Channel famous fashion mavens to complete your look

By: Amanda Jean Boyle

Posted: 10/9/08

For Christopher Kane it was Planet of the Apes and other primal and prehistoric throwbacks. For Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons it was the color black. For Alexander McQueen it was Charles Darwin and man's affect on surrounding nature. For Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton it was a Parisian-African mix. Inspiration is key in fashion. Inspiration leads to innovation.

What happens between Christopher Kane watching Planet of the Apes and then putting together beautiful and fun geometric dresses in organza and leather is the creativity of a designer, the unknown spark that sends miles of moveable art trotting down each season's runway.

There is a point where inspiration can become imitation, and that is a huge faux pas for fashion designers, and also an unfortunate wardrobe circumstance for the average dresser, but inspiration is important in the fashion world and in an individual's personal style.

With this in mind, I set out to discover who inspires the style of Hopkins students. Who a girl wants to dress like can unlock her wardrobe, providing a look through her eyes as she shops or sorts through her closet every morning.

The most popular names were Agyness Deyn (take note: Kate Moss was not mentioned once), Mary-Kate Olsen, Edie Sedgwick, Coco Chanel and both the Hepburns. And these names definitely exemplify a broad look at Hopkins style.

There is a strong base of clean and sophisticated dressing at Hopkins, a large chunk of which goes into a preppy look.

But there is also a (smaller, but noticeable) funkier thread of dressing here on Homewood, heavy with vintage clothing and Bohemian vibes. The two, of course, can live together in the same girl's wardrobe.

These are just general trends; Fashion gets interesting when focusing on one individual. Junior Suzanne Gold, for instance, cited both Agyness Deyn and Audrey Hepburn, but also said she loves the idea of dressing like old men, "for tweeds and vests and caplets and hats and pipes and pocket watches," and R2D2, whom she felt is a touching off point for the very popular American Apparel metallic get-ups.

Sophomore Vanessa Verdine said she loves Dita Von Teese's style, seeing her as a present day Marilyn Monroe with her subtly sexual '40s and '50s-style cocktail dresses and permanently painted red lips, as well as Yves Saint Laurent's ground-breaking androgynous Le Smoking.

Other names that came up were Peggy Guggenheim, Diane von Furstenberg, Rachel Bilson, Victoria Beckham, Keira Knightley, Kate Hudson and M.I.A. These are the images that float behind us as we glide down our brick runway towards class.

As for my own personal idols, the list is as follows: Mary Kate Olsen, Coco Chanel, Daphne Guinness and Isabella Blow. Concurrently I would describe my personal style as a combination of WASP, vintage and girly. One might say: "But do these two lists really mirror each other?"

The answer is no, they do not easily mirror one another, because to have your idols and your style be complete mirrors would be, as I said earlier, imitation.

So here is what I think inspiration means and why I think it is so important. Yes, I love their personal styles - and Coco has her own little throne way up high on the fashion Olympus with Yves Saint Laurent (a designer who would surely make the cut if I were to go into my top 10 idols) for what they did to revolutionize female dress - but I don't thumb through my closet in the morning thinking to myself, "Today I will dress like Daphne Guinness." I'll take an idea here or an idea there from them, but the most important way they inspire me is through their fashion fearlessness.

For many years I have loved fashion, but in middle and high school I was afraid to wear anything out of the ordinary because of what my peers might think - even for a long time the idea of wearing a dress to school worried me.

Occasionally I would gain enough confidence to wear bright red lipstick or a scarf tied as a shirt, but not really until college did I completely break out of my shell.

I know some people judge me harshly. I get dirty and disapproving looks for wearing red tights or purple shorts or for carrying a furry purse with a stuffed animal dog peaking out of its pocket.

And if these looks make me falter for a second, I just think of how people used to (and still do) mock Mary Kate Olsen for her boho-hobo style. That style that was "so grandma" or "so crazy bag lady" permeated the runway.

Some people will never understand, but I realized that I don't care about those people, and that I should wear the clothes that I love. And that is what fashion inspiration can do for anyone and everyone.