The Art Of Instagram Thrifting

Thrifting: generally defined as the purchase of secondhand products such as clothing, accessories, and other items for use by a new consumer. Yet, the rise in thrifting among Gen Z has transformed the concept into an admired social practice, an opportunity to find unique items and to break the expectations of the standard fashion industry.

Thrift stores were originally meant to serve as sources of clothing or merchandise for those at lower income statuses, or to fund nonprofit organizations and their projects. A large number of individuals depend on thrift stores as a much more affordable way to obtain necessary goods. Additionally, many college-aged entrepreneurs pursue reselling as a means of supporting themselves financially. However, it’s also important to acknowledge the implications of the practice in terms of access and privilege. Though there may be controversy surrounding the idea of reselling, the growing number and influence of these small businesses cannot be denied.

This reselling shopping method is no longer limited to the physical confines of a store. Our generation has taken full advantage of the benefits of using social media sites for online reselling, a cultural trend that is especially prominent on college campuses. This choice to utilize sites like Instagram reflects the shift towards low-contact business models that have been developing over the last two years due to health concerns. In 2019, Instagram was the most popular social media site for Gen Z in the US, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the platform became an essential tool for communication and connection, reinforcing its cultural influence in our modern society. This easy-access platform has facilitated the growth of student entrepreneurship in the apparel industry. Now, scrolling through Instagram on any given day, maize and blue clothing fills my feed as apparel accounts run by U-M students promote their items for sale. 

These accounts have become a staple of campus culture. Some, like @umichapparel and @umichcloset, have garnered a significant following, promoting this push towards vintage clothing while simultaneously establishing thriving businesses.

Abby Miars, operator of @umichapparel, saw the opportunity to merge her love of thrifting, fashion, and sustainability when creating her online brand. 

“When I came [to U-M], I had absolutely no Michigan gear,” Miars said. “So I started printing logos on t-shirts for myself, and I made a few for my friends, and they told me I should try and sell them. I figured out really quickly that you can’t sell anything with the printed [Michigan] logo on it because the block M is trademarked… But I’d always loved thrifting since I was in like eighth grade, when I started going regularly for fun. So I just went thrifting for myself and I found so much stuff that I kind of combined those two ideas.”

@umichcloset founder Nori Claire Pham created her online resale shop amid the pandemic, hoping to earn an additional income for herself while other employment options became more difficult to obtain.

“I decided to start this business during the pandemic because I just really needed money but could not find a job for the life of me so I decided to make my own job,” Pham said. “I figured online, specifically Instagram, would be an ideal platform especially during the pandemic. I definitely considered making a website to allow customers to purchase but I felt Instagram was a much more accessible platform where customers could contact me directly.”

Both accounts carefully select their items based on what would be most popular among U-M students, tracking current trends and drawing on their own styles to secure the best products. The @umichcloset Instagram biography declares that the account is “Celebrating old, unisex items with a story,” giving new life to clothes that might have originated in a different region, or a different age.

“All of my pieces that I pick are vintage, which means they could be owned by many different people before me,” Pham said. “I really love this idea because a lot of my pieces travel thousands of miles to get to their new owners or they are dated back from the ‘90’s. Each piece really is unique.” 

Miars’s success with selling her own vintage products online has pushed her to launch other business initiatives. In addition to putting products on Instagram for sale, Miars conducts in-person pop up shops for bulk items, partners with local Ann Arbor businesses for events and promotions, and is currently working on developing an account ambassador program. The wildly successful pop-up shops started in Miars’s own backyard, but have now been held at notable locations such as Good Time Charley’s and The Standard. Her account’s popularity continues to increase, her follower count at 3,320 with over 3,000 products sold, which to Miars is “3,000 things that… could be in a landfill somewhere.” Instead, hundreds of U-M students are given the opportunity to incorporate her finds into their own closets.

“When I started it, I did not have any expectations,” Miars said. “I didn’t even know if I was gonna continue it. I never would have thought that it would get to this point. Yeah, I’m the one that’s consistently posting stuff, selling stuff, building this brand. But it kind of just shows me the power of social media because it’s just an account and all these people know about it now… And that’s on all the people that have bought from me. Because obviously that wouldn’t have been possible [without them].”

