The Campus Clipper invites students to step into a third space characterized by eclectic music—sung in a range of different languages—and the chatter from businessmen and schoolboys alike. Boris, the owner, wears black latex gloves as he works and tends to his clients. I brought my friend Pasha in, as he needed some refinement to his aesthetics before his fraternity formal. He described the state of his hair as somewhere in-between an overgrown mullet and a shag. Situated just around the corner from Baruch, Third Avenue Barber Club is known for its premium walk-in and membership services.
A look at Pasha’s hair before Boris stepped in.
Barber shops, in recent years, have changed. They were once length-specific, but in a changing world, barbers need to know how to cut longer hair. Boris keeps several mannequins to practice on in the back of his shop, in order to perfect his craft after taking a course on longer hair. He hopes to shift his business model towards offering clients membership, though he is refraining from closing off walk-ins, as he hopes to remain accessible.
Boris provided an analysis of Pasha’s hair, woven throughout his stories and anecdotes. He noted where my friend’s split ends were as he spritzed water across his locks.
“He was incredibly friendly and prioritized understanding exactly what I wanted from my haircut. When I was unsure about certain parts, he took the time to figure out and understand what would suit me best,” Pasha took note.
A smiling Pasha in the process of his haircut!
Boris, the manager, had to close his first barbershop after eight years, but reopened a shop recently in the Gramercy district of Manhattan. As I observed his skillful craft for the afternoon, it became evident that he was extremely knowledgeable in the world of hair.
”While barbers’ expertise lies in shorter cuts, Boris showed exemplary detail when cutting longer hair,” my friend commented. “He took great care in pinning my hair in such a way that he could cut in proper layers while keeping my scalp comfortable.”
Pasha started with an overgrown shag, which was refined to a neater mullet with layers and cleaner bangs. I could actually see his face after the precise haircut executed by the barber.
”In my experience, a lot of stylists/barbers ask for what style you want, do the entire haircut, and then ask if it’s to your liking when it’s too late to make major adjustments,” Pasha reflected. “Boris avoided this by checking in with my opinion at every major step, which not only ensured that I got the cut I wanted, but also made me a lot more comfortable in the barber’s chair.”
A close up of Pasha’s cleaned-up and healthy luscious locks and layers.
Third Avenue Barber Club is a quaint establishment for walk-in and reserved haircuts. With membership services offering unlimited haircuts and unlimited skin fades, the shop provides customers with a range of choice and selection when paying for their luxurious services. Thankfully, the business has partnered with the Campus Clipper for a student discount when clients present their valid student ID and coupon below.
Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking about Bad Bunny’s Calvin Klein promotion for about three weeks. I am all for men in their tiny little undies looking all scrumptious for clothing brands, and it’s not just because the sight is easy on the eyes. Campaigns like Bad Bunny’s and Jeremy Allen White’s do more than just give the people what they want. When men take up sexualized spaces that have been historically imposed upon women, they highlight the gender discrepancy within partial-nudity reception. That’s what I’m also for.
Calvin Klein’s Instagram page has an audience of nearly 26 million. Bad Bunny appears in the most recent Calvin Klein campaign wearing just his Calvins, partially nude—something that’s been normalized for men in media but is often critiqued and policed when women do the same.
Bad Bunny received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the internet for posing in his Calvins, with many comments thanking Calvin Klein for giving them such a godsend of photos (I don’t disagree here). Audiences reacted the same with Jeremy Allen White and many of the other men who have posed in their tighty whities, such as Jacob Elordi, Michael B. Jordan, and more.
Bad Bunny’s Calvin Klein ad, cropped to your displeasure.
What happens when we compare the reception to JENNIE’s Calvin Klein campaign, which featured comments from viewers such as “She has a nice body, but is it sexy?” What about Disha Patani’s? A follower wrote, “Nowadays, showing partial body is the next way to get popular and attention.” Maya Jardon’s more conservative shapewear post didn’t miss getting hit either: “Why are you naked?” And then, for Lily Collins’ full-clothing campaign, a backhanded comment that almost had me hopeful, “This woman is sexy without showing anything,” plus a “this is not on brand.”
We can’t forget what happened to FKA twigs, either. In April 2023, Calvin Klein released an advertisement featuring FKA twigs wearing an unbuttoned denim shirt draped over her body, exposing parts of her butt and her breasts. It wasn’t too long after that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints alleging that the ad objectified women. Consequently, the ASA banned the ad, stating that it “used nudity and centered on FKA twigs’ physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object.”
