Ashley Chen/Senior Staff

Whether it be with mixed prints or contrast color-blocking, we couldn’t help but notice the bold outfits your fellow Cal bears put together this week. Scroll through and take some notes!

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The Daily Cal roamed campus this week in search of Cal’s fiercest fashionistas. Typing away on their laptops or breaking for a quick coffee, these chic scholars showed what it means to study in style.

Elizabeth

(pictured right)

DC: It looks like you may be a punk rock fan. Who’s your favorite band right now?

Elizabeth: Fidlar.

DC: What about any fashion inspirations?

Elizabeth: I really like Chloe Sevigny.

Holly

DC: Whats your favorite item in your closet?

Holly: My red Doc Martens. (pictured)

DC: What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Holly: PB&J … always!

Jeannine

DC: What are your outfit inspirations?

Jeannine: I like to dress up everyday — kind of like character dressing to whatever I feel like.

DC: What’s the last really awesome thing you found while thrift shopping?

Jeannine: I found these Gap overalls from 1997, cut them up and wore them to Outside Lands.

Merveille

DC: What’s your style?

Merveille: I like to mix it up between elegance and street. Neither one or the other but always a little of both.

DC: Whats your favorite word in French or German, since you speak both?

Merveille: Verwegen — it’s a german word that means bold, but it also implies the feeling of being blown by the wind.

Kitty and Khuri

Daily Californian: If you had to be Miley or Britney who would you be?

Khuri: uhh…

Kitty: How about Beyonce?

DC: If you could only wear one article of clothing to school, and nothing else, what would it be?

Khuri: My red pants. (pictured)

Kitty: My boots! (pictured)

Will

DC: Describe your style for us.

Will: I would say it’s classic and understated. I like French Vogue.

DC: What’s a book you’re really into right now?

Will: Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley.

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Moanalani Jeffrey Photography/Courtesy

Crystal beaded curtains, psychedelic lights and thrumming electronic music filled the third floor of the Macy’s men’s store Thursday night in San Francisco. Between sips of green apple sangria and nibbles of sushi hors d’oeuvres, guests played blackjack and browsed through the racks of the latest collections of fall and winter designer menswear.

Labels such as Armani, Hugo Boss, Theory, Tallia Orange and Calvin Klein fluttered across a stage in a miniature runway show situated at one end of the bustling dance floor, where SF-based Bootie Mashup DJs threw down energetic tracks fresh from the SoMa district. A select but diverse array of male models posed in everything from outerwear to underwear, all styled by Carlton Spence, who has been perfecting his creative talent in the industry for the past 12 years.

Spence explained that his job as Macy’s stylist is to put together looks that are creative but also wearable. According to Spence, men’s top fashion trends for fall are camouflage prints and anything burgundy or berry-colored. Pops of jewel tones, structured jackets and military-inspired looks were consistent themes throughout the show. In his position in the fashion industry, Spence sees all sides of the design and sales processes. Not only does he have a great deal of freedom in the creative process, but he also keeps note of the trends that male customers actually end up buying into.

“My niche is in menswear,” Spence said. “I am always people-watching … the average man is afraid to wear color.” Consequently, looks are formulated with his customer in mind. According to Spence, customers often buy entire looks he compiles for events because the typical male is often unsure of how to pull everything together without seeming overdone.

The night’s event was orchestrated to support a number of causes and groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign, which supports LGBT equality, and Project Inform, which seeks to advocate for a cure to and educate individuals about HIV, AIDS and hepatitis C. Additionally, donations made at the event sponsored The Trevor Project, a toll-free 24-hour hotline dedicated to helping gay and questioning youth, and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Between jiving it up on the dance floor and taking note of fall’s trends for menswear, guests attending Macy’s Men’s Designer Fashion Event found a fashionable and charitable way to spend a Thursday evening in the city.

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Sasha Chebil/Staff

Few events besides Macy’s Passport Presents Glamorama can integrate such diverse performances as the runways of leading fall and winter collections and performances by Sheryl Crow, the Summer Set and even the acrobats of Cirque du Soleil. For the past 30 years, Macy’s has held Glamorama in different cities to raise awareness of and funds for the AIDS Emergency Fund, Project Open Hand and Glide Foundation, ultimately raising more than $30 million since its inception.

The evening started with a literal bang with the Cirque du Soleil show, which turned into rhythmic stomps and clangs that coincided with the movement of juggled and tossed tennis balls. The precision with which the central showgirl simultaneously threw and caught the flying balls was mesmerizing but did not compare to the acrobats’ second set. When the acrobats returned to the stage, they further impressed the audience as they balanced in contortions on ladders that managed to remain upright. The set came to a grand finale when one performer inverted himself atop a ladder, which was balanced on the head of another performer, who was himself standing at the top of a ladder.