According to Pham, the incorporation of vintage U-M products to the social media scene not only promotes the accessibility of thrifting, but also bridges the gap between countless generations of Wolverines. 

“It is such a thrill to see students in classes, game days, on the Diag wearing items they have bought from me… I’ve definitely had lab partners and classmates wear my pieces without knowing I’m the one that sold it to them,” Pham said. “I think these accounts, including myself, definitely contribute to the spirit and the name of U-M… I try to preserve and continue the prestige of the university through my pieces.”

Whether to find rare clothing items, to shop with greater environmental consciousness, or to connect to the history and culture of our school, thrifting is an appealing practice for many U-M students. Though there is some debate on the ideals behind reselling, there is no doubt that it has had a great influence on product demand and shopping methods, especially among Gen Z consumers. The shift to social media reflects the changing nature of consumer culture in an age defined by both technological advancement and a fascination with bygone eras. Operators of online thrifting accounts are actively embracing these societal transformations, embedding their brands into the UMich lifestyle.


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@umichapparel on Instagram

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@umichcloset on Instagram

Critiquing the Familiar

Critiquing the Familiar

Suburban neighborhoods were built as members-only clubs for the upwardly mobile. Their bouncer service was cooperatively dispensed by public and private forces, who unbolted the heavy town doors in the fifties and sixties for only the classically nuclear family: the male breadwinner, his placid housewife, and their smiling children. It was, and is, a configuration of inherent discrimination and superfluous privilege. 

 

Suburbia is not natural. Compulsory conformity and romanticized homogeneity are very much contrived. People put things in a place to achieve a purposeful effect. At this elemental level, SHEI does the same — team members bring props to a shoot location to depict a proposed theme.

 

Of course, American geospatial divisions are entities not quite comparable to issues of our magazine. Though we can equate the two in terms of building something from nothing, they remain differentiated by the former’s intent to exclude, while our own mission is to include. This shoot is something we built to mock an equation of sidewalks with success, uniformity with country, and the hiding of something out of sight while keeping it out of mind.

 

THE SET

This set of photos was taken beside the University of Michigan’s School of Nursing, where grass conquers concrete as it strives for sunlight concentrated between rising red brick walls. However, editing the images meant stealing these colors from our backdrop. The shoot photographers dulled the scene’s natural state, as real estate developers did to a once empty urban periphery. Stolen swaths of unmarred land beget the building of replica after replica of their daughters’ doll houses, all for a waiting list of security-seeking Americans.

 

The expectation of a living room seems reasonable until its familiar elements are placed in an alternative setting. Our team carried a bare mattress, an old chair, and a rickety wooden side table to a space where such objects do not belong — a contextual transport that was our attempt to break down traditionalism. The arrangement mocks a missing television set, which forms the centerpiece of many shared living spaces because environmental sameness encourages greater interest in absolutely anything else. Our rigid social rulebook is made quite senseless — and fairly ridiculous — by the physical movement of this indoor furniture to the outside.

 

HER MAKEUP

Zooming in, our model’s expression adds a layer to our narrative. Even as her eyes pierce through the page, there is a disconnect to her gaze. Her body exists in a space from which her mind is absent: she has lost her grounding, pulled away by the invisible string of her neglected intellect. The clouded, dark eyeshadow is a more pointed visual clue to a matching — and growing — cloud which forebodes unbending doubt and fatigue in the character she embodies. 

 

Suburbia’s enduring backbone, the wife and mother figure, is a constant in American history for which many make assumptions. She is assumed to be placated by cooking dinner and washing the dishes. She is assumed to enjoy the domestic tasks that determine her day, and to support her supposedly hardworking, breadwinning husband at night. She is assumed to be fulfilled solely by providing for children to whom she was also assumed to birth.   

 

Unsurprisingly, she is tired. She wishes she would have further pursued the subjects she loved in high school. She resents her own parents who never encouraged such pursuit. She wonders what passions she might have found in the great big world she never explored for herself. 

 

She sits in her favorite chair in the living room, lies on the bed she barely has the energy to make up, and curls her toes in the shaggy beige carpet. Her life is a song on repeat — not because it’s just that good, but because it is the final song on the album, and no one has bothered to shut it off.