FKA twigs publicly contested this ruling, expressing disappointment and highlighting double standards in advertising. She noted that similar campaigns featuring male celebrities, such as Jeremy Allen White, did not face the same scrutiny. In her statement, she emphasized her pride in her body and the empowerment she felt during the shoot, questioning why hers was deemed inappropriate:
“I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me. I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine,” she wrote a day after the ban. “In light of reviewing other campaigns, past and current, of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards.” It’s still lost on the committee, which eventually responded that although they were concerned their “rationale for banning the ad was substantially flawed,” the photos were still overtly sexual, and thus the ban remained.
One of the FKA twigs Calvin Klein ad photos that wasn’t removed
As Summer approaches and Amiee Lou Wood’s White Lotus Bikinis sell out online, I’ve come to wonder, where are women allowed to be hot?
Campaigns like Bad Bunny’s indirectly highlight how algorithms and moderation policies on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and others unevenly censor content based on gender and sexualization. Because of this, it seems women are not allowed to be hot in the Calvin Klein campaigns, which are quite literally designated spaces for partial nudity to be accepted. Online platforms as a whole tend to sexualize and censor women’s bodies far more than men’s, especially in similar attire. If we take modeling underwear out of the picture, there must be other spaces where women can be confident and attractive while not being policed for it, right?
Certainly not at the gym, where sports bras and biker shorts have become demonized by men who don’t know how to confront their own wandering eyes. “It’s practically narcissistic, if someone has a great six-pack and young girls have amazingly shaped bodies that they are showing off basically, they should cover up a little bit, you know,” said a gym owner on Irish radio whose comments have since gone viral and irritated plenty. Men can work out shirtless and semi-shirtless—for when those muscle tanks are cut up so much they show both the nips—but women can’t have a matching fit that highlights their physique? Are they just upset because men’s clothes aren’t as thematic and interesting as women’s? Do the guys just want cute matching sets, too? I’m trying to find an attainable solution.
Clapbacks to the Irish man on TikTok
What about at work or school? Hilarious question. We’ve all seen Legally Blonde. Next.
Women also can’t be hot on the beach, where they’ll be reprimanded for wearing bikinis no matter what age they are. A council in Greater Sydney announced recently it would be banning G-string bikinis at its public pools without providing further details about how the rule will be policed. Last summer, actress Sydney Sweeney received criticism for posting photos in a long-sleeve one-piece wetsuit because it had a bikini bottom: “Didn’t she say she didn’t want to be sexualized anymore?” and “Who on earth made this mid famous?” In her op-ed, “Women – don’t get larger, don’t get older, don’t have fun, don’t dare to wear a bikini” for The Guardian, Barbara Ellen described the array of ridicule women get for showing skin: “Is she wearing a bikini? At her age? At that weight? Shouldn’t she be in a one-piece? Isn’t it all a bit undignified? On and on it goes.”
Sydney Sweeney’s response to her haters
It definitely takes a toll on the mental wellness of women. What spaces are we left in to just be hot in peace? Where can we go where we won’t get bullied into wearing something we don’t like, only to still receive slander from the opposite end where we’re not hot enough? The scrutiny of women’s clothing and skin exposure is just a breeding ground for shame, fear, and self-consciousness. How often do we feel unsafe or objectified on a daily basis, not even during times of shorts and tanks, but when we’re fully clothed head to toe? How often have we dealt with anxiety and reduced self-worth because some man opened his mouth? This pressure to dress “modestly” or “appropriately” undermines self-expression and contributes to internalized misogyny, ruining our mental health and body confidence. It’s something we’ve experienced for years before and will continue to for years to come.
It seems women are allowed to be hot anywhere that straight men are not present. If there are to be hetero-men present, there should be just one, and it should be your husband. If you’re single, and there are multiple men in the space, you’re still permitted to be hot, but in consequence, you will also have to be thirsty, immature, narcissistic, dumb, attention-seeking, and, above all, disreputable. And that’s just the way it goes for people with half a brain cell, apparently.
I do think, however, that getting men some more matching workout sets could be onto something. Maybe a lavender 5-inch inseam short and crop tank? Can we get a Nike collab with Ryan Gosling on this? Asking for a friend.
