wore built his confidence and gave him a chance to start over.
Although experimenting with colors and different types of clothes is difficult, he now feels a lot more confident about his fashion preferences. Even with limited options with what clothes he brought to the States, Eloan said,
“With each new outfit, I feel like I like it more and more”
Curating an outfit is usually easy for him to do because he keeps them simple.
“a simple sweatshirt with wide jeans and Timbs is a bit like what I wear every day because I need new items”
On days when he is just unsure what to put on, he either spends time before bed letting his imagination run wild or looks online.
“Before going to sleep I often think about how I could improve my outfits or I often scroll on Vinted (a very well-known application in Europe where you sell/buy clothes) or Pinterest”
Besides just random ideas, he also has others that influence his fashion.
“I would say Arsene (a French TikToker), or other French influencers, but most of them are basically inspired by the style of American rappers or their stylists.”
On the other hand, Eloan has some ideas of articles of clothing that should be “de-influenced”, also known as his fashion icks.
“stop wearing skinny jeans please my eyes bleed … I find it awful”
Moving on from what he hates in fashion, Eloan enjoys keeping his outfits on the monotone side, rather than wearing bright colors, or matching multiple colors together.
“No more than 2/3 colors and white or black for contrast”
Contrasting colors aren’t his only rules or guidelines for putting together an Eloan-approved outfit.
“I like to be well dressed more than to be comfortable, but in the end, if I like my outfit I will feel good.”
Feeling comfortable was an obstacle that became easier to overcome as time passed. With experiments and experience, he began to learn what exactly fit his wants and needs, and what didn’t. He never imagined dressing differently would set him apart from other students.
“Before arriving, I really expected everyone to have the same flow as me; I didn’t really expect to receive compliments on my clothing style and even less to be interviewed.”
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