Fashion portraits is a format dedicated to our amazing WdKA community and their colorful, diverse and unique styles. We captured their outfits and asked them about their style, relationship to fashion, sources of inspiration and more. Scroll down to read/ see for yourself and get inspired!
Interview: fashion student Betina Mendes
Photography: photography student Christobal Pereira
Design: inhouse designer & graphic design student Ilse Oudheusden
“That's the core of my belief about personal style: it’s a character that you can turn on, and then by taking off your clothes you can be yourself again.”
- Simon Coops, 24, Audiovisual student from The Netherlands. (@focksimon)
Simon’s personal style in 3 words: Cowboy, Outside, Everywhere.
"This was a very practical outfit. These are Wellington boots lined with nice faux fur, with some waterproof zip-up pants, a double knitted wool sweater that’s very very large and has a good turtleneck and a white raincoat and of course, a nice wooly hat. I’ve bought all these things for being practical, but in a way that i know if i just slap them together they’ll still always look good. For me, that’s how you should shop for outfits. Also this is my camera bag, very nice “United colors of Benetton”.I didn’t know this was like a fancy brand, but then some people thought that i spent a lot of money on it when i actually got it for free.
Usually when getting dressed, I think of some sort of character that I want to be. I write fiction stories, so I like to live as the characters, but today I had to drop off cameras and get coffee and it's the shittiest weather outside so it’s mostly just practical stuff.
I have a beaver leather cowboy hat that is my most prized possession. I'd say that’s the key to my personal style, but it’s also something that as an artist I put on when I want to be seen as one. There’s all these people that know me as a psychedelic cowboy of rotterdam, which is great because it's not actually who i am, but it’s who i am as an artist, so i can turn that on and off. That's the core of my belief about personal style: it’s a character that you can turn on, and then by taking off your clothes you can be yourself again. But you always want to dress up in some way, even if you dress up with the message “i don't want you to talk to me because i’m in my comfortable mode and feeling shitty”, that’s still a character. But maybe that’s also just my filmmaker perspective where I'm thinking “oh every style element is a choice that i have to consider when building a character”.
Before, I didn't think that being in school influenced my style much, but now looking back on me three years ago, I can really see a difference. Even if a lot of the items are the same, it’s a lot about the way you combine them.
I wouldn’t say I'm influenced by wanting to look good for the “art school catwalk” that everyone talks about, but you get inspired by people who dress well, because they’re creative and they think in different ways that make them look good. Also because, these days, the way that you carry yourself is part of your art. Maybe 100 years ago you could separate it, but now you are a brand and a personality, and that influences how your art is seen."
"I dyed my hair pink a few years ago and it just kinda turned into this on-going obsession, now my whole wardrobe is pink.”
-Hannah, 20, Illustration exchange student from London. (@hannahgiibson)
Hannah’s personal style in 3 words: Pink, Vibrant, Vintage.
"Personal style is obviously very different per person, but I find it really good to express myself through color and style. I dyed my hair pink a few years ago and it just kinda turned into this on-going obsession, now my whole wardrobe is pink.
I find it really inspiring being around creative people, and I always take inspiration from people’s outfits. It was actually the reason I dyed my hair pink in the first place, because a girl walked past me with pink hair that I thought was really really cool.
This morning it was super cold and rainy, and I didn't really bring that many clothes with me, so I just really layered up a random selection of things with some big boots since it was still sludgy and snowy from last night. My main thought was really just “warm”.
I find people here are a lot more relaxed compared to where I'm from, but that's actually super refreshing. I can just come in with something a bit more chill, but I do still see a lot of funky people around here which is nice. I think there's a good balance between the two.`'
“Being in school doesn’t affect my style itself that much, but it affects my perspective of what style is”
- Zuzia, 20, graphic design student from Warsaw, Poland. (@nadrugieamelia)
"Today I was really dressing to be warm, because the weather is horrible, so I put layers on top of layers on top of layers and that's pretty much it.
I think the main importance of personal style for me is self expression, for example I dress very differently from my art, but it's a way of connecting to other people, like when you see someone wearing something similar to you or a piece you like, it can be a conversation starter and something to bring people together.
Being in school doesn’t affect my style itself that much, but it affects my perspective of what style is. Since everyone is really individual, you maybe end up perceiving yourself as less unique than you would somewhere else, but at the same time it's really inspiring to see the different ways of self expression, it’s really great to look at."
“I'll just pull up wearing anything, as long as I have a haircut and brush my teeth I feel good about myself”
-Tyler Chan, 20, Photography student from NYC. (@profdaydreamer)
Tyler’s personal style in 3 words: Functional, 2012, Chinese.
"Everything I'm wearing is functional. I don’t really care how I look for the class days, I'll just pull up wearing anything, as long as I have a haircut and brush my teeth I feel good about myself. If i’m going to exhibitions of peers, trying to make a good impression and be memorable, i’m putting on that bucktooth yellow gold tooth, with the embroidered chukar chinese snapback, with the MOTM pants on my legs, pulling up with UNIQLO fresh underwear out of the package (with the socks), and air jordan 2’s or loafers from Tod’s.
In these moments, that's really me expressing and being myself through my fashion, and I'm gonna show it to the fullest at these opportunities where I'm gonna be around people and be real cool and happy.
Right now, I'm in my era of just functional style, my style to my real life now is working hard twelve hours a day, so I'm almost always wearing clothes that I don't care about or that aren’t even mine. Back then, i used to be reselling Supreme and Bape and Jordans and be into all of that hype, getting the freshest logo on my chest every week, but now i’ve already realized that it’s about who you are inside and all the work you put in, so just make yourself comfortable if you’re working like a hundred hours a week.
Being at school it’s just really super work time for me, so I want to be comfortable in sweatpants at the computer, but also it felt like Tokyo when I pulled up and I felt like damn, I really need to step it up. I see people like Gabriel making pants from scratch,like that's what he spends his time on, and that shit looks fire and it inspires me to get more fly, because I'm like damn, he’s wearing a suit and tie to school while I'm just looking like this.."
