Look out College Park — the fashion police are in town.
Two university students are blogging their thoughts and advice on fashion trends on college campuses as contributors for the newly-created fashion site, CollegeFashionista.com. Each week, 24 universities across the nation — including Duke, Syracuse and University of Oregon — are represented by “style gurus” who post on the site. Blog posts are based on trends spotted on each style gurus’ college campus and their own fashion sense.
Sophomores Kerri Aidikoff and Jamie Weiss are the university’s style gurus for CollegeFashionista.com. The pair said after hearing about the site this summer they contacted the creator, Amy Levin, about writing for the university’s portion of the blog.
“Our goal is to reach people on the UMD campus — college students with a college budget,” said Aidikoff, an accounting major.
Both Aidikoff and Weiss find inspiration for their blog on and around the campus. When they find a subject they want to profile, they hand them a card and flier to identify themselves before taking their newfound models’ picture.
In their weekly feature, the students tell their readers where they can find clothing to resemble those shown on their student models.
Sophomore finance major Ashley Barkakati was nabbed by the two bloggers to be featured as a “stylish student” on CollegeFashionista for an outfit she wore on the campus.
“I was just wearing a jacket that I happened to buy that I guess was stylish,” she said, laughing. “I’ve seen the site, and I think it’s interesting. They follow their own trends and there are some things they think are stylish that other people I know would not like.”
The students said they understand that fashion varies from individual to individual. There is no right or wrong, Weiss said.
“[The blog] is just my opinion of fashion,” marketing major Weiss said. “What I see as fashionable might not be to someone else.”
The fashion site, which started in August, has been slow to catch on, but Weiss noted she feels the blog has a lot of potential.
“Right now, the site is really small,” she said, “But I do believe that it’s going to become more well-known because it’s such a great resource. … For you to see around campus what people are wearing and even just get style ideas from people’s outfits.”
Both university style gurus said that blogging for CollegeFashionista is a great experience for them, even as accounting and marketing majors.
“I think it’s something that I could use in the future,” Weiss said.
And once the two current style gurus graduate, a replacement will need to take over giving their own opinions of fashion at the university.
“I think once I graduate, I would pass the torch,” Weiss said. “It’s important to have someone else write to get their perspective. … We all have a different view of what fashion or style is.”
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