After having spent the weekend in New York and paid extreme attention to what everyone around me was wearing, I can confidently say I was wrong about fashion. I was of the belief that social media had homogenized how we dress, and that what people wore in Philadelphia was just like what they wore in New York, or Los Angeles, or any large, liberal city. While there are underlying themes across both cities, there was a stark difference just in walking around NYU’s campus vs Temple’s.
The first thing I observed was a more muted use of color than around Temple. This is anecdotal, but when that warm weather finally comes, around Temple you see an extremely wide and expressive array of dyed hairs, bright colored outfits, and statement pieces. In New York there was a heavy preference towards neutrals, fitting of the season but also indicative of a shift to more traditional, professional attire. Washington Square News, NYU’s student-run magazine, reports that “The neon and brat greens of seasons past” are taking a backseat as soft grays and burgundys have their moment.
New York stands as the epicenter of fashion in the United States, with a majority of the trends we’ve seen in recent years first materializing in Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs. Because of this, students’ fashion tends to skew a little more on the trendy side, with less self-expression in my opinion. We’re all influenced by our surroundings, and I feel this is shown heavily in each school’s demographic. Because New York is the home of many of the largest fashion and makeup brands in the world, there are more obvious influences from designers and brands. This isn’t a bad thing of course, how you dress is entirely subjective, but I do admire how much students at Temple seem to carve out their own personal style. A short trip around our campus and you can immediately understand so much about someone by the way they dress, it’s something in my experience is unique to Temple. Temple is more diverse now than ever, and it shows in how we dress.
Fashion in 2025 is shifting more conservative, and this was heavily reflected in what was common on the New York streets. Ralph Lauren is trending at the moment, western wear and cowboy boots have surged in the last year or two, and old money style is as popular as ever. Sticking with the common theme here, around New York you saw this in a style that would fit as well in a more traditional business-luxury environment as well as it would a coffee date or park walk. Longcoats, fur-clad hoods, and fisherman-inspired sweaters and knit pieces are key here. Conformity is in vogue in the larger fashion scene, something that was very evident in my short trip to the city. Contrarily, Temple’s demographic seeks individuality, seemingly pushing back against the conservative shift. There is a more experimental outlook to how our school dresses, maximalism is as alive as ever. Large customized phone cases, plushies hanging from bags, and piercings gaining more traction in the past school year. In a time when the greater United States is emphasizing staying in line, Temple’s students look to further develop their own creativity and individuality.
I’d like to reiterate, there’s no right or wrong way to go about conformity or individuality or fashion in general. Wearing what you’re happiest in and like the most has been a cliché for ages, but there is merit to it. Social media pushes microtrends onto our feeds more now than ever, so one would assume that the days of style existing on a regional basis would be over, at least for cities on the scale of Philadelphia and New York. But this isn’t the case at all, and I found myself more appreciative of Temple and its culture after the fact.
Works Cited/Images Sourced
Comments