Meet The Hilfigers

Though Tommy Hilfiger's last campaign has been out for quite some time, a recent close-up shot revealed a Duke University decal on one of the old cars in the campaign's video (00:30)

Meet the Hilfigers takes the Tommy brand into a "new direction while respecting the brand's aesthetic" Tommy tells Women's Wear Daily. I see it more like Tommy is finally getting onto the preppy resurgence bandwagon. What I like most about the campaign, is that Tommy isn't just rehashing the old Preppy look that Ralph Lauren has been regurgitating for years but rather has reinvented it. From what I can tell, he has brought elements present in Italian style and fused them with staples of the original Prep look (The model on the right literally looks as if he was hand-picked from the streets of Firenze during Pitti Uomo.

Fashion Forward #12 - Slippery Autumns

To the chagrin of many of my student peers, the North Carolinian summer has slowly lost ground to the the rainy season that is so characteristic of a Duke autumn. While most people on campus have quickly pulled out their rain boots and jackets and their light layers, there are still those who have yet to transition, if ever to their fall wardrobes. How some people can wear flip-flops in the rain and still avoid serious split-inducing slippage incidents is beyond me, not forgetting the sheer messiness of stepping into mud and puddles. I guess some feet just enjoy getting cold and dirty more than the warm "constricting "comfort of a dry shoe?!

Rainy Day on Campus, Take Ivy

Rain - Stone Tiles - Boots - I have had the misfortune of being reminded today just how unfortunate the combination can turn out to be as I, in all of my 6'4" "majesty" graciously rear-landed in front of the library. While others would be more worried about the sheer pain of impact, the possible staining of clothes or damage to one's laptop, the first thing that popped into my head was how I could augment said boots so that this would not happen again.

The basic idea is increasing traction/friction between your shoes and whatever surface you walk on, thus avoiding unfortunate aquaplaning. This can be done either by gluing a couple of no slip appliques /decals or some light sandpaper pieces to the soles of your feet, or applying a no-slip treatment to them.

Post #100 - An Ebullient Duke Summer's Day

Browsing some of Duke University's vintage photo albums on Flicker proved incredibly rewarding when I stumbled upon this little gem of a picture. Taken in 1986 by then Duke student Mark Estrada , this B&W photo manages to encapsulate the things that make me love Duke as much as I do: the incredible architecture that gives the campus an aged and mysterious feel, the great weather of the south and the desire for learning and bettering one's self that I see in so many fellow "Dukies". If you never thought you could get a tan and catch up on your reading, all the while being part of an amazing campus, this here picture will prove you wrong. I have been saving it for a special occasion and I couldn't think of one that would be more fitting than celebrating the 100th post on this blog.

To Duke and to many many more posts to come; I thank y'all so much for reading and following!

Triangle of Fashion: Duke-UNC-NCSU

Rivalry is often the igniter of a social, cultural and most importantly educational perpetuum mobile, and few inter-university rivalries are as heated and spread as those between North Carolina's three best universities.

While still in its bud, rivalry in the realm of fashion is yet to unfold and each university has some assets that might help them gain the upper hand. UNC has its School of Journalism and a student body of more privileged origins, compared to NCSU, Duke has the most diverse body of students and plenty of material and intellectual resources.and NCSU has its feet anchored through their Schools of Fashion & Textiles Management and Design.

In terms of publications pertaining to fashion, NCSU is the only one so far that does not have (to the extent of my knowledge) a student-run Fashion Magazine. I've reviewed Duke's new publication DMAG (renamed DFaQ or Duke Fashion Quarterly as of recently) before and I would like to spend a few moments looking at UNC's own Fashion Magazine, Kaleidoscope.

From the two numbers that were available online I quickly gathered that this was a 99% for-girls-only magazine. Taking a peek at the staff roster that was available confirmed it (the only male involved with this creationary process was the photographer O_o)!

Fashion, at least in college, is a predominantly feminine issue/fancy and I could understand why the Kaleidoscope team chose to focus more on their female readers. This however, is completely antipodal to eliminating the male part all together. Even taking into consideration the fact that UNC's female population is slightly larger than its male counterpart does not explain this choice. I am by no means trying to disprove the magazine solely because it's written by Tar Heels and I am a Blue Devil, but I know quite a few UNC guys who would probably be interested in reading your magazine. The content in itself is quite nice and I commend you for your efforts, my only problem with it being as I stated, the unisexist approach.

Sadly even when a male was present at a photoshoot, the focus was clearly put on the girl. Honestly how can he show up in a fashion magazine wearing that!

Events to look out for if you're in the RDU/Triangle area are:

1. DFaQ's Launch Party at the Doris Duke Center on April 26th. Event details here

2. NCSU's "Art To Wear" Fashion Show, April 14th. Event details here.

Of Hate and Envy

What recently came up on my Facebook News Feed, via my fellow Dukie friend David O., was the following T-shirt, sold by our good old friends at Urban Outfitters.

As a good Dukie, my first reaction was that of outrage, however it soon subsided and rather turned into a feeling of glowing pride. What I realized was that if a Urban Outfitters' (*cough* Tar Heel *cough*) feelings of hatred and envy towards our University were so far entrenched that they felt the need to slap it on a t-shirt and sell it all over the nation in their stores, we should be proud of such an envy-inducing institution. I am not of course saying that we should all buy these t-shirts and wear them around, but that we should not see Urban Outfitters' decision to sell these T-shirts in a negative way. The T-shirt says Puke when it actually wants to  say Duke is better and therefore I hate it.

To all my Tarheel friends I ask you kindly not to purchase this item., which can be found here.

GO BLUE DEVILS !!!

The B-Devs Wear DMAG !!!

