Students find their voice through clothing and makeup
Story by Lillie Nhep and Riley Rainwater
Photos by Bradi Hawkins
Design by Candace Alvey
Editor’s Note: This article was originally released in Issue 19 of the WKU Talisman print magazine. Click here to read more articles from the Talisman’s semesterly print.
In her song “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home,” Miley Cyrus said, “You can change your hair and you can change your clothes.”
Junior journalism and fashion merchandising major Grace Ash from Owensboro does just that. She said she feels like she’s ready to start the day whenever she expresses herself through fashion.
“I feel like whenever I have a good outfit on, I do better,” Ash said. “I feel very creative and I’m ready to start the day.”
Ash said she is no stranger to the importance of self-expression. She said that as a member of the LGBTQ+ community who identifies as lesbian, it has impacted her ability to put herself out there.
“I feel I put my identity into my clothing,” Ash said. “Putting my identity into my clothing is really important for me, and I feel like a lot of people can feel that way too.”
Ash said she didnít feel like she had to find her style; rather, her style came to her during her middle school years. She took inspiration from her mom, who would dress up in heels and dresses. She also said she finds inspiration from older decades, such as the 70s.
“I love 70s music, so I’m really big on Fleetwood Mac,” Ash said. “I feel like that influences a whole lot, like the flowy skirts and the bell slate tops.”
She said that she also caters towards her grandmother’s style, but draws upon other inspirations such as Y2K, Juicy Couture and the works of American fashion designer Betsey Johnson.
“I never really found the style that I like until, I would say, my junior year of high school,” Ash said.
She said that she felt that she had to follow the style of others, but realized that she didn’t want to dress like everyone else.
“I can wear whatever I want,” Ash said.
Though she is passionate about her fashion representation, Ash said that she feels a difference when she dresses down.
“As a fashion student, you’re always expected to keep giving and giving, and dressing up everywhere,” Ash said, “but sometimes you know, I want to dress down.”
Ash said that she doesn’t want to be a “fashionista” every day and that there will be times when she doesn’t feel like it.
“Sometimes I’ll wake up 20 minutes before my class and I’m like ‘let me just throw something on,'” Ash said.
After traveling to New York City and Paris to learn more about fashion, she said she has found room to grow with her knowledge of style in Kentucky, where she said the fashion scene runs more casual than dressy.
“Express yourself how you want to,” Ash said. “Once you start finding your style, you know, it helps you find yourself. It makes you a whole lot happier.”
Aside from clothes, senior film major Noel Baskin from Scottsville, Kentucky, said their love for makeup is important to their personal identity.
Baskin said that they’ve gone from following makeup trends to branching out on their own. They would describe their style as experimental, applying and combining different styles together.
They also said that makeup for them is ever changing and the possibilities for makeup are unlimited.
“There’s things that we might still discover that we think are revolutionary,” Baskin said.
They said they started wearing makeup in middle school.
“I think it started when I was at Walmart, of all places,” Baskin said. “I saw a Katy Perry lipstick collab, and I was just drawn to this sort of spacey purple color.”
Baskin said they were noticing their friends and people around them borrowing trends from influencers at the time.
They said their direction with makeup pivoted in the opposite direction, influenced by films with 20s cabaret-esque styles to 60s vintage looks.
“I went from what was trending to things I just do on my own because I draw a lot of inspiration from things I totally wouldn’t have thought of back in seventh or eighth grade,” Baskin said.
Baskin said that makeup for them holds a sentimental value, being influenced by drag queen Divine to associating makeup with their late mother, who they said utilized a “cookie-cutter base” makeup routine.
“It was eyeliner that looked like it had been applied with a very, very shaky hand, black eyeshadow and some sort of dark lip color,” Baskin said.
They said that makeup provides a sense of confidence as it makes them feel more comfortable expressing their gender identity.
“I play with gender all the time,” Baskin said. “You can do makeup where you look fully androgynous, you look fully feminine, fully masculine. I like to combine all of that into just being a weird sort of mix.”
Baskin said that makeup is an art form, constantly changing, working and getting better at creating what feels fun to them.
“I would say it’s a way to express myself in ways I really am not able to.” Baskin said, “With makeup, you can make yourself look totally unrecognizable. You can make yourself look like an alien, a horror creature, just anything you really want to be.”
Senior Mackenzie Robbins from Louisville, who is a strategic marketing major, said she believes people shouldn’t limit themselves to just one thing.
She said her styles are inspired from the early 2000s along with simplistic styles inspired by Stockholm. For her, she said her personal style has allowed her to feel more empowered in her femininity.
Robbins said her biggest fashion advice is to just do, be and wear anything, not limiting oneself to just one style.
“If you like the shirt, then buy the shirt,” Robbins said. “Don’t hesitate because of what other people think. If you’re afraid, the only way to stop being afraid is to go out there and wear that outfit.”
Sophie Todaro is a junior from St. Paul, Minnesota, majoring in musical theatre. They said makeup is their biggest influence when it comes to expressing themselves, crafting their outfits based on their makeup.
“My makeup is what I build my outfits around, and it’s my favorite way for people to get an impression of me just by looking at me,” Todaro said. “I’m a loud person, and a lot of people don’t like that, but I love my makeup to speak where my voice can’t and my clothes to follow along.”
Todaro said expressing themself through their style has given them control of how they want to represent themself. They said that for them, there is a lot of pressure to fit into one category.
“As a nonbinary person, I feel a lot of pressure to fit into a box,” Todaro said, “but taking control of my style and makeup allows me to have an outlet to remind myself Iím allowed to present however I want to.”
They said dressing up in their own style has reminded them of their “autonomy,” showing people how they feel and who they are on the inside.
“There are no rules on how I express myself, as long as l am being authentically me,” Todaro said.
Todaro said that their style carries sentimental value, inspired by looking at old pictures of the women in their life and taking in their style choices.
For them, they said that integrating their style with their confidence has made room for them to feel the authenticity of who they want to be on the outside.
“We should just embrace what makes us weird and different,” Todaro said. “To be cringe is to be free.”