Boston Students! Head on over to Chivo in Cambridge and get free chips and salsa with a coupon and student ID 🙂
Brenna Sheets is a graduate student in Emerson College’s Writing and Publishing M.A. program. Her hobbies include going on long walks, watching bad television, reading, and writing.
You’ve made the leap: you scheduled the interview or started the job, and you need to look professional for your new venture. But it’s hard to afford a professional wardrobe without a professional salary. Over the course of my jobs and internships, I’ve found some ways to make the most of your student wardrobe. You don’t need to go into debt just to look the part.
The first thing to think about is the environment in which you need to dress to impress. In my jobs so far, I have inhabited creative industries—photography, publishing, etc. In such industries there is generally more acceptance for color, pattern, and different cuts of clothing than there would be in, say, finance. These suggestions speak to my experience, so consider them against the expectations of your industry.
Let’s start with the basics: a dress shirt, blazer, and slacks. There are multiple ways to wear a dress shirt under a blazer. Tucking it in is classic, but maybe you can get away with some variations. Try buttoning the shirt all the way up and adding a pendant or chain between the collar points for a sophisticated but customizable look. A French tuck—tucking a portion of the shirt front into slacks and letting the rest fall—is sleek when paired with a blazer. A French tuck is the tucking equivalent of a clip-on tie: it looks just as good, but is much more comfortable.
When styled right, basics can go a long way. Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shirt_%28drawing%29.jpg
Look in your existing wardrobe for pants that may be able to act as slacks. When I bought plaid purple pants, I didn’t see them as professional. But paired with a nice blouse or button-up, they’re suddenly a funky work pant. Anything with structure (non-clinging), without rips, and non-denim can be in the running. The key to finding professional pieces in your existing wardrobe is to look for potential, not intent. Even if you bought something for non-professional purposes, when paired with another item, could you see it differently?
By the way, the more variety you have in your wardrobe, the more distinct outfits you can craft. For example: I own a black blazer and a plaid blazer. If I pair a white button-up with the black blazer, then wear the white button-up with the plaid blazer the next day, they’ll be seen as two distinct outfits because I’ve changed from a solid to a pattern. The same can be said for shirts. Don’t just get two of the same item; have some variety. Think of it this way: Two distinct blazers + one shirt that doesn’t clash with either = four different outfits, not to mention the combinations you can create if you add some variety to your pants as well. Or try fun shirts! A black blazer looks different if you wear it with polka dots versus a floral pattern. Two distinct button-ups or blouses + one simple blazer = four different outfits.
In many cases, professional dress doesn’t have to look a single way. That means you can make the most out of a few basics and your existing wardrobe. Explore what you have with fresh eyes, and you might be surprised by what you wear to your next meeting or interview.
Takeaways:
A few items can be worn in a variety of ways to freshen up your professional look
Look to your existing wardrobe for potential: what could become a professional item when paired with something else or worn differently?
Why not add to your professional look with a new pair of glasses? Use this student discount for 50% off frames!
By: Kelsie Lynn
Kelsie Lynn is a rising junior at New York Universitystudying communications and creative writing.She is probably in a coffee shop right now working on her latest short story draft.
For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC, from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services. At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.
If online shopping is so bad, then why is it so relaxing? Why is it so satisfying to fill my carts with all of the items that I want, knowing full well that I can’t afford the thousands of dollars of merchandise? Why does it bring me comfort to organize wish lists with things that I will probably never get around to buying? These are the million-dollar questions, I know.
In my first semester at college, I was probably ordering
new clothes once a month. It was so convenient to ship them to my dorm, and
it’s always fun to get a package when you’re at school, even if you’re the one
sending it. However, I do have a habit of ordering clothes just to return them
in the next week. My mom considers this a bad habit, but I consider it being fiscally
responsible and making sure to get my money back whenever I order something
that I don’t like or don’t need. To each their own.
A very high-quality mirror selfie of me trying on clothes that I ordered online in my dorm. We do not have a full-length mirror, hence the standing on the chair. Have to get creative sometimes.
Once the pandemic hit, the term “retail therapy” seemed to take on a whole different meaning. It was one of several ways to pass time during our days of isolation, but it also seemed like a way to stay connected with the outside world and brighten up your life by getting something new or treating yourself in whatever form that takes—whether it was new clothes (ironic, considering the furthest place I was going on an average day was to the kitchen downstairs), a new book to read, or a new appliance to try out. Much more convenient and safer than going shopping in-person, and much less work and cognitive energy being spent.
