Oh, summer; everyone’s favorite season when you can finally shrug of the winter blues with a pair of shorts and let your liberated calves be a metaphor for your school-free life in the next few months. I have an ambivalent relationship with the summer. Back home in Sweden I, too, used to relish in the extended hours of daylight and the (borderline) hot temperatures. But when I moved to the northeast that drastically changed and my body did not respond well to the humidity (I sweat more than an old man in a Bikram Yoga studio). And my pale, fragile, porcelain, like one might say, Swedish skin does not respond well to the sun (i.e. I burn. My shoulders are lobster colored as I write this). Since I have no clue how to dress for the New England summer I have always been immaculately impressed by people who manage to pull off stunning outfits without soaking their clothing in a cascade of sweat. This summer I will be scavenging the Brown campus for people who accomplish the difficult feat of mixing fashion and function in a non-sweat-soaked manner.
My name is Filip Åsberg Montgomery and for the second time now I will be taking on the very difficult task of showcasing the best and most intriguing styles Brown has to offer. I am currently a sophomore studying cognitive science, which I somehow hope to turn into a career in advertising (I am yet to figure out how, but I assume it will require lots of schmoozing). Outside of that I dabble in a little bit of everything as I have a very destructive habit of signing up for extracurricular activities: I ski race for Brown, I am a staff writer, and recently the self-proclaimed creative director, for the cuisine section of Vagabond, Brown Culture and Arts publication, I also love anything that involves being outdoors (with the exception of the gear you wear) and I am a leader and recent manager for Brown’s outdoor Leadership Training program. Oh and I also know how to take photos with the manual setting on my camera so I guess that also makes me a professional photographer (by Instagram standards).
Summer also makes it difficult for me to incorporate my favorite fashion elements into my outfits: flannels and scarves. In the past few years I have gotten very into DSquared2’s “lumberjack-chic” style, as I like to call it, and I love mix-matching simple plaid shirts with high fashion items such as studded sneakers or leather jackets, which still do work in the summer. Instead you often find me wearing a simple print T-shirt in the summer with a pair of dress pants and then I like to break the monotony with a pair of color splashed shoes or sometimes a scarf. This is not necessarily the must functional outfit, but it’s good enough. Hopefully the next few months will help me get my summer wardrobe (and life) together.
