7 days, 7 looks: What Ann Arbor Wears in a Week

If there’s one thing about the students at the University of Michigan, it’s that they’re super smart. Wait, no. It’s that they’re ambitious, driven, tirelessly working towards something bigger than themselves. Well, yes, maybe, but don’t we know that already? What we might not know, though, is that the UMich campus is full of people throwing fits. And no, I don’t mean throwing childish tantrums about crushes or how many assignments they’ve yet to complete, but throwing on some of the most indie, nonchalant outfits there ever was and calling it art (or maybe that’s just me). 

At every moment, students on campus are showcasing their brilliance and artistry beyond the classroom in ways that shock and excite, pushing and pulling on the boundaries of vulnerability and authenticity through the clothes they decide to wear. We just have to be paying attention in order to realize it. Every day of this week, then, I decided to stop people around campus to interview them about their outfits. Every time I did, I was more shocked — and excited — about what I found. 

This article is my diary of the week in everything fashion, my commitment to paying attention. So, here’s everything the students at the University of Michigan wear in a week.

Monday: Earth-Toned and Free-Flown

Imagine this: late October, fall chill in the air, students bustling to and from classes on the Diag. It’s mid-day, the sun already high in the sky, and everyone has brought out their leather jackets or long sleeves for the first chilly day of fall. You’re in a rush, head down and wired headphones in, already five minutes late to class and two shots of espresso deep when you stumble upon this Earth-toned, free-flowing outfit, one that makes you think, “Damn, I wish I wore something better out of the house today.”

Are you imagining it? I hope so, because that’s exactly what happened to me on my way to class Monday morning. I paused immediately and asked, shyly at first and then with more confidence, if I could interview Megan about her outfit. She had to put down her book and take out her headphones to hear me, but she eventually said yes, to my absolute delight. 

After we chatted about our respective majors and what we want our futures to look like (trigger warning: seniors, if you’re reading this, don’t think about it), I asked her about what embodiment meant to her when she decides to put on an outfit for the day. 

“I think it definitely depends on the vibe for the day,” Megan said. “If I’m going out or if I’m going to work, there’s a differing level of embodiment in the two. At work I play with layering, sandwiching, and a lot of neutrals — it really depends on the mood.” 

Megan went on to say that her outfit selection, beyond just the vibe for the day, takes inspiration from one of fashion’s most unexpected yet inspiring characters, Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. 

“You know how Ms. Frizzle wears fun colors and clashing patterns when she’s in a fun mood — I think I try to do the same thing with my own moods when I’m choosing outfits.” 
Beyond being a lovely and spirited individual, Megan is also a huge thrift shopper. She said almost every piece from her outfit was found in thrift stores like Kiwanis, Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop, and The ShareHouse. In the upcoming days, I’m sure you’ll see me at all these places. If I can find anything like Megan’s fit, then it’s a win for all of us.

Tuesdays are for Pastels

Turns out The Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop is, in fact, a place where we all can find amazing outfits — Megan wasn’t lying. After shopping around the store and grabbing one too many pieces for my already overflowing closet, I spotted this outfit from across the aisles of the store and had to ask this thrift-goer about his outfit. Today, we’ve swapped the fall neutrals for a colorful medley of blues, pinks, and beiges. As I was interviewing him, I couldn’t take my eyes off this outfit — it was like I was struck dumb by some cloud of color I didn’t have a name for.
What I love most about it is the colors. The top half is all vibrato and vibrancy, with the quilt of colors all creating this maximalist essential vibe that embodies Tyler the Creator’s GOLF brand. This scrapbook of color runs up against the flared black jeans below it, creating a kind of tension of forces that becomes the very thing that pulls the piece together. The black flared jeans open up the outfit to more possibilities, allowing the pastels of the top half to shine brighter. Even the carabiner and the beige-brown shoes contribute to the maximalist vibe, as the crocheted bunny demands our attention on the black landscape of the jeans, drawing our eyes to it no matter how hard we may try to pull away. All this to say, I’m gonna need this man to teach a class on color theory.

Beyond the colors, this outfit is just straight up fun. I love when outfits aren’t afraid to show their teeth, to be unapologetic in their vibrancy. But there was an ease with which this Ann Arbor thrift-goer carried himself in this colorful liveliness, a kind of buoyancy that spoke to not only the confidence and style emanating from the clothes, but from the wearer himself. 