But, like many things in life, online shopping is not immune to corrupt business practices, ones that of course flourish in our capitalist system; ones that not only take advantage of employees that work in factories with egregious conditions and contribute to environmental destruction, but also manipulate us as consumers because they offer services that we are compelled to utilize.
Take Amazon, an example I’m sure we are all intimately
familiar with. As a college student, Amazon is a lifesaver. Need a book for
class immediately? It could come the next day. Need back to school supplies but
don’t have access to transportation? Order it online and just walk to your
mailroom to pick it up. Want to buy a coffee machine but don’t know which ones
are the best to buy? Look at the reviews and have it in two days. It’s easy,
it’s quick, it’s affordable, and the products are usually very good
quality.
The same thing goes with fast fashion, “the mass production of cheap, poor quality, disposable clothing.” College students are very susceptible to fast fashion from companies like Shein, who take advantage of a person’s inclination to spend less money while still trying to keep up to date with fast-evolving trends. We see people our age everyday get on TikTok to take us through their shopping hauls, and it makes us want to go out and spend our money to do the same. Shein though, unlike Amazon, usually does not have as good-quality products and is very hit or miss, which personally gives me more of a reason not to shop there. I ordered from Shein one time freshman year, and out of the three items I kept, I have worn one of them exactly once. That is, of course, a perk of fast fashion—the clothes are so cheap that if you don’t wear them, you don’t feel guilty because it didn’t cost you very much. But, that’s also why the cycle is so hard to break, as people are more inclined to dispose of their clothes faster (not usually through sustainable methods) and simply order more.
I want to be abundantly clear that this post isn’t meant for me to sit here on a pedestal, tell you where you can and can’t shop, or make you feel bad. It’s more meant for myself—and hopefully others who feel similarly—to think through these pervasive problems and wonder where we can go from here. I still shop at Amazon and I don’t blame people who order from Shein because truly we are all just doing the best we can to try to save money and navigate a system that is inherently unfair at every step of the way.
I am caught between two schools of thought—on one hand, maybe individuals can try to be more aware of where they are shopping from and shop more sustainably. There are many good options, with the best probably being thrifting your items. Another good solution is to support more small businesses as opposed to large corporations, such as spending money on Redbubble (there is a student discount available!) or Etsy. I personally like buying clothes from American Eagle and Aerie, and I know they are beginning to make more products that are sustainable and eco-friendly.
On the other hand, I also think that it is unfair to put
the pressure on the individual and not the company—because yes, you could do
your research and that would be great, but often we just don’t have the time or
energy (especially during a global pandemic), and habits are hard to break. It
feels like a losing battle, made worse by living through a time where we rely
greatly on online shopping and companies like Amazon or Shein to get us the
items we need in a safe, efficient manner.
We debated this issue a lot in my ethics class last semester, and I still don’t really have an answer. I suppose the lesson here is to choose your battles when you can and recognize that making these choices can be difficult when there are many different factors at play and you aren’t in a position where you can spend more money on more expensive yet sustainable brands. Hopefully someday we can get to a place where the onus is not on us to do better, but for companies and brands to both recognize and actually care about the hurt they cause to both human beings and the environment, instead of just worrying about profits.
The good news is companies like the Campus Clipper are always looking for ways to help students save money and shop locally. For instance, if you’re looking to save 10% on art supplies, check out the coupon below and order from Blick Art Materials!
By: Katie Reed
Katie Reed is a senior at Villanova University studying English and Communication. She is in utter disbelief that she just admitted to being a senior. She loves to read, but has made barely a dent in the increasingly large pile of books on her bookshelf that she told herself she would read this summer. She hopes to enter a career in the editing and publishing industry.
For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC, from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services. At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.
Every time someone asks about how I picked Lesley University, I have a tendency to joke that I was following my ex-girlfriend.
On one hand: this isn’t entirely true- the school had plenty of what I was looking for, including both of the majors I wanted, a supportive and queer-friendly environment, and a campus stretching across Cambridge. On the other: I do think going into higher education knowing someone who was both my best friend (at the time) and very dear to me did a lot to boost my confidence.