Then came excitement for the fashion enthusiasts. First, Tommy Hilfiger presented a collection of typical clean-cut outfits, including knee-high socks, blazers and argyle prints. Coinciding with the fall runways, Hilfiger swapped black for navy, a key color for wardrobes this season that was prevalent in several other lines of the evening. His collection also focused on layering, which later appeared in the Impulse and Maison Jules lines.

Instead of layering preppy basics, Macy’s brand Impulse blended bohemian and attempted rocker styles, featuring bright colors and bold patterns beside distressed leather jackets and black-and-white color-blocking. Although Impulse worked to emulate the current grunge trend, it struggled; models were left wearing fluorescent tights and animal prints with plaids and leather.

Tallia Orange presented a line composed solely of men’s tailored suits, frequently accessorized with a bow tie. Appropriate for fall, the hues remained in the cayenne and brown scheme, only straying so far as black. Rachel Roy’s garments for the season were mainly gold and black, which she topped with floppy hats and beanies and paired with textured tights.

The Summer Set, a pop rock group that won Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star contest, broke up the fashion show with their performance. The group, which played this year at the Vans Warped Tour, offset their boy-band vibe with female musician Jess Bowen on drums.

MaxMara brought a black-and-white collection and, like other designers, used touches of red in its monochromatic looks. MaxMara implemented the prominent trends of the evening as well in its fur, plaids and pleated skirts. These models brought a more serious presence to the stage as they stood under umbrellas, which shielded them from the virtual storm. Calvin Klein also showed a black-and-white collection with elegant silhouettes. The designer also revealed pleated skirts paired with chunky knits and touches of fur.

Diesel, on the other hand, shied away from the clean looks of the season, dressing its drool-worthy chiseled models solely in underwear. The applause for the Diesel models equaled that for the final performance by Sheryl Crow, who is still on her A game after 30 years of performing.

The collections shown at Glamorama reflected the trends presented on the runways of New York and London this year in their focus on plaids, pleats, fur and a subtle color scheme of navy, white, red and the forever present black. With the dynamic combination of fashion, music and circus performances at one event, Glamorama turned the Union Square Macy’s into an entertainment spectacle.

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Meg Elison/Staff

She walked into the hip vintage shop in a glowing chartreuse dress that hugged her curves all the way down, from her ample cleavage to the visible outline of her lower belly. That outline is the territory of horror and shame for many women, especially women who shop in the plus-size section.

But author, UC Berkeley alumna and former teacher of the Female Sexuality DeCal Virgie Tovar is immune to shame: fat, fashionable, unstoppable. She accessorized the dress with pink and green French tips and a chunky pixel necklace, finishing the look with a sheen of raspberry lipstick.

A self-described fat-activist, Tovar does not shy from the F word in her book. The usual F word is everywhere in her frank prose, but the taboo term here is “fat.” Tovar does not prevaricate and say “plus-size” or “full-figured.” She uses the word without flinching, and her book is strong medicine for anyone uncomfortable hearing it.

Tovar came to Oakland to read from her book “Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Love, Life & Fashion” for a small crowd that came to absorb the glamor of body-positive talk and fearless fashion at Halmoni Vintage & Treasure. The shop is on the southeast side of Lake Merritt and full of unusual finds such as sequined Miss Piggy purses and cross-stitch unicorn sweaters.

Owner Natasha Harden hosted the reading in her unliterary but colorful space with grace and style. Her shop is decidedly body-positive, with open and inclusive retail space. Vintage shops in the Bay Area often are spaces associated with thin white hipsters, recalling a less pluralistic past. Harden is a woman of color, and she has taken obvious pains to exude inclusion in retail space in her sizing information and display of queer affinity. The audience was served cake and fruit and sangria while Tovar made rounds, her unrestrained laughter ringing off the bright blue walls.

When asked what prompted her to take on curating a multiauthor anthology about fat fashion and body acceptance, Tovar said she viewed the book in a larger scope than just personal purchases. Her graduate research in human sexuality encouraged her to see fashion as political and ritual behavior.

“Every time I spoke to someone about their gender visibility and sexuality, clothes were brought up,” Tovar said. “How we dress is incredibly relevant to how we present ourselves to the world and how we want to be seen.”

