Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: In Focus

Media Credit: Ben Godinez Las Positas student, Sommer Merrill, 21, has make-up applied before a fashion show in San Francisco.

"Fashion, like music, is a unique way of expressing personality," says Sommer Merrill, a student at Las Positas College.

"Whatever fits my personality is what I buy."

After talking to students at Chabot and Las Positas, one common thought was shared, "[it's] another way to express themselves," says Rhiannon Denton, 17.

Students at Chabot College feel that everyone has style whether they mean to or not.

What you wear is an indirect reflection of their personality.
Denton explains that the type of culture you grow up in may have an effect of your style.

"Your attitude might equal your clothing. If you like rock you might dress like a rocker, if you like rap music you might dress like a rapper would."

Denton then explained that each and every person is different and that never prejudge others based upon their looks.
In her opinion, that's the reason why there are cliques and groups at school.

Other students agreed with this statement and objected to the fact that what people wear might dictate how others see them.
Recently, and new law was passed about how far a security officer is allowed to sag his pants.

Sommer Merrill, 21, said, "Some people put on an image of something that they're not, based upon insecurities of themselves."

Many different aspects may go into being a "victim of fashion."
Since some care about fashion and some don't, people can't generalize or opinionize everyone based on their looks. Nine out of 10 students sampled at school agreed one should never assume where someone is from or whether the clothes they wear are an accurate model of who they are.

Friends, family, and schools might effect how one dresses as well.

"Private school kids might have to wear a uniform or they might be regulated more so than a public school kid." Denton said.

Your friends may tend to push or pull you from one brand to another. If some new trend comes out and one friend gets it, they all might eventually get things that are similar in style.

"Look at the Hyphy Movement, that's one big trend started from a couple of people and had a lot of followers," says Robert McCarrie, 20, a student at Chabot.

People come from all over the world to go to school here. Everyone has different backgrounds, upbringings, and views on fashion and style.

People may wear what they want to wear, be who they want to be, because people at Chabot and Las Positas understand everyone has their own style.

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