The winter season at FHC easily takes the number one spot for having the most boring outfits of the school year; however, various students and teachers fill the hallways with their individuality and unique stylistic choices, despite the season of boring sweatshirts and hoodies.
For junior Luke Ho, his style has continued to grow with his age. Throughout middle school, his style was never exactly “him.” Just like many middle schoolers, he didn’t exactly care about his style and often found himself just picking up clothes off his floor, even if they didn’t match.
“Well, in middle school, my style was pretty horrible, if I’m being honest,” Luke said. “I just picked up random clothes, but over the past few years, [my style] has definitely improved. I’ve looked at online styles, and I have changed based on what I like and what parts of different styles I like and made my own.”
Through the transition from middle to high school, Luke’s style grew immensely. However, he did not create this change on his own, as his older sister had a huge impact on his style. Because of this, Luke was able to incorporate inspiration from online trends and features that his sister influenced him to wear, leading him to create his own style.
“A piece [of advice] I would give is to always just try new things,” Luke said. “I mean, it’s not always going to work out for you, but after a while, you might find some parts of different styles you like and make your own.”
The most difficult part of having a unique style is finding cheap, affordable clothing pieces. Despite these difficulties, junior Sophie Luyckx has never had an issue with piecing together incredible outfits daily.
Since her childhood, Sophie has been influenced to shop at thrift stores by her mother, who always shopped on a budget. Although it takes minutes, if not hours, of searching for the right pieces, Sophie believes it is inevitable to create the perfect outfit from a thrift store.
“A few of my all-time favorite places to shop always include thrift stores,” Sophie said. “[Thrift stores] such as the Salvation Army, Mel-Trotter, because these ones are huge and have tons of selection, and even Goodwill is a great, affordable option, and it’s open every day.”
For someone with such a unique style, Sophie used to simply follow every trend that her friends did, and she was never able to truly experiment with her outfits; however, that changed after her middle school years.
“Before I started really caring about my style, I used to dress like a VSCO girl, as almost every girl did in middle school,” Sophie said. “And a lot of the time, during 2019-2020, I would always just follow the popular trends. But then, I was like, ‘I don’t know what I really like,’ and that’s when I started leaning towards new [styles] that I liked more, and that felt more me.”
Teacher outfits at FHC usually consist of the same elements: jeans, a FHC spirit t-shirt, and a pair of boring shoes. Morgan Beckett, a 10th & 11th grade English teacher, doesn’t like to follow the track of all the other teachers. Instead, she prefers to make each of her outfits specialized to her own personality.
“Well, obviously, weather, as boring as that is, [plays a role in picking outfits],” Beckett said. “I’m older, so I always have to dress for the weather. Also, the day of the week matters a lot, because I usually, and it’s silly, but I’m willing to always dress up more on a Monday because I feel more ready for the week, when a Friday would be more like a casual day for me.”
By styling new outfits every day, Beckett adds a pop of style to the FHC staff, making the hallways feel a little more special. Whether it’s matching all the colors of each accessory in her outfits or simply the color of the jeans she wears, her outfits fill her classroom with character daily.
“Another thing about my style is that my metals always have to match,” Beckett said. “So, if I have a silver belt buckle on, I always have to match the earrings, rings, and the rest of my jewelry to be silver. Also, winter is the only time of the year I wear dark jeans, while I save light and airy jeans for summer. I’m also very addicted to Pinterest, so that gives me a lot of my outfit inspiration.”