Tovar admitted that fat women have to develop the confidence to make bold choices, as the fashion industry strives to minimize larger bodies and directly or indirectly shame them.

“When I look at the fierce fat girls around me, they have spent so much time developing that ferocity, and it’s such a gift that we get to be around that,” she said. “So this book was written to share that with the world.”

“Hot & Heavy” is a collection of stories from fat-activists, fashion bloggers, scholars and poets who contributed pieces of their own experience living in fat bodies. The themes are diverse and deep, rooted in obscured sexuality and fraught with the physical reality of being fat. The voices are distinct, spanning the gender-identity and sexuality spectrum as well as different racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. The result is a heady mixture of sorrow and triumph, steeped in femme liberation and fat-girl solidarity.

Reading from the book, Tovar managed to describe herself succinctly. “You know when you’re in the presence of a cool fat girl,” she read aloud. “Cool fat girls aren’t always nice, but you’re allowed to admire them … from afar. A cool fat girl doesn’t give a fuck about whether those Daisy Dukes are ‘flattering.’ She might have a cookie in one hand and a milkshake in the other, while her boyfriend holds a parasol just so. I like to walk around my apartment and act like a cool fat girl.”

She stood before the crowd, reading from her book, joking, drawing the audience in and glowing in her chartreuse and unapologetic glory. Virgie Tovar is the quintessential cool fat girl, and she has the stories to prove it.

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Bonnie Mata Matthews/Senior Staff

The Daily Cal arts staff searched the Berkeley campus for summer looks that capture the distinct individuality of our student body. As temperatures soar, tank tops can be tempting, but these trendsetters embrace any chance to express themselves.

First photo: After picking it up recently at a flea market, Woodrow considers his leather jacket a modern and versatile staple. He is now rarely seen without it and swears that both his jacket and hat can be worn in all weather.

Second photo: Angelica Garcia spices up a light summer dress with T-bar sandals and her signature hair wrap from Venice Beach.

Third photo: Ashley Morgan opts for a shorts and flatforms combo to take her from class to the dance floor.

Fourth photo: Velour enthusiast Pat Simpson ordered this track suit online because he believes it is “all-purpose attire” and ideal for shooting hoops with friends.

Meadhbh McGrath is the arts editor. Contact her at mmcgrath@dailycal.org. Check her out on Twitter at @MeadhbhMcGrath.

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Pol Rebaque/Staff

In The Daily Californian’s first ever fashion editorial, we show you how to stay chic in the heat. With unpredictable weather around the Berkeley campus and the larger Bay Area, layers that mix patterns, textures and bright shades will take you from balmy summer days on the Glade to dewy evenings in the Berkeley Hills. Whatever the occasion, the perfect summer look embraces tropical florals, lucite extras and printed separates. Our favorites include palm tree-printed trousers on Nazhat and a lightweight linen gown on Jahon.

Models: Jahon Amirebrahimi, Nazhat Salim

Editorial Photographer: Pol Rebaque

Editorial Director: Meadhbh McGrath

Editorial Team: Sasha Chebil, Ashley Chen, Mohana Kute, Denise Lee & Bonnie Mata Matthews

Special thanks to Sway, Mars and James Rowland Shop for providing models’ attire.

Contact Daily Cal Arts staff at arts@dailycal.org.

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Tom Betts/Courtesy

Fashion has always played an important role in the portrayal of gender, particularly the affectation of masculinity and femininity — from the wigs and powder worn by men in the 18th century, to the gender-bending styles of David Bowie and Grace Jones, and now the recent success of androgynous models, such as male model Andrej Peji’c (who models both menswear and womenswear), named the 98th “Sexiest Woman in the World” by FHM. Ford Models announced earlier this year that it had signed its first female menswear model — the 36-year-old, French-born artist and former Olympic swimmer Casey Legler. In the same month, Saint Laurent Paris signed Dutch model Saskia de Brauw as the face of its spring-summer 2013 menswear collection, demonstrating that designers were becoming more and more aware that men’s fashion shouldn’t be restricted to people who are male-born or male-identified. Nicole Farhi showcased some of her 2014 RTW menswear designs on female models, while JW Anderson’s spring-summer menswear collection featured halter-neck blouses and knee-length gowns.

Many of the most fascinating designers today are those who manipulate gender codes and affect our ideas about maleness or femaleness. The instability and shifting nature of gender means our views on what makes a man or woman are constantly evolving. In 1990’s “Gender Trouble,” Judith Butler described gender as the repeated performance of certain behaviors coded as masculine or feminine. Models like Legler and Peji’c bring a political element to fashion by drawing our attention to the ways in which they make us believe in the gender they perform, in effect illustrating that all gender is a performance.