Before I let him go back to thrifting, I asked him what song he would associate with his outfit. As if his clothes already knew the answer, he said to me right away: “SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE by Tyler the Creator.” 

Some things are just too good to be true. And this outfit with this specific song choice might be one of them. Hell, just look at the album cover of “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST,” where this song originates from — it’s as if this outfit was the love child of its design, all beiges and pastels and baby-bright blues. Even the sound, playful and childish in its synths and shameless beat drops, reminds me of the scrapbooked, playful nature of this outfit. Needless to say, this outfit shows us how fashion can reflect more than just the clothes on the body — it can be a reflection of performance, art, life.

On Wednesdays, We Wear Blue!

Well, well well — welcome to Wednesday. I’m glad you’ve made it this far because today’s outfit couldn’t have been more perfect. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for denim on denim. Sue me. If Canadian tuxedos had no fans, I’d be dead. 

The baggy, oversized denim jacket looks as though it was taken straight out of an old Western film. The skirt with overlapping shades of blues compliments the denim jacket in unexpected, quiet ways, with both denims sharing different shades of color — hint, if you’re looking to wear a Canadian tuxedo and don’t know how, this is a great way to do it. Not to mention the camo long sleeve underneath the basic black tee and the blue heart necklace stand out in their own medley of color that contrasts with the denim playfully. Even the accessories of the eccentric earrings with earth gemstones and the robot-made-from-shards-of-metal carabiner demand their own kind of attention, one that draws us away from the body of the outfit and toward its periphery. And to top it all off with the flare of color that is the yellow Onitsuka Tiger’s — I mean, come on. Are you kidding me? Just when I thought denim on denim couldn’t get any more fire, here comes Quinne Dowe. 

Beyond just the interaction with her outfit, Quinne and I had a conversation about how embodiment in fashion and Queerness intersect, pushing and pulling at the seams of one another until the lines between them are blurred. The conversation was fun, silly, enlightening, and perhaps a little therapeutic? Who says Wednesdays aren’t fun? Here’s some bits and pieces from our conversation:

Me: “I try to embody myself in my outfits. It feels like you feel embodied to me. So, like, what does embodiment mean to you when you put on an outfit for the day, and how does it feel for you?”

Quinne: “I feel like whenever I put on a fit, it describes how I’m feeling in general. So if I’m feeling confident, if I’m feeling good, if I feel like I want to project that, I wear a super crazy fit. If I’m feeling more like I have an exam that day and I just want to be comfortable, there’s less of that. So I think it just reflects mentally how I’m feeling in my own confidence level but also just who I want to be for the day. Sometimes I want to be a little masc, sometimes I want to be really fem, sometimes I wanna be a combination of that, sometimes I don’t want you to be able to tell. So I really feel like everyday is a different feeling and I just want to project how I feel for my form of expression.”

Me: “Would you say, then, that Queerness has a huge role in your fashion?”

Quinne: “Oh my God, yes. After I came out, I feel like my style accelerated 100%, because I feel like I used to not dress the way I wanted to dress because I didn't want people to know I was Queer. I feel like queer people tend to dress so cool and amazing, and I think it is elevating my style and discovering a style that puts me in contact with that community even more.”

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll be thinking about this outfit for the rest of the month. Hell, maybe even the rest of the year. If that’s embarrassing, don’t tell me. I blame Quinne.  

Thursday: Icon Energy Only

If you see a fit like this on someone stomping down the Diag, you have to turn around and sprint-walk towards it. And yes, you might make a fool of yourself as everyone around you gives you dirty side-eyes for getting in their way. I’m not sorry, though — I had a fit to catch.

And that I did. As I began noticing first-hand, the layering and blending of color is a masterwork. Not to mention, it’s pulled off flawlessly. If you thought you were fitted before — look again. Look here. Look at Chloe.

The first thing I noticed about this outfit was the knee-length jacket with the neutral beige and wispy fur. Then I saw the dark brown pullover that looks patch-worked and somehow distressed resting underneath it, and was even more enthralled. It’s a choice that makes the jacket look even more pronounced, as if the darker brown of the pullover is spotlighting, from the inside out, the beige of the jacket. We have a graphic tee with the sharp, bold colors of green and pink and red all blasting from the heart of the outfit. In my mind, it is the heart of the outfit — the central core, the beating life-line where the rest of the outfit revolves around. If you thought there weren’t enough textures to this outfit, think again — the crocheted hat adds yet another layer of dimension and textile, another kind of collage in this beautiful patchwork outfit of color, fabric, and design.