 

HER CLOTHES

Shiny white pearls sit like a pretty chain around her neck. Chunky four-inch heels strangle both of her feeble ankles. Black stockings simultaneously hide and expose her long legs. 

 

How do fashion trends begin? Are they perpetuated by honest desire, or trivial lust? The contemporary shopping mall exists only as an outlet for the funneling of mass-produced goods to a materially thirsty middle class. Affordability tastes so sweet because it enables the average consumer’s accessibility to elite fads, while family fallibility becomes so easy to hide because neighborly envy warps flaunted items into assumed status.

 

Overconsumption has ravaged our definition of self worth. Nothing satiates. There is always something better. Once we are so easily able to implant an object from another time or place into our own familiar scene, what remains of its worth? We take and take and take, but how much of ourselves — our quirks, our imperfections, our truth — do we give? Art converts to copy, slight distinction rebrands as limited edition. But, it’s all the same, and it all sells.

 

THE TRUTH

It is not easy to meditate on the drivers of centuries-old American social organization. I’m not even sure it is fair to impersonally judge the types of neighborhoods from which I hail. Nevertheless, my education and time away has permitted my reflection on suburbia in a new, almost harsh light. Though I recognize the stability afforded by community playgrounds and a lush front lawn, I also realize how many are excluded from this utopia, and how many within it have been left to navigate the dystopian nightmare of conventionality completely alone.

 

Yet being based in the reality of personal truth diminishes our conditioned impulse of hiding behind purchases and normative behaviors. Through echoed campus voices on its polished pages, SHEI deconstructs some of the barriers blocking this cultural realization — and honest conversation about the whys of this world is our indelible first step. 

EUMELANIN: Science, Style, & Social Activism

EUMELANIN: Science, Style, & Social Activism

More than ever, in today’s climate, brands have a role greater than just churning out products for consumers. Those that aim to be truly iconic have a responsibility to act as community and social activists — which is something that EUMELANIN founder, Deirdre Roberson, a bold Black female businesswoman, most definitely does.

 

In March of 2018, Roberson fused her creative side and passion for fashion with her interest in STEM and degrees in chemistry to launch EUMELANIN, a one-of-a-kind fashion and jewelry brand based out of Detroit, Michigan. The brand’s name (pronounced you-mel-a-nin) is rooted in science and refers to “the most abundant type of human melanin found in brown and black skin and hair.” By infusing the chemical makeup of Melanin into all of her designs, Deirdre aims to disrupt the conversation on colorism, empowering consumers to own and celebrate their color and the chemistry behind it.

 

 

EUMELANIN founder and CEO, Deirdre Roberson (Photo: EUMELANIN)

Growing up in Southwest Detroit, Deirdre was raised in a city that consisted of a diverse population of African Americans, Latin Americans, and Arab Americans. Though she recognized the strength and power behind ethnic diversity, she also experienced firsthand the ways that society, and more specifically, the fashion and beauty industries, divided and delegitimized people of color. Deirdre began feeling and seeing the effects of colorism at a young age, recalling how “our skin tones and shades were used to separate and invalidate us.”

Years later, she fell in love with chemistry while attending Cass Tech High School, and knew that she wanted to use her knowledge in STEM to speak up for minorities and “address the issues that plague our communities.” Uniquely deriving from the intersection of science, style, and self-love, that’s when EUMELANIN was born.

“[EUMELANIN] works to redefine what it means to be beautiful in every shade,” Deirdre shares. “We are a brand for cultural change,” which strives to get people to reconsider what they know about colorism and how they discuss racial and social justice.

At its core, EUMELANIN’s purpose is to encourage people of color to feel powerful. The brand, which creates t-shirts, hoodies, hats, jewelry, and more for men, women, and kids, designs products inspired by their very consumers. By incorporating the actual chemical structure of Melanin into all of their merchandise and selling their products in a spectrum of skin colors, including black, butterscotch, and dark chocolate, EUMELANIN highlights people of color, bringing them to the forefront and amplifying their identities.

