Inspiration can come from any place when it comes to fashion. For Claudia Chen, a first year biology major, this is certainly the case. Her casual yet chic sense of style is very much nuanced.
One significant influence on Claudia are Korean styles. She enjoys observing and emulating Korean street fashions. “The general trend there is wearing something oversized on top and something tight on the bottom,” she explains. Furthermore, she likes to buy much of her clothing from Yesstyle, which is an online shopping platform that sells Asian-styled clothes. Yesstyle is the source of her Korean style clothing, and it has an unimaginable number of brands and styles. Its prices are quite affordable, so Yesstyle additions to one’s wardrobe can be made quite easily.
Another fountain of inspiration for Claudia was her trip to Taiwan last year, where she bought “more cute, childish clothes, like shirts with Asian cartoon characters on them.” Some of her shirts have gudetama and doraemon on them. Claudia prefers to wear these clothes on her “super casual days.” For her, fashion is something largely “fun and relaxing.” On a typical day, you’ll find her wearing a sweater and a pair of jeans. Occasionally, she’ll also wear a nice jacket. One jacket in particular – her bomber jacket – is one of Claudia’s favorite pieces; she says she cannot part with it because she “loves the way it looks and how warm it is.”
In general, Claudia sees the balance between dressing comfortably and fashionably as important. Especially being a student, she values “learning and not worrying about [her] clothes.” Nevertheless, she doesn’t find it appropriate to dress carelessly or just have no regard for looking good. College is the time to begin building her wardrobe of clothes she can actually wear after graduating, when it won’t be “acceptable to wear your pajamas everywhere.”
Despite her preference for the casual or comfortable, Claudia manages to look good effortlessly. Her go-to colors are black, white, and gray. She likes how simple, yet sophisticated these neutral colors are; they really suit her. She also likes to wear accessories – her small necklace and ring add a subtle touch. So with Claudia, less really is more; the simplest outfits – with no bells or whistles – are often the best ones.
