Sara Rubinstein

It isn’t the way it used to be, when the latest fashions that designers trotted out on runways in Milan and Paris took years to reach Minnesota.  The de rigueur styles would cross the Atlantic, become Americanized in L.A. and New York, and then slowly make their way (via cattle car) to the Midwest. There, they emerged transmuted and outmoded.

Not any more. Today, with the click of a mouse, trends travel as fast as a scandalous rumor. The latest skinny rock-star jeans can be observed simultaneously on the West Bank (Paris), in the West Village (New York City), and the West Bank (University of Minnesota). Of course, it’s still possible to spend an entire college career in jeans and a T-shirt, and many University of Minnesota students elect this simple wardrobe profile, but some are going for extra credit. 

Looking back through past alumni magazines and Gopher annuals, every fall on campus has had a defining trend. In 1940, for example, only a few swells could afford a super-pelt raccoon coat, so most fellows made do with a boxy sport coat, a cozy sweater vest, and full pleated pants belted well above the navel. The “coed” of 1952 kept a wardrobe of formfitting sweaters and swirling circle skirts with tiny waists that spoke of significant infrastructure.  When U of M students went on strike in 1967, they were a somewhat clean-cut band of dissidents in loafers and chinos, although a few let their hair grow past the collar of their madras shirts. It’s hard to remember what was desirable about platform shoes with clownish bump toes in 1975, but it’s hard to remember that year clearly anyway. Denim has long been a campus staple, linked by silhouette to a specific time: snug and secure up around the ribs in 1982, hanging onto the hips by a suggestion in 2002, rolled in 1958, ripped in 2004. Remember last year’s poncho craze? It’s so last year.

So, what’s in and hip and hot in fall 2006? This season’s style philosophy could be summed up in a word: and. That is, jeans and a dress, leggings and a skirt, a tunic and another tunic and another tunic.  But all of these layers are manageable, and visible, because of the proportion principle: undersized atop oversized, short over long, full plus narrow. Multiple layers are something we are very comfortable with here in Minnesota, and the trend has been warmly embraced. But U of M fashion plates aren’t complete without the Jackie O. sunglasses, a big bling ring, and a long, decorative scarf.

Still, despite this year’s style syllabus, individuality rules. And the mere fact that the average student pulls on 10 wardrobe items every morning—instead of perhaps four or five in recent years—presents a variation of self-expression opportunities a math major would be hard-pressed to calculate. Students simply have more pieces to work with, and expressing crosscultural influences—such as wearing Guatemalan bracelets, sporting dreadlocks, carrying an Indian shoulder bag, or tweaking the gender-assigned-attire rules—is top of the list. 

Thus, trying to identify precisely what fashion item made for instant hipness in fall 2006 was tricky. Was it stovepipe jeans? The cool scarf? Towering boots? 

No, the students who stood out as the most fashionable, the hippest, the most happening all wore one thing in common: confidence. Even if all they had on was jeans and a T-shirt.

Click here top view a PDF version of this article with 20 images by Sara Rubenstein.

Sarah Barker is a regular contributor to Minnesota.