@eumelanin_ on Instagram

In just her two years of business, Deirdre has seen her brand invade the e-commerce space, as well as rise in popularity at local pop-ups and nationwide festivals. In 2019, she opened a temporary retail storefront in Corktown, and she is slated to appear at both South by Southwest and Essence Music Festival this year.

A chemist by day and an entrepreneur by night, what Deirdre has accomplished so far in her career is no easy feat. Yet, this is just the beginning. Deirdre hopes to keep elevating EUMELANIN, its messaging, and mission every day, and “aims to have an impact on colorism globally.” 

To learn more about EUMELANIN, check out their Instagram or visit their website.

The Void in Menswear

The Void in Menswear

 

Imagine Lady Gaga at the top of  the pink staircase at the 2019 Met Gala, dripping from head to toe in Brandon Maxwell. The hot pink train of her dress trails behind her, so long it reaches the base of the stairs. Fans scream her name from every direction, paparazzi flash in every direction. The dress opens up like a parachute and her styling team rips it off to reveal yet another layer, a black dress with an umbrella. She begins to perform a tribute to the chimney sweepers in Mary Poppins. 

As if two layers weren’t enough, the black dress is taken off to reveal another dress underneath. This dress is tight and hot pink again. With each outfit reveal, a new persona takes over Gaga. In this dress, Gaga holds a box phone from the eighties and pretends to have a conversation with a best friend. She does not stop there. She strips down to a studded pair of undergarments paired with her staple: six inch heels. After sixteen minutes, her grand entrance is complete. 

Shawn Mendes steps on the carpet and tries to hold a candle to Gaga’s performance; however, she remains unmatched. Like most other men at the event, Mendes wears an all black suit. He stands in front of the camera, hand in his pocket, and looks at the lens with a straight face. No risks and most certainly not following the Camp theme of the gala. He slides down the carpet, keeping the same pose with each photograph taken. You can physically feel the energy in the room deplete with each additional minute that Gaga has been gone.  

Why is the bar so low for men’s fashion at high profile events like this, yet so high for it’s female counterpart? It is although these men are not even trying to stand out on the red carpets.  I am sure that some of the photographers have better outfits they are wearing to take pictures than them. Are male celebrities accepting defeat so easily because they know someone like Gaga will come up on the carpet and steal the spotlight away?

We look forward to the Met Gala and red carpets at the Oscars and Grammys every year. Celebrities often double as high profile models. The red carpet is the biggest runway and many designers look to see what they are wearing for inspiration with their new collections. Creatives who design clothes for general consumer stores such as H&M, Zara, and Urban Outfitters, look to celebrities to dictate trends. How are they supposed to get any new ideas when all the men on the carpet are just wearing different versions of the same tuxedo?

This problem extends far past the red carpet. When I walk into the men’s section of H&M, there are only dark colored clothes and most items look like they can be paired with a suit. Even the photos on the walls are uninspiring. Though the number of men’s fashion magazines has risen in the past several years, their formats remain conservative. GQ’s cover might be interchangeable with that of Esquire or Vogue’s Hommes International. Instead of a space for experimentation, these publications seem to simply exist as a counterpart to the sea of women specific publications. 

One issue between female and male fashion might be versatility. Men can wear the same suit to every event, whether it is a wedding, funeral, or even a formal birthday party. They are allowed to play it safe and rely on one suit to guide them through social events. In contrast, women are expected to wear a different dress to each function. 

In 2020, we have few male celebrities who are trying to push against societal boundaries. Billy Porter from HBO’s series Pose and American actor Ezra Miller take risks by wearing standout clothing. However, it will take a few more than just these two to inspire other celebrities to break the cycle of suits.  Another question is, can more designers offer ways to circumvent norms of masculinity in their clothing? 

It is not just celebrities to blame for the lack of innovation. Designers also remain hesitant to push men to be more daring with their clothing. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Givenchy creative director Ricardo Tisci revealed that he no longer does couture in regards to menswear because of how hard it is to persuade clients. He now mainly focuses on couture in womenswear since there are many more subjects willing to wear higher fashion. Designers might be willing to take risks if male consumers were open to pushing boundaries.  It is the consumer’s fear of public rejection when stepping outside of masculine norms that prevents designers from creating such  garments. 

