Amy Whiting, a senior in journalism at the U, was wearing an attention-grabbing animal print sweater along with bright socks on the day of this interview. Specifically, she had on a Cotton On graphic tee, a sweater from Target, jeans from Superga & Madewell, J. Crew long socks and a necklace with an elephant charm.
SHOPPING PREFERENCES
The stores she regularly shops at include Zara, Asos and Madewell, just to name a few. “Normally I wear Zara every day,” Whiting said, the day of this interview was a rare exception.
GO-TO OUTFIT
Her go-to outfit tends to always include sneakers. “Well, it depends on the season, but for this season it’s usually sneakers of some sort with mismatched socks. I always mismatch my socks, but these ones [pointing to her ankles] I wear as a pair and so I have to turn these inside out so they mismatch, because it’s just my thing,” Whiting said, laughing.
She attributes this bizarre habit to the actor Matthew Gray Gubler of “Criminal Minds” fame as he often (if not always) wears mismatched socks. She showed me an image of his style, pointing out the ways in which hers was similar. Look him up — you will likely agree.
Additionally, her go-to usually consists of a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans or black skinnies, a loose t-shirt distinguishable by a distinctive design or graphic, an oversized sweater and always a necklace.
When asked about her necklaces, she said, “I have a few necklaces that I always wear. But this one is the first one I bought from J. Crew — in high school,” referring to the elephant charm necklace. “And I wore it because elephants are supposed to be good at remembering things, so I wore it to all my classes and then I took all my AP tests wearing it.” Whiting quickly added, “I’m not superstitious; but I still was like, ‘this will be fun.’” It has since become her favorite necklace in her collection, and she’s “been wearing it every day since. So, I’ve been wearing it since 2013,” Whiting said.
Her other necklaces have sentimental value for her as well. “Each of [my necklaces] I got at specific times that meant a lot to me,” she said, explaining that most of her necklaces were given to her as gifts from important people in her life.
When it all comes down to it, Whiting would describe her style as that of a “third-grader running away from home in a children’s novel,” particularly a mystery novel, she said. “I wear oversized baggy things, and then like weird prints; very like, scavengy,” she said, creating a word to best describe the style.
She also said that she likes to think her style is similar to Luna Lovegood, a character in the “Harry Potter” series, because of its quirkiness, though Whiting saw her style as less girly than Luna’s.
TRENDS SHE LIKES
Whiting likes trends that revolve around the 90s. “Lots of things are kind of going all retro. It looks like everyone has hopped out of ‘Stranger Things,’ which I’m really into,” she said. More specifically, she mentioned clothing items like high-waisted distressed jeans and retro shirts — baggy t-shirts with either retro prints or faded stripes.
STYLE ICONS
Her style icons include the highly successful blogger behind fashion and lifestyle blog Man Repeller, Leandra Medine, along with Matthew Gray Gubler. She also said that she looks at Tumblr for style inspiration. The New York Times has a style magazine called “T Magazine” on all things creative that she browses too.
@casualcolie