I had a built-in friend, a way to start off the first of four years with a sort of social safety net. I had someone to talk to about the hardships of starting the higher-education portion of adulthood and the anxiety of moving into a new place. I had someone to do homework with, late into the night on scratchy dorm room carpeting. I had someone to complain with about the occasionally-questionable dining hall food. I had someone, and that made the nervousness of being in a new place slowly, surely, ebb into the background. This didn’t stop either of us from making friends as we both found our places within our new community, but it got us through the first few months as we began to build up new relationships.
Having someone around who already knew me, accepted me, and encouraged me to be myself also made it much easier to get comfortable in my own skin- both as a new college student and as a trans and queer person coming of age. Fortunately, my school had plenty of overlap between the two, with a plethora of my freshman class being in a similar literal and physical transition. We were all looking to make homes out of our bodies, and one of the most obvious ways to do that was to get a new piercing.
About a week or two into my college experience at Lesley University, my ex decided she wanted a septum ring. Eager to work towards my own accumulation of piercings and to mark the pivotal shift into freshman year on my body somehow, I decided I would tag along. So, on one fateful student-discount Tuesday, we headed down the red line into Central Square, popping into the Boston Lucky’s for walk-in appointments. After a half-hour of sitting on some really nice leather chairs and admiring the jewelry selection by the cash register, I was escorted into the piercing room. The process itself only lasted a few minutes. A gloved hand ran an alcohol wipe around the center of my nose; a needle and horseshoe-shaped piece of metal followed suit, threaded through the cartilage without much fanfare.
Little freshman-year-Ness standing on the sidewalk, staring down the tattoo shop.
An hour after our arrival, we walked out together with our matching piercings. The new hole in my nose was all I’d hoped it would be. It looked great. My parents, however, were not on the same page.
They called later that night. “It was a waste of money,” my mom chastised. “I don’t even think I want to come visit you on parents’ weekend.” My dad echoed the sentiment, taking the time to text me that he hoped it would get torn out. They warmed up to it as soon as they realized it could be flipped up, but the rift it caused felt emblematic.
While a little warning might’ve done wonders to prevent any familial unrest, I did what I did for me. I love my family, but part of paving my own path meant not conforming to their standards. Rather, I was setting my own. And it wasn’t just little 2018 Ness who decided to kick off their journey into higher education with a piercing. In a 2006 article from the JAMA Network, one Lester Mayers noted that 51% of university students surveyed had piercings, while 23% had tattoos; with the destigmatization among the workplace and accessibility of body modifications, the number has only gone up (Sequential Survey of Body Piercing..). In Hallie Long’s article from the DePaulia, she interviews freshly-tatted Angie Rainey, who declares that the tattoo she got in college “caught [her].. at such a transformative and new time in.. life” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15193575/). The body is a temple, and so many people have taken it upon themselves to decorate theirs to reflect burgeoning personal style. By making the decision to kick off college with a piercing, I became one of many new students who made similar choices, a way of making their bodies feel more like a refuge among the turbulence of life. Even in periods of great change, the one thing we can control is ourselves.
Self-expression through body mods is a fairly common, healthy mechanism for self-discovery.
Another article from the Journal of Adolescent Health deems the reasoning behind piercings to be an act of identity, rather than rebellion (Contemporary College Students and Body Piercing). Between myself and the people I knew, most of us who were modifying our bodies (whether through our piercings, tattoos, or haircuts) were doing so as a way to find a sense of community within an alternative subculture. It was a statement of self, seeking out community and building our own confidence rather than actively trying to disrupt a peace within our immediate families. It was just that now, we had the freedom to find this new place for ourselves.
I started my first year of college nervous. Nervous about my relationship, about school, about the friendships I had yet to find. I was nervous about my parents, about getting homesick, about whether or not we’d see eye-to-eye. I was worried about whether or not the new hole in my body would heal properly. But even in the wake of all the fears about the future, I knew I’d be okay.
And you know what?
I am.
Glow-up of the century.
tl;dr: be nervous if you must, but know you’ll be okay.
Sometimes making the perfect change to your look is the thing that makes you feel your best and most confident, and there’s nothing quite like a fresh cut to help you feel your best… dare I say, nothing feels quite as marvelous!
For that life-changing, new-kid-on-campus chop, treat yourself to a place that really understands the power of looking and feeling your best, like Marvelous Barber Lounge. With the help of Campus Clipper, you can get 20% off on the ultimate grooming experience- just bring your student ID and your coupon to redeem!
