As he prepares for the winter, Philip Koh ’18 grabs a red and blue plaid jacket to layer on top of a hoodie with a studded Supreme logo and black sweatpants. To complement his outfit, he styles a black hat adorned with a lightning design and a pair of Yeezy’s, Adidas and Kanye West’s most recent sneaker collaboration.
As a “sneakerhead,” Philip Koh ’18 enjoys collecting sneakers to add his own flair to each of his outfits.
Philip Koh ’18 dresses following streetwear trends that he finds in his aunt’s collector’s store.
“I was super pumped [to meet him] since he’s a big public figure. He was really sincere, and that’s really what got my attention. I could really see that he really loves clothes, and he really tries to put meaning into his clothes. He wanted to express his beliefs through his clothes,” said Koh.
Prior to Andover, Koh attended an all-boys preparatory school. Since the school had a required uniform, he often felt restricted in his fashion choices. It was after Koh left his previous school that he began to explore and develop an interest in fashion.
“Compared to my outfits at [my old school], my outfits now are dramatically different. Even when I was at [my old school], I tried to explore [fashion] through websites and online publications of fashion magazines… I felt like I had a sense of what I wanted to try out when I went back home and when I didn’t have the dress code. Trying those out when I wasn’t at school and finding what fit me well and didn’t fit me well gave me a better sense [of my style],” said Koh.
When putting outfits together, Koh takes inspiration from Kanye West and Korean hip-hop artists like Jay Park. During this process, he typically looks for a specific part of their outfit that stands out and tries to incorporate and express a similar style through his own fashion.
“Once I saw Kanye wearing his Yeezy’s with a Supreme crewneck, so I was like, ‘Oh, that looks pretty nice.’ What really stood out was the Supreme logo from his sweatshirt, so I was like, ‘Maybe I should make the Supreme logo stand out from my outfits,’ so I found a sweatshirt with the red original Supreme box logo on it, and I tried different outfits with that sweatshirt. I choose one thing from their outfits and try to base the rest of my outfit from there,” said Koh.
As a self-proclaimed “sneakerhead,” Koh enjoys collecting a variety of shoes to add flair and style to his everyday outfits.
“It seems like shoes don’t really take up much of your outfit, but it’s actually a pretty important part because it plays the role of toning up your outfit or toning down your outfit. After taking a picture, it’s like the Photoshop process. It fills up the last crucial one percent of my outfit,” said Koh.