The Bay Area is beginning to emerge as a capital for experimental fashion and creative gender expression. The genderqueer menswear shop Tomboy Tailors first opened in San Francisco on Feb. 2 with the goal of tailoring clothes and supplying shoes and accessories “for people of all genders.” Alex Orozco from Tomboy Tailors told The Daily Californian, “‘Be who you are’ is our unofficial motto. Many people come to our shop excited to find a place that can provide them with a look they’ve always wanted in a comfortable atmosphere.”

Fashion has a long-standing connection with the genderqueer community — the fashion industry stands out as a field in which queer individuals can excel and be respected without encountering the homophobia, sexism and other prejudices often found in more traditionally heteronormative careers. Creativity holds a special place in queer culture, which may be partly due to the fact that the arts were once one of the only spaces in which members of the queer community were welcomed and could still preserve a strong sense of self and a pride in their accomplishments.

When asked about the relationship between politics and fashion, Orozco explained, “Fashion can be a political statement. How you dress can influence both how you feel about yourself and how others view you.” However, the store is also interested in catering to the everyday needs of same-sex and genderqueer couples: “At the same time, we have upcoming fittings for same-sex partners getting married who just want to look good; it isn’t necessarily a political statement for them.”

Now, several Bay Area designers are advancing projects that link fashion with political activism, such as designer and Cal alumnus Jake Wall of couture suit line Artful Gentleman and Berkeley-based designer Cari Borja, who have teamed up with the Human Rights Campaign — the largest civil rights lobbying and LGBT rights organization in San Francisco — to promote marriage equality through funds raised by the San Francisco fashion industry. Wall is currently working with Borja and Heather Freyer from the HRC to plan the charity fashion show “Suit Up for Equality” this August in San Francisco.

Wall noted that San Francisco is a city that is not necessarily known for fashion: “From my point of view, not only as a supporter of the cause, it’s hard to do fashion in San Francisco. In fact, people don’t traditionally do it. They go to New York or Los Angeles for that. It’s exciting to think that together through this partnership, it might be the HRC that helps us take our story national and take a little bit of fashion from San Francisco across the country. It’s amazing that you can see how San Francisco is truly a leader in so many things, particularly because of our plurality, our openness.”

The increased visibility of genderqueer individuals and genderqueer fashion signals a change in the fashion industry and perhaps a fraying of the carefully crafted image of beauty we have been conditioned to accept. Those strict boundaries continue to be broken down, opening up a space to empower and celebrate the beauty in all gender expressions.

Addy Bhasin (Staff) contributed to this report.

Meadhbh McGrath is the arts editor. Contact her at mmcgrath@dailycal.org. Check her out on Twitter at @MeadhbhMcGrath.

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Levy Yun/Staff

How do we use fashion as a form of expression? What are we intentionally and unintentionally telling others in our dress? Kristin Aquino and Darrin Wallace, the creators of the Threaded Souls Project, aimed to address these questions at last week’s fashion show held in UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Community Center. They explained that the inspiration for the project came from the idea of fashion as “a strategy for survival,” in particular how queer people of color maneuver the world using fashion as a means of self-expression.

Student models, along with the designers themselves, modeled the eight looks on a runway in the MCC. The first look was designed by student Benji Delgadillo, who modeled his own glamorously androgynous look — a bright floral blazer, metallic leggings and five-inch studded platform boots. Delgadillo discussed how he has struggled with the limitations of traditional office clothing when trying to express his femme identity at work. He described how he values his femme identity over his trans male identity and chose his heeled boots as a way to amplify that femininity while still presenting a tough appearance. Delgadillo explained that his two favorite items are the porcelain vessel necklaces he and his girlfriend have filled with each other’s sexual fluids and his binder, which he wears every day to flatten his breasts, allowing the expression of his gender fluid manhood.

Marisa Boyce, program coordinator at the Gender Equity Resource Center, described her look as “Professional Drag: Social Justice Style.” Boyce reflected afterwards on how those who identify as gender queer must choose one side of the gender binary in professional environments. She explained that because of this, she feels like she is always in drag to some extent at work but that a masculine presentation allows her to be taken seriously. She was able to find a compromise by incorporating loud, bright colors into her look, composed of an aqua button-down, black jeans and black high-tops, so she doesn’t have to “sell out her individuality when stepping into the machine.”