If you were wondering where everything was from, don’t fret — Chloe has blessed us with a breakdown of where she got everything that’s in this fit. The hat is from Urban Outfitters; the sweater and bag are from Telfar; the skirt is from none other than Edikted; the top is from Heaven by Marc Jacob’s; the coat is from Superdry; and the boots are from DSW. 

As if she couldn’t get any cooler, when I asked Chloe about what song she associated with this outfit, she answered smoothly: “1991 by Azelia Banks.” It-girls listen to it-girls, and this song is the definition of it-girl embodied — “I’mma be that bitch, what / Just believe that shit,” Banks sings over a catchy up-beat tempo, and it’s hard not to believe her. For Chloe, it’s as if she has encased these lyrics inside of her and turned them into gold, into patented truth. It’s hard not to feel the authenticity rolling off her in waves, and “1991” is the soundtrack to that kind of shameless embodied truth Chloe taps into as if it is her birthright. It’s time to start listening to Chloe and more of the it-girls when they say to “be that bitch” — confidence and authenticity should never be quiet. Let us be loud in our truths, and let us live in them even more loudly.

Friday: New England Coast Core

When am I not in The Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Store? Someone needs to drag me out of here. Luckily, I wasn’t dragged out on Friday, so I was able to see this wonderfully fall, quietly colorful denim on denim moment from Megan. 

Beyond the button-down denim jacket and baggy jeans, the outfit’s core is found in the wisteria green crew neck at its center, along with the black polka-dot gloves that rest on Megan’s hands. The design of the crewneck, with its fall-colored laurels spreading throughout the upper region of the fabric, reminds me of a very quiet, very sleepy East coast town that eats books for breakfast. The white turtle neck underneath peaks out just the right amount, adding a flash of white to the otherwise matted, pastel colors of the crewneck and denim. I don’t know who is teaching these layering classes, but man do I need to take one. As we move down the outfit, it becomes harder and harder not to notice the gloves — the polka-dotted pattern is soft and muted, demanding an equally soft attention. This is the piece that makes the outfit for me because I’ve simply never seen it done before. It works perfectly, pulling the denim together in a cohesive flow of blues and blacks and greens. Again, I need this outfit. Bad.

Before I asked Megan what song she associated this outfit with, I almost thought she could’ve looked like a long lost member of Fleetwood Mac stuck in a different generation. And then, after a long deliberation, she says, “Thrown Down by Fleetwood Mac.” I’m either psychic or she really does share a Fleetwood Mac soul tie. We’ll never know. And beyond the resemblance, the song itself bottles up a kind of fall angst that flows from the throat, capturing layers of worn feeling and a soft anger that borders on appreciation. It reminds me of the worn layering of the clothes, the hints of the colorful crewneck and gloves flaring up like a soft kind of anger only autumn — or a hurt lover, like Stevie Nicks — might be able to know. 

Saturday: IT’S GAME DAY B****!!

Most Saturday’s in Ann Arbor are spent studying for econ exams, cramming for that one engineering presentation you haven’t even started, and doing the 50 pages of reading for that dreaded English class you have to take. Or at least that’s what our GPAs wish they were for.

Really, Saturdays in Ann Arbor are the one day where deadlines, tasks, assignments, even exams, become nothing more than dead weight and nothing less than an afterthought. We shed the skin of the week on Saturdays, no longer walking zombies to class but life-filled 20-somethings with a taste for a tailgate and good booze. In a way, the campus comes alive on Saturdays, the hum-drum of the week culminating into an energy that’s so palpable it’s almost tactile.

One of the best ways this energy can be felt and seen is in the outfits people wear on game days. Gone are the sweatshirts and pull overs of the week — it’s time to say hello to skin, shoulders, thighs, belly buttons; it’s time to let our bodies, and minds, off the hook. 

For Kathryn, Colleen, and Ciara, this is easy. From shoulder-slipping jerseys to maize biker shorts, they know all too well how to let the energy of the day pull them into a kind of freedom — of embodiment, of playfulness, of letting loose without a care in the world. 

