My favorite thing about fall is the return of classes at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). SCAD is unique in that there’s no central campus, but rather the college has dorms, classrooms, and studios sprinkled around the city. It’s very much part of this walkable city, bustling with tourists, locals, and students.
This means SCAD students are everywhere downtown: working, shopping, studying, eating, exercising, walking to class, and generally hanging out. SCAD back-to-school is more than the re-injection of bright, youthful energy that dried up in the searing heat of the summer, but a joyous real-life fashion show.
Freshman and new students are the absolute best. Many are coming from small towns in the south and from middle America, places where the artsy kids rarely get to sit with the “popular” kids at lunch. Most of these creative kids have felt marginalized for their interests and style or mocked for not dressing like all of the other kids in their high schools.
Those days of feeling like the artsy-fartsy outcasts are over. They’re at their mecca with their fellow weirdos now. They are in the promised land. They are in art school. They don’t have to hide their quirkiest, kookiest selves anymore. And so they celebrate by wearing those quirky, kooky selves on their sleeves, and, well, the rest of their body.
This is their sartorial coming-out, showing the world how creative they are with every scrap of clothing that adorns their person.
I love these shining tender souls in their carefully curated jumble of vintage, hand-made, hand-me-down, and off-the-rack. The starter outfit consists of stripey tights, a tutu, and Doc Martens. From there, pretty much anything goes, especially among fashion and fibers majors. This year I’ve seen different variations on the Cher Horowitz/Clueless vibe and interpretations of 21st-century-goth-amidst-global-warming (hint: you don’t have to cover every inch of your body in black leather anymore, lace slip dresses are less sweaty). SCAD has a large population of international students, who bring their own flavor to this real life runway. And, oh-my-god, statement pants for guys are a really big deal right now.
In mid-October, after a few weeks of intense art instruction, experimenting with their outfits, and influence/ input from their new artsy-fartsy friends, this dress sense hits its stride. Every ‘fit is on fleek, or slays, or whatever—just in time for the common observer to question whether said ‘fit is merely what someone is wearing to class or is it a Halloween costume?
This peak is immediately followed by the crunch of anxiety between midterms and finals: pulling all nighters in studios to finish drawings and projects, tweaking and re-tweaking then micro-tweaking the tiniest line in a digital drawing for hours. There will be time for sleeping, showering, and laundry after the 10-week term is over. The carefully coordinated OOTDs give way to whatever is clean(est) and easiest. The stripey tights, which by now have a run or two, will work perfectly to keep legs warm under cut-off jean shorts, since the tutu suffered cigarette burns before being cut up for a color theory project. This will most likely be matched with a pajama top and a vintage cardigan, which also has cigarette burns, but from its original owner. It’s still a pretty amazing outfit, possibly because of its beautiful happenstance.
I will never tire of the SCAD students and their style.
I’m so excited for each one of them, for their pockets and unironic book bags stuffed with optimism and ideas, for the effort they put into their eye makeup and existential angst. Any one of these kids can go on to be an Oscar-winning director, set designer, art director, writer or actor; perhaps an influential fashion, furniture, or sneaker designer. They will certainly make an impact with their functional designs or games. Sure, they can be annoying, loud, and messy at times, but they are the future of joy. They are, and will be, among the dreamers and artists adding color to our world.
And this world, it needs color.
Love this
Really enjoyed this post as I do all of your writing. Enjoy Fall and these amazing students finding their way in this world. Best of luck to you and them!