However, In an increasingly nonbinary sector, how can playing with the fact and history of the gender binary be productive? Why does gender persist at all in the face of a widespread push for androngony? In an interview with Vogue, Ezra Miller articulates that the goal is not to rid the world of gender but to re-evaluate our need for it and our relationship with it. “Gender itself is not our enemy” Miller says, “ and it will never really be over because it’s a vital aspect of existence… but if you want it, we can see a world in which we are liberated from the bonds of it and nourished by the joys and beauty of it.” 

The solution, therefore, may not be to reject gender, but rather to push it to do more. Gaga does not just own the red carpet, but kills the game when she is out on the go. She takes every public moment to use her outfits to inspire fans and designers. Her take on fashion is a continued version of performance art, which is exactly what she has become known for. Conversely, many famous men revert to basketball shorts and a t-shirt when they are out in public. Why is it the expectation of women in our society to carry fashion on their backs? Why do we consciously and unconsciously let men slide by with the same tuxedo, yet criticize women if they do not dress to the occasion? 

These questions do not just lament a neglected sector of the high fashion industry, but also highlight glaring societal issues surrounding gender performance. In the contemporary and cosmopolitan world, men’s style could have a significant role to play in shaping inclusive narratives. Men’s fashion should not just meet the current expectations of women’s wear, but should seek to challenge expectations of fashion regardless of gender. Both celebrities and designers have the responsibility to enter these conversations and the platform with which to influence and define them.

The Fun in Functionality

The Fun in Functionality

Choosing what clothes to wear can be tedious amid the turbulent Ann Arbor weather, but in the beginning of January, when I first stepped outside of the Changi airport in Singapore for my study abroad program, the sweltering heat reminded me of two things: this constant humidity was to be my companion for the next four months, which meant functional clothes superseded all other factors of picking daily outfits.

Functional clothing can be characterized as articles of clothing that are designed for specific purposes and serve the user to enhance a particular use. For me, surviving 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the blazing sun meant I needed clothing that would alleviate the discomfort of hot, Singaporean weather.

 

 

You don’t have to sacrifice personal expression for functionality — you can love what you wear and love what you do.

As a trade-off to functional clothes, the expression of individuality can diminish, since style isn’t the primary purpose of the clothing. Instead of wearing your favorite pair of skinny jeans, you might opt to wear a flowing, cotton dress to avoid sweating in denim. Cotton may not even be the best choice, since it can easily show sweat stains, especially in those darker colors. Aside from fabrics, the length of clothing matters in the heat. Is it worth it to wear a long sleeve and pants to avoid the sun’s glare on your skin, or is it better to boldly wear a tank top and shorts and apply sunscreen, resigning to be sticky for the rest of the day?

Specifically for hot weather, I found the following questions to be helpful in establishing my functional, Singaporean wardrobe: Is the clothing material durable? Lightweight? Wicking? Breathable? Will I feel comfortable wearing this? How will wearing this color affect my response to the sun’s rays? To what extent does this protect my skin? How long will this last?

Having to consider these factors can be frustrating, but there is a silver lining. Rather than viewing these components as limiting, we might think of these clothing constraints as a challenge. Eliminating your style isn’t necessary; instead, it’s really about adapting style to your current environment or circumstances. Now, surviving the heat doesn’t mean only purchasing athletic clothes. Sure they may be more likely to be durable or consist of wicking material, but common clothing fibers like cotton and linen also provide breathability.  Keeping these parameters in mind, finding functional clothes may be the perfect opportunity to expand your style.

If wearing deep, cool colors like black and plum describes most of your closet, try searching for more warm, light colors like yellow or pastel blue. Functionally speaking, light-colored clothing absorbs less light from the sun, meaning they absorb less heat and will therefore keep you more comfortable than dark-colored clothing. On the other hand, if you prefer tight-fitting clothes, you might try wearing palazzo pants or a long-sleeve, button-down shirt, in which case you can cuff the sleeves if you get too hot or unfurl them to shield your arms from sunny rays; both garments let air circulate through them, cooling your skin down.

