From the archives: Fresno State students discuss what influenced their style
*Editor's note: This was my first-ever assignment and story on fashion journalism. The writing is riddled with errors and AP mistakes but I wanted to leave it as is to give readers a raw perspective on my improvement over time.
When an individual decides to settle and figure out what their personal style is, the process often involves having to experiment with different styles, trends, and identities. What became a common theme within these female Bulldogs was their willingness to be different and be considered the ‘outsiders’ of common fashion. What resulted was an unapologetic personal style.
Destiny McCue, Nikolai Cagara, Viviana Hinojos, and Annabelle Vang all have something in common. These Fresno State Bulldogs have a unique style that outshines their peers, and a surprisingly similar upbringing.
In formality, fashion is best defined as a form of self-expression at a particular period and place of time. With fashion comes rules and standards, such as having to compliment specific colors with one another or obeying to the societal standard of only revealing one area of skin to the public, at one time. Fashion is what you want it to be, with everyone defining fashion through their own style and gaze.
In the late 90s to mid-2000s, dark musical influence had begun to take over amongst the newest generation of “misfits” of fashion society. What resulted was ‘emo’ fashion, prevalent amongst teenagers who stood out from their peers for being punk-inspired.
To be an outlaw of style, was the style; shattering all the rules of fashion. Leaders of this scene were frontman Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance and bassist of Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz.
Centered around dark colors of entirely black and red attire, ‘emos’ were also known for their large sprayed hair in homage to their punk and goth predecessors of the 80’s. But ‘emos’ were not simply centered around the macabre and emotional tendencies; they were quick to borrow trends of contrasting styles like Japanese ‘Gyaru’ with the association of bows in hair and overall pride in nonconformity. “Emos” exists to anger and confuse conformists of society, a division of fashion anarchists, if you will.
So, how does boundary-breaking fashion contribute to these Bulldog’s personal style as adults? Each individual has a boldness and confidence that exudes little importance to the opinions of their peers.
These women, were all members of this nonconforming dark fashion of the near past, leading to their fashion expertise and bold style choices. Because of experimentation with the odd fashion, no obstacle or opinion can break them down.
Destiny McCue, a senior majoring in filmmaking, style is best defined as “far-out” with an evident skater inspiration that she had borrowed from both her brother and hip hop of the 90s. She credits her dad for the inclusion of backward baseball caps and oversized jackets from the 80s as another major element to her style when she was growing up, but that overall, as an adult, she’s developed her style to be “romanticized” with “dark academia” influence.
She incorporates many elements of many different ideas and can make it look entirely effortless. Some celebrities she mentions as another influence are YG and Tyler, The Creator, which is evident from her outfit in the video.
On the topic of style evolution, she says, “You should age gracefully” and that “…as you change, so shall your style,” meaning that McCue was always one to accept change.
Viviana Hinojos, a junior in broadcast journalism, has a style and aesthetic of sporty but feminine, which contributes to her confidence and sexuality. Hinojos, much like her bubbly and sporty personality, stems from taking influence from other sporty icons like Kehlani and Cassie, but incorporating the bold aspect from Rihanna.
She said that it is evident that she’s still in touch with her childhood style, only having evolved to fit her adult grasp on femininity. Her ability to appear fashionable and comfortable is also thanks to her having a clear grasp of her own individuality amongst the countless trends.
On the topic of thrifting, Hinojos thanks her mother for introducing her to the concept before it even became celebrated as it is today.
Nikolai Cagara, a senior majoring in Advertising and Public Relations, has a style that is best described as ‘New York It-Girl’ but comfortable if the weather sees fit.
Returning to when she was ‘emo,’ she explains how it was a way for her to stand out from the crowd. She’s not wrong because, in some outfits shown in the video, her confidence to wear something out of casual wear really ties the entire outfit in a positive way.
When she does go out of her comfortable style, she borrows inspiration from Jimin of the K-Pop group BTS and the members of all girl troupe, BLACKPINK. It is simple, yet elegant and sophisticated, differing from her comfortability to show her versatility. She looks good in either or and encourages people to “Dress for yourself.”
Lastly, Annabelle Vang, a senior majoring in print journalism and minoring in fashion merchandising, has an unstoppable boldness with a hint of timelessness. With Vang, she sees an array of media as being fashionable, from colors to movies, to public figures to draw inspiration from.
She doesn’t entirely copy it, rather she keeps it timeless and keeps up to date to figure out how she can be different. As a newer-generation Asian American, she’s one of the many breaking cultural standards to wear whatever she desires and feel unapologetic for it.
She says, “My generation now, I think, that we’ve become more outspoken and that we have our own voice, and we don’t really care anymore about what they say.” Vang demonstrates that she can wear any style because she’s done it all ever since realizing that she did not need to, “stick to one kind of style.”
All women were able to find their personal style through the influences of music, culture, and family, but it was only fully embraced when the women stepped out of their boundaries for fashion experimentation.