Let's suppose an outside observer were to take a glance at Duke or any other U.S. campus for that matter and look at its student body as a whole. If what they saw was the two Duke students featured in this month's issue of DMAG (go towards the end of the post for more about this exciting publication) things could not be better. However his or her first impression of the college sense of style cannot be best described by a bell-curve distribution that ranges from the pathological slob to the campus fashionista as expected but is sadly rather more skewed towards the former category.

What I personally think is that the average Dukies alongside most other college students are quite lazy when it comes down to dressing up (pun intended) and going to class. I can vouch that my friends are probably already tired of me kindly reprimanding them for wearing sweats to class or flip-flops in sub-32 December weather although I hope that they do not take it amiss (It's all from the heart guys!).

I'm sure all of you Dukies reading this, have either heard, thought of or used one of the worn-out excuses of how strapped for time you are in the morning, how nobody cares about what they wear anyway or how seeing others slacking in terms of appearance justifies your doing the same.

Fashion should definitely not be a chore and nobody has ever said that you should leave your dorm room in the morning as if you were going to prom. All we're saying is that you should spend a bare minimum of 5 minutes every night or if otherwise occupied, in the morning, thinking about what you would like to wear. When I find myself strapped for time I utilize my daily shower time to try to think of something nice to wear. Now isn't that multitasking at its premium and is it too much to ask? I'm not going to go into much detail about what I approve of per se, because I and many others believe fashion is a choice of personal style, much like one's taste in music, food, etc but I will say that if you do tend to abuse that favourite Blue Hoodie, that matching pair of sweat pants or worse the matching Crocs, you are on your way to become a victim of your own doing. College is our last "playground" before actually stepping into the real world and if we don't all participate in this exciting game pr better yet this preamble of pretend, chances are the real world will not be too kind with you when your times come to really give those sweats away ( Just think how you would cope now without having ever played pretend shopping as a child. Would you be as able to shop for your daily items?). 

Now if you really can't quit wearing your Snuggie, Crocs or Sweats entirely, you can have at least a couple of days every week where you try putting on a nice pair of jeans or a clean ironed shirt, don a tie if you're a guy (or not if you are comfortable with it) even if you're not going to a semi-formal. and wear any pair of shoes other than your running sneakers, which if you were wondering are not actually meant for day-to-day use.

But enough annoying banter and more of what I am really excited to present to you. I have recently been introduced to a new publication, dubbed DMAG, created and published entirely by Duke students. DMag deals with fashion from a student's perspective and is more importantly written for students. This makes it more than perfect for a campus-wide distribution, maybe along with the Chronicle as a monthly supplement?! The writing style is very accessible for all student readers all the while keeping away from being over-pompous. The magazine features many interesting articles that deal with campus style, local fashion outlets, world fashion news and not only! I have especially enjoyed the pictorials featured in the magazine and I say this not only because I know quite a few of the people featured in them or that the setting is one of the locations that is most dear to me, but because they are well thought and quite aesthetically pleasing(the "Campus Sartorialist" on page 51 was definitely a kicker!).

You can find the online version of DMAG for free here and access the DMAG blog, which I predict will soon take off quite nicely, here.

I am definitely looking forward from seeing your next issue DMAG!

Holiday Warm-fuzzyness

Hi everyone,

I know I haven't posted in a while but my laptop has taken a break and coupled with finals season my time has been stretched thin.

Today has been a great day and I have had a lot of warm fuzzyness come my way thanks to two websites I love very very much.

The first one is Givesmehope.com which in a format that is very similar to FML brings out quite the opposite, those little things that give people hope and inspire us all.

The second one is a personal favourite and source of strength and inspiration in less pleasant times. What was once just an idea of Blue Devils United, Duke's Student LGBTQQA group, has materialized itself in BlueDevilsUnited.com a thriving blog about what it is like being LGBTQ at a big American University.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I am and if you do like them please comment below. I often wonder if anybody actually reads this blog!

Thank you and Happy Holidays to all!!!

RFW:)

Fall brings Winter, all rejoice!

"Frosty is the morning;
But the sun is bright,
Flooding all the landscape
With its golden light."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen it is now officially fall on my beloved campus and while putting away the colours of summer and the memories of the Aegean Coast is a little hard, Fall is still my favourite season. It is time to whip out the ingredients needed for proper layering, put away the boat shoes and replace them with some nice sneakers and a good pair of leather or suede boots. While Autumn here in North Carolina is not by far as cold as the Autumns of my European childhood, I still relish the crisp morning air as I walk to class, thinking of all the colours that are soon to flood Duke's campus.

With the coming of Fall a change of colour is also needed on top of a change of items worn. Some popular fall colors this year are softer and darker shades of green, blue, grey and purple with a splash of golden, ochre and olive green for blending in with the chromatic explosion of the equinox.

A common faux pas with the advent of Fall is eliminating colour altogether once the first raindrop falls. While Fall does indeed require a rethinking of one's palette in terms of tone and hue, it certainly does not imply an all-out purge of all that binds us to Spring and Summer.

Contrary to the antiquated rule of not wearing white after Labor Day, the more daring sybarite is more than welcome to add a little contrast to his wardrobe although one should expect harsh critique from the more nescient of friends (Check this nice little article about wearing white after Labor Day and how this slightly ridiculous idea came into being)

For anyone living in colder areas of the United States, bringing out the cable sweaters, chunky cardigans and cashmere scarves is definitely acceptable and gives room for endless combinatorial possibilities. If there ever was a time of year when men should attempt to rival their female companions in terms of style and panache, Fall and Winter are definitely it.

As I always try to bring forth items and people that transcend mere utility and beaute, looking through some Ford Models portfolios these past few days I found one male model that somehow captures the essence that every beginning of Fall imbues in me and who was the inspiration for this post

Please enjoy and have a Happy Fall!