By Ness Curti
Ness Curti is a freshly-graduated illustrator from the Lesley College of Art and Design. A part-time bobarista and full-time New England adventurer, they hope to one day tell stories for a living, whether through art or words. They enjoy doodling, procrastinating, and saying hello to the dogs they pass on the sidewalk.
For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC, from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourages them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing, and services. At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.
Picture this: you’re having a rough day. Maybe your physics exam went horribly; maybe you and your significant other split up; maybe you struggle with anxiety or depression and it’s just worse than usual today. Self doubt and insecurity start to creep in, and your confidence sky dives. Cue sweat pants and a trip to the nearest bodega to check out the ice cream selection, and soon you’re a pile of distress, feeling… let’s just say not your most attractive.
https://twitter.com/ohh_deer
Does this sound familiar? I think we’ve all been here. But even though your impulse is to crawl into a hole, and the last thing you want to do is put on nice clothes and style your hair, that’s exactly what you should do. Putting effort into your appearance makes you look more confident, which makes you feel more confident and act it too. Scientists Adam Hajo and Adam D. Galinsky research the effect that your style and clothing choices have on your mood, health, and overall confidence. This is the result of a phenomenon called “enclothed cognition.” In an article for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Hajo and Galinsky explain that enclothed cognition “involves the co-occurrence of two independent factors — the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the physical experience of wearing them.” That means what you choose to put on has a real affect on how you feel and what your style and clothing are saying to the world.
https://twitter.com/fpjsprobinsyano
In a Huffington Post article, “How Clothing Choices Affect and Reflect Your Self-Image,” Jill L. Ferguson quotes Karen J. Pine, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire (U.K.) and author of the book Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion. Pine maintains, “When we put on a piece of clothing we cannot help but adopt some of the characteristics associated with it, even if we are unaware of it.” Think about it: how do you feel and act in your favorite outfit? In sweatpants? After a haircut? What about wearing loafers? Heels? Gents, wearing a nice aftershave? I know that when I wear a fancy dress for a night out, I stand up straighter, walk with more intention, and probably project more confidence as a result. This isn’t to say you need to be dressed to the nines all the time. I love my flannel shirts and combat boots, and sometimes I feel more confident wearing that than wearing a form fitting dress (especially on a full stomach). Just a touch of something that spruces up your appearance can make a difference in how you feel, look, and present yourself. Often on days when I have to share my work in front of a group or have a difficult conversation, I’ll put on some lipstick, or as I call it, war paint.
https://www.redbubble.com
I particularly like red, since it’s the color of confidence. I’ve always thought there’s just something about the classic red bottom on a pair of Louboutins that projects elegance and confidence. But that doesn’t mean you need to run around in heels on the daily. A few days a week I’ll spritz on some perfume, or wear a noticeable pair of earrings, style my hair differently, or brush on some mascara. These efforts don’t need to be head-to-toe 24/7. In the event of a break up, sometimes a dramatic change like a totally different haircut can do wonders to make you feel fresh and attractive; I just got a chop this weekend! But day-to-day, it’s just about putting in the effort to make yourself feel confident—and that’s inextricably linked to feeling attractive. So shine your shoes, try a new hair style, pull out that little black dress, and start wearing red!
By Sofia Lerner
Sofia Lerner is a Campus Clipper publishing intern who is studying English as a senior at NYU. Passionate about literature, dance, and wellness, Sofia aspires to help the arts thrive and help others pursue healthy lifestyles. For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC,from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourage them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing and services.
At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books, we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings and watch our YouTube video showing off some of New York City’s finest students during the Welcome Week of 2015.
#tbt (noun) – A hashtag frequently used to brag on social media about past travel adventures.
However, Instagram-ing your “Throwback Thursday” pictures isn’t the only way you can document your study abroad adventures—though it is a popular one.
Journaling is another inexpensive way to preserve your trip memories without breaking the bank. It can be difficult to have the discipline to write in a journal every day, but in doing so you’ll have something to look back on for years to come.
The journal that I kept during my study abroad program in China. The cover is decorated with stickers and ticket stubs that I collected during my month-long adventure.
Journaling can be an intimate experience, but for those looking for a more public outlet, social media is the way to go. Many travelers hoping to update friends and family overseas may want to consider creating an Instagram account. It’s free, works through WiFi and is a quick and easy way to document the highlights of your travels.
Some travelers do not understand the need to take frequent photographs, however past study abroad students, like Kimberly Rogers, 21, disagree.
