Salutations! I am Kait and I currently study German and Philosophy at Stetson University. This is my second semester as a Style Guru Intern at CollegeFashionista. I will now do the thing where I talk about myself in witty details.
Somehow, at the ripe age of 12, I got my hands on a copy of The Devil Wears Prada. The first time I watched it, I was hooked. It doesn’t get much more cliche than that, folks. I watched the film again and again. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have seen that film in its entirety over 200 times.
I haven’t figured out what exactly it was about that movie that grabbed me. I think maybe it was the glamour and poise of Miranda Priestly (who isn’t inspired by Meryl Streep?). It could also been the wardrobe, the soundtrack or the beautiful shots of New York. It was appealing to my very visually hungry pre-teen self and so I made the decision then.
Not until recently has the question, “what do you wanna be when you grow up?” been difficult for me to answer. My line is usually, “I want to be a creative art director for an independent magazine like i-D or Dazed and Confused. I would even settle for The New York Times Style section working with Bill Cunningham. I want to organize photo shoots and be responsible for the overall visual storytelling in the editorials.” I have recited some version of that to nearly everyone that has asked me since that fateful day when my eyes and heart woke up to this reality.
At 14 or 15, I watched the real life version of The Devil Wears Prada. It was a documentary called The September Issue. It outlined the responsibilities and perspectives of the two most interesting women in American fashion, Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington.
I fell in love with Grace.
She was not conventionally beautiful, like me, and her interest in fashion made no sense since she lived in rural Wales with practically no exposure to anything remotely glamorous. Similarly, I grew up as a tomboy. I was usually riding bikes and playing in the mud and collecting bugs. “Pretty” wasn’t in my vocabulary.
Grace had such beautiful things to say and she talked passionately about image making. My hungry eyes grew with excitement that I could someday be in her position.
And thus, a fashion disciple was born. That’s all there was to it, kids. The sneakers were out and the thrift shop skirts were in.
Throughout my first year of college I was exposed to liberal arts and the magic that exists in other subjects. Even though I have seen the beauty in philosophy, been mesmerized by the powers of political science and appreciate the German language; my heart belongs to the art of image making. It is the home to which I always return.
Photographed here, I am wearing a cropped black, long sleeve shirt paired with vaguely cow-printed H&M harem pants. My lace-up sandal booties dress it up a bit. This is a trademark lazy look for me. It’s something I throw on when I want to be comfortable. I like funky, assorted rings that don’t match, so I wore them.
I’m thrilled that I get to be the human fly that documents Stetson’s trendsters again!