The girls’ outfits were coordinated, spirited, and extremely fun. Kathryn rocked a cut-off jersey that hung from her shoulders loosely and micro jorts with a smooth brown belt I wish I had in my closet. To top it all off, she accessorized with a heart necklace from her grandmother’s closet — stealing clothes from our elders is so back (Dad, if you’re reading this, thank you for all of the sweaters). Colleen drew inspiration from the 1990s and early 2000s, pulling off the T-shirt over the long sleeve effortlessly, but adding her own 2020s flare of play and innocence. Her T-shirt was tucked under the long-sleeve, showing off some mid-section flare, and her maize mini-shorts pulled the look together. For Ciara, long-sleeved, over-sized jerseys are in — and I agree with her. The jersey takes on a vintage aura, almost as if it’s straight from the 1950s, and she plays with time periods as she dons the biker shorts, channeling her inner Princess Diana circa 1995. All girls rock the knee-high brown boot, allowing their outfits to take on a kind of tailoring of their own creation, as the mini-short, big-top combo lets the tall boot pull everything together in a cohesive symmetry of parts. 

If this trio’s outfits are to teach us anything about Saturdays in Ann Arbor, it’s that they’re playful, shameless, and full of an energy that can only be replicated by 20-somethings with a pent-up youthful spirit ready to do anything other than study. So thank you, Saturdays, for embedding Ann Arbor with an energy as sweet as a Michigan victory.

Sunday: All Things Graphic

Lauded as a “lock-in day” by most, Sundays are spent catching up on what damage the weekend has done to your schedule. Assignments that should have been done before the weekend lay dormant and neglected, and anxiety spikes ten-fold as the realization of all the tasks you’ve been avoiding flood your mind — or perhaps it’s just the hangover.

For Darrin, though, Sundays are for throwing fits. And for doing all the work he had to do for The Michigan Daily, but that’s not what’s important here. 

The first thing I asked Darrin when I saw his outfit was, “Where did you get those jeans!?” With two cartoon-like designs of dragons on both back pockets, the jeans are an artistic statement, one loud, proud, and immediately eye-catching. They’re unlike anything I’ve seen before, with the design almost popping out of the jeans as if it was some sort of painting, or some animation you’d see on TV. The jeans’ life is found in those back pockets, and I need them. For those of you who share my love for these jeans, don’t fret, because Darrin didn’t gatekeep where he found them: They’re from a site called Grailed, made for lovers of Depop and street-wear fashion, and designer brands. 

The blue-and-white button down is almost as eye-catching, with another extremely realistic design near the collar of the shirt. It almost looks like it's popping out of the shirt itself, with the highly realistic, “Studio Ghibli”-esque character jumping through the block letters of “Ontis Tiger.” To top it all off, Darrin sports a silver chain with an ornate design of an arrow going through a heart. Needless to say, Darrin has an eye for how statement pieces can be used to compliment one another. With this fit, Darrin shows us all how we can — and most definitely should — rock our statement pieces: with a quiet sense of confidence, and a feel for how to let the statement pieces speak for themselves. 

Focusing less on the outfit and more on the overall vibe, I asked Darrin if he had a specific song he associated with his outfit. He thought for a beat, and then immediately said, “Sleeping in” by The Radio Dept. It’s a fall sound, full of ambient drones and that bottled-up, throat-tight feeling you feel when the weather starts to turn from sunshine warmth to rain-storm chill. And it feels perfectly connected to the outfit itself — with its cooler tones, baggier silhouette, and flares of vibrant colors, fall is everywhere in the outfit, showcasing how fashion can be more than just the clothes on the body. It can come to reflect this intrinsic feeling riding underneath the surface of the clothes. It can come to embody a self, if only passingly, if only in layers of denim and button down delight.

There’s so much the University of Michigan has to offer, and fashion is not an area where we’re lacking. The outfits — and most importantly the people — in this collection are only a few of the many pieces I saw throughout the week that caught my eye, that made me sprint-walk in the Diag or be late to class because I couldn’t stop gawking at their excellence, at their embodiment of authenticity. The next time you’re walking around campus, I challenge you to take a look around at the people near you. I have a feeling they might shock you. At least for me, I know I’m never done talking to random strangers about their outfits for a while now. 

Brendan Downey, Senior Content Writer