“I am definitely the type of person to take a lot of pictures when I go on a trip,” she says. “People tell me to stop and take in the beauty of wherever I am, [but] I’m gonna want to look back and reminisce.” Rogers recently traveled to China with CUNY Brooklyn College in the summer of 2013. “I can be one of those old grandmas who tell my grandkids to come look at how cool I was [through pictures]!”
Kimberly Rogers holding the scrapbook she made after her study abroad trip to China.
With more and more advances in technology every year, the amount of photos we can take and store is growing. Many of these photos get mindlessly uploaded to websites like Facebook and Flicker without a second glance, but the more creative you are with your photos the more memorable your trip will be.
Scrapbooking, a widely practiced pastime in the United States, is a useful tool for preserving study abroad memories. Rogers, who frequently used Instagram during her trip to China, also created a scrapbook upon her return home.
“I think it’s really important to document my travels,” she says, displaying her China scrapbook.
Four pages from Rogers’ China scrapbook.
The scrapbook that she created contains photographs of her friends, landmarks and other memories of her trip. She bought stickers that went along with the China theme and decorative paper to make the pictures pop.
Some places to go for cheap deals on scrapbooking supplies are stores like Target, Amazing Savings and Michaels.
“I could have just printed out pictures,” Rogers says, “but I wanted to put effort into what I collected and make something I could cherish forever.”
–Sam Levitz is a graduate of Brooklyn College and went on the CUNY Study Abroad trip to China the summer of 2013. Follow her on Instagram: slevitz
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Fashion blends colors and textures in interesting ways
Fashion is meant to be interesting
We talk a lot about the function of fashion in our lives but we don’t spend enough time breaking down the genius and centrality of its artistry and design to its success as an art form. Fashion, to survive, is meant to be interesting.
Just as fashion is meant to be personal and therefore paces its market choices around the general taste of people, fashion also has to present new ideas that people normally wouldn’t go for. In this sense, fashion plays on the dichotomy of pushing tastes to their limits while embracing the old and traditional way of things. The evolution of the house of Chanel through the decades is a perfect illustration of melding a long-established house aesthetic with experimental ideas yielding interesting results. Coco Chanel’s was known for her black and white polished style but that can get boring very easily. The question then becomes; how does her successor Karl Lagerfeld keep Chanel at the top of the game? Firstly, he had to get a perfect understanding of the urban young adult and its social importance. Because as much as Chanel caters to the society matrons and their Emily Post sensibilities, they want to dress the young socialites who star in rock-n-roll videos (when that was a cool thing to do) and the ones with a million plus followers on Instagram who are so famous that they get personal nicknames from followers.
But there is a reason why Giorgio Armani is the complete opposite in terms of exploring avant-garde themes yet is so incredible successful. He has something equally as dull as it is interesting going on for him — he’s predictable. People trust his work because it doesn’t (and didn’t) evolve from its core aesthetic. His color scheme is instantly recognizable. He cuts his jackets the same way every time so when you want an Armani jacket, you know what you want. And next year it might come in a different color or shinier texture, but it’s classically Armani.
That’s an interesting concept too, in fashion, creating a classic. And it’s probably harder to create a classic fashion garment than to push boundaries with new collections every season. The person who creates a classic piece had to rework a single theme over and over again in new ways and still make people want to buy it even though it’s nothing new. When Marc Jacobs was at Louis Vuitton, he shocked people. You wanted to sit at the Vuitton show because you never knew in what new ways you’d be thrilled. And the clothes themselves were thrilling but they seemed to belong more on the runway than on the street.
Fashion is the playground where two divergent ideas both lend an equally important lens into what makes it so interesting. Some designers think the traditional is sterile. And some designers think that true artistry is real focus into craftsmanship and the mastery haute couture which hold traditional values about dressmaking. But there is no question that this artform continues to be interesting. The final product always stuns.
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Margael St Juste, Hunter College ’15
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Fashion doesn’t always come off the runway donned by a supermodel in extra small. Fashion can be what others find to be cool but that you find to be anything but. It’s simply what you wear and what you like.
When you walk into a boutique and select a piece of clothing, it will not always be a thoughtful process. Sometimes you’ll choose that piece of clothing because it is the first one you saw or it is the right price, or perhaps someone else asked you to try it on because they think that color will compliment your eyes. Sometimes you just want your clothes to make you feel good and it’s not about any trends or fashion statements. It’s about you, as it should be.