Regardless of whatever you acquire, however, the process of finding functional clothes in and of itself can be very rewarding in the sense that you’re searching for clothing that fits within your criteria, which can push you outside of your comfort zone. Your quest compels you to become adventurous in your selection process. In this process, you may realize other apparel also highlights your personality, and you may become more creative in how to convey your individuality and identities, which is both exciting and self-satisfying. Subsequently, with the addition of your functional clothes, your style, variety of clothing, and wearable options expand.

It may very well be harder to find functional clothes that are able to showcase your personality, but when you do find that garment that expresses yourself and fulfills its intended purpose, the hunt will definitely be worth all those minutes of rummaging through aisles in the store. You don’t have to sacrifice personal expression for functionality — you can love what you wear and love what you do.

 

The Ambiguity of Street Wear

The Ambiguity of Street Wear

 

When I ask my friends what they think streetwear is I get a different answer from everyone. The conversation about streetwear’s definition is crucial because while it is tempting to declare a style dead, just declaring it does not make it so. The problem is that although one definition of streetwear could be dead, the purest form will never die because it is something that is larger than just a style.

In many cases streetwear can be defined as hypebeast style. This part of the so called “streetwear” is dead. We’ve all seen the person around campus or on an instagram feed wearing distressed skinny jeans or joggers, some sneakers, and some sweater or shirt that has a logo on it. This look really peaked in the past three or four years with the rise of many fashion labels such as Fear of God and Off-White and influencers cashing in on the success. The effects of this sect of streetwear resulted in logo mania. This phenomenon describes how every designer brand has tried to put their logo hoodies or shirts and then proceeded to sell them en masse. Eventually the oversaturation of logos has begun to fade but we still see logo mania and hypebeast style cause ripples in the fashion world.

Personally, I think hypebeast style lacks creativity and focuses more on vanity and money rather than style. People have begun to take the hypebeast style and shape it into new things such as growing popularity of e-boy, “artistic” or soft boy style. However, these are just the next iteration in a long line of sensationalized styles that take over social media. With this shift from hypebeast style people are rightfully saying that streetwear is dead. However, this is where the definition of streetwear becomes important. The main issue is that streetwear should not be defined in such a narrow sense but rather represents a much larger style. Only with increased exposure has streetwear become more pigeonholed into expensive clothes and certain brands. 

In my opinion, streetwear has two definitions that can be used.

  1. Style outside of runways. This definition is more egalitarian, taking into account different peoples and identities that do not get exposed during runway shows. Under this definition, fashion is much more broad and important than what is found in runway shows. Runway shows may affect street style but in the end it remains independent definitionally. In addition to this, under this definition streetwear will likely never die out as long as normal people wear clothes.

  2. The style of those aware of fashion. This definition makes fashion important and separate from clothing but still attaches a degree of reality to them. The clothes must be wearable and not just art. This definition emphasizes style and the awareness of clothing while keeping it grounded, because at the end of the day clothes aren’t just things to display but are rather something to be worn.

Both these definitions reference the act of wearing the clothes. Fashion seems to be shifting more and more from actually wearing clothes to portraying ideas. We can see this with fashion getting more experimental and also with the attaching of ideology to brand. Although I agree with experimentation and with promoting positive change, at the end of the day what is being talked about here is the physical clothes. 

Currently, many brands are interested in the abstract connotations of their clothing. Brands are constantly trying to sell an idea of what their clothing means rather than the practicality or wearability of the clothing itself. Streetwear is a way to ground clothing in what it truly is. Issues often arise when runway fashion tries to appropriate the concept of streetwear even though it is definitionally opposite. Runway brands using the term streetwear blurs the definition and makes it seem rational. A fashion company trying to make some kind of mass appeal is doomed to fail. Street fashion is so diverse that hoping to encapsulate even a fraction of it is impossible. 

There is no way that one single brand could encapsulate the vast nature of everyday fashion. Only recently runway fashion has come to terms with that. What I predict will become more common is fashion labels attempting to lean more into their brand rather than appeal to as many people as possible. Although brands may borrow and influence popular aesthetics, what people wear from day to day is and will always stay different from what brands want them to be. So then the question becomes what to wear if you want to truly embody “streetwear” and the answer is simple, whatever works.