Dee Mauricio, an intern at the MCC, wanted to explore how particular clothing items are gendered and racialized. For her look, she chose traditionally masculine pieces, such as brogues, a bow-tie and a military-style jacket, to challenge conceptions of gender. She was also interested in how certain jewelry on a brown body tends to have the connotations of “ghetto” or “hoodrat.” By putting large gold hoops on her model, who identifies as mixed race, Mauricio was able to question racial stereotypes and reflect on how hoops mean different things on different bodies.
The project included a photo campaign in which participants discussed how they use personal style. One participant, Dea Borup, explained that, as a trans woman, she proudly wears a bra as an act of self-love and personal triumph. One of her most treasured items is a pair of rose-colored Betsey Johnson heels she received as a peace offering from her parents. She described it as the moment when she felt her perseverance had succeeded and her parents acknowledged her trans idenvvtity. Valerie Jameson discussed her choice of an embroidered Mexican shirt, explaining that this kind of clothing is frequently appropriated and commodified by larger companies for mass consumption, so she tries to give agency to women in the community by buying local handmade items.

“I use fashion to write my soul into existence,” explained Diamond Raymond, one of the other designers featured in the show. This sentiment is passionately felt throughout the show, as the designers demonstrate how fashion can be used as a powerful and creative way of expressing emotions, stories and experiences.

Contact Meadhbh McGrath at mmcgrath@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly identified a model as white. In fact, the model identifies as mixed race.

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Kevin Foote/Senior Staff

“Echo,” a fashion show inspired by the BAM/PFA’s current exhibition “Silence,” featured the original work of designers from UC Berkeley and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. The designers each selected a work from the exhibition on which they based their designs, and models showcased the original works as they passed through the walkways of the museum.

Designers Madeline Abshier and Rajitha Kurmana were both inspired by Mark Manders’s “Silent Head on a Concrete Floor,” a sculpture depicting vertical slices of a human head between wooden slats. The work reminded Abshier of the “noise” of the fashion industry, and she attempted to capture a “stillness” with her black corseted floor-length gown, featuring a shoulder detail of silver spoons, added to represent the idea of “taking too much in.”

Kurmana’s design was more visually inspired by Manders’ piece. Her model wore a black bubble-hem satin gown, designed to embody the sharp angular gradation and depth of the artwork. Kurmana chose to place pleats on only one side of the gown to reflect the imbalance of Manders’ work.

Other designers took their inspiration from the concept of the artwork, such as Mayela Rodriguez, whose design was based on Robert Morris’ “Box with the Sound of Its Own Making.” Like Morris, Rodriguez is interested in creation. In her design, she covered a slip dress with words describing the making of a dress in the same way that the sounds of Morris’ piece express the making of a box. The slip was then worn inside-out by the model, with minimal makeup and hairstyling. The sides of the slip were lined with safety pins, emphasizing the incompleteness and construction of the design.

Designer Jennifer Huang joined her model on the walkway, both models barefoot in a pair of interlocking dresses, Huang’s hand connected to her model’s shoulder. Huang’s design was inspired by Tehching Hsieh’s “One Year Performance (Cage Piece),” a performance artwork in which the artist spent a year inside a cage without reading, listening to the radio or watching television. Huang also recalled one of the artist’s other works, “Art/Life: One Year Performance (Rope Piece),” in which Hsieh spent a year tied to performance artist Linda Montano, the two unable to touch each other. Huang was interested in expressing the sense of imprisonment in both works, and her piece made a striking impact as she and her model shuffled uncomfortably down the walkways.

The most impressive piece was the elaborate design by Yang Qu, inspired by Christian Marclay’s “White Rorschach Door (The Electric Chair).” Qu was moved by the corporeality of Marclay’s work, in which the artist makes a powerful statement about capital punishment, evoking the notion of silence as enforcement. Qu explained that she is also fascinated by the Black Death, which similarly influenced her design, focusing on the oppressive and silencing fear of death. Her design consisted of a stunning tulle and chantelle gown, a vinyl cage resting over the skirt and an exquisitely crafted bird mask, covered in ornate peach roses that extended onto the shoulders and scattered around the train of the gown. Qu explained that the flowers were inspired by the nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie,” a song that has been associated with the Black Death.

Lucinda Barnes, chief curator of the BAM/PFA, described in her opening speech for the show how, in the exhibition, silence is emphasized to such an extent that it becomes an unavoidable presence, an invitation to think and reflect. Throughout the fashion show, this presence was intensely felt, making for a compelling exploration of silence in all its forms.

Contact Meadhbh McGrath at mmcgrath@dailycal.org.

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