Fashion is meant to be customized to you, the wearer. No one understands that better than the urban young adult. As the chief momentum shifters of mainstream culture and peripheral subcultures at any particular time, fashion is just another playground for exploring one’s selfhood, a showcase of personality. One of the things about fashion as a creative process differentiating it from most other art forms is that it gives the wearer the tool to complete the process. We get to experiment and cultivate our own personal way of self-identifying publicly by wearing our clothes to make a statement and intimately by letting our clothes dictate our moods and feelings about ourselves. Any way we express it is fashion and there’s no such thing as anti-fashion.
Fashion is thus as personal as one makes it if one has the eye and passion for it. But it can also be just as impersonal. The design process is guided by rulebooks of what not to do and is in itself limited by sales goals for a majority of high retailers. You may be surprised to find out that much of what feels like your own personal sense of fashion is a product of advertising and other mediated content targeted to you. But that’s not to say you don’t have somewhat of an indirect say. You always do. Fashion is always personal.
Advertisers, designers, and editors know you all too well. They are the reason that shade of green-yellow which happens to be your favorite color, exists for you to buy in the first place. We may not all be fashion conscious but the market is. The great thing about it however, is that it is engineered to feel personal. You buy a purse with a designer’s name stamped on it who’s a complete stranger to you and somehow that purse can still reflect your own fashion taste or your ideals of luxury. When you’re picking clothes off a rack and you find your right size, it’s as if those clothes were meant for you. It’s as if you’re the one making the choice, deciding your own fashion taste when in fact it’s all been decided for you long before you knew you needed that shirt or those harem pants.
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Margael St Juste, Hunter College ’15
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Gasp! If you’re really into fashion, I know how that sounds. Fashion is art and art is sacred, and this is sounding like an oxymoron?
Well, we are on the subject of modernity and if modernity is the inherent fiber that makes the American urban young-adult aesthetic as commercially successful and as cultural relevant as it is then fashion must be predisposed to imitating its nature, one that mutates and evolves. Which is why fashion is meant to be disposable—it’s meant to be functional and it’s meant to be aware of itself.
You have your fashion staples, pieces that never go out of fashion, timeless pieces passed down from generations that remain profoundly embedded in the vision of every contemporary class of fashion makers and influencers since its time. We can cite Diane Von Furstenberg’s wrap dress as one of those revolutionary pieces that easily made themselves permanent fixtures of American fashion and are now deservedly iconic. Combining a minimalist design with equal parts high functionality and artistic direction is genius that transcends both time and culture. You can now walk into most fashion retail department stores around the U.S and see a wrap dress on display and it won’t feel retrospective or vintage. The prints, the colors, the textures even, will be as modern as our time but the design remains essentially classic.
Or we may look at a simpler paradigm…
American blue jeans, who doesn’t own a pair? This garment probably holds the same importance to the mediated image of American fashion as Bourbon whiskey does for American leisure. The key seemingly is a formulaic dose of design and function. A pair of denim trousers as an innovation at its time was simply a reaction to the social shift in the workplace. No longer did textile need to be spun at home by hand while adhering to dress etiquettes of propriety and decorum. Because of the much dirtier nature of factory work and because of available means to mass produce, a new industrial population demanded more casual, more utilitarian fashion, in effect more disposable fashion— cheap practical simple design—fashion that was not in essence concerned with art but with a primary objective of being wearable.
Inevitably, all fashion ends up reflecting on its approximate culture being bred from the intellectual and material resources of that culture. All design as a general rule takes a creative direction. But the more disposable fashion becomes, the less we see a creative direction in lieu of wear-ability and the more adaptable it is to our own creative expression. Fashion as a disposable commodity responds to the modernity of culture, our need for self-expression, our need for high functionality paralleled to the high-paced structures of our lives, and our endless appetite for consumption and instant gratification. Ideally, fashion has to be obsolete and we want it to be. When constantly seeking ‘the new’ and ‘the modern’, we don’t get that without recycling ‘the old’ to generate new ideas.
So we must go back to modernity and also understanding the instrumental role of fashion being functional for use and disposable for value. We may thus understand why the American aesthetic is ideal to be at the forefront of fashion globally—why people in all corners of the world aspire to the white tee and blue jeans, perfectly bracketed within urban young adult imagery, the most important shaper of culture
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Margael St Juste, Hunter College ’15
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