A life-long vegetarian, Sara Kowdley ’16 decided a few years ago to clean out her wardrobe of all clothing with animal materials, including leather and suede. Now, Kowdley can often be spotted walking around campus in her favorite silver vegan Doc Martens.
“I think the fact that I am from Seattle influences [my style]. I’ve been very exposed not only to the vegan, responsible clothing culture, but also people experimenting with vintage clothing,” said Kowdley.
On a typical day, Kowdley can be found sporting black Keds, high-waisted black shorts with bows on the sides, a short-sleeved black crop top and a large button-down shirt. Other personal fashion staples include harem pants and high-waisted jeans. Kowdley combines vintage fleece jackets and sweaters with modern color-block leggings, emphasizing a blend of old and new.
“I really like taking elements of style from the ’90s, like almost-tacky patterns and high-waisted jeans, and combining them with more modern pieces for a unique look,” said Kowdley. “It’s incredibly simple but bold and toes the line of ugly. It’s very funny fashion.”
Kowdley mixes and matches clothing from her ’90s-inspired wardrobe to create her outfits. She credits her love of the ’90s to “Seinfeld,” which helped her develop the distinctive sense of style that she exhibits today.
“I think my love of the ’90s largely came from religiously watching ‘Seinfeld’ with my family growing up and the fact that my mom has a lot of great hand-me-downs from that time period,” said Kowdley. “I idolized one character, Elaine Benes…. Perhaps I’m trying to emulate her. She’s a brilliant, confident, hilarious character with a really quirky style to match, but she pulls it off.”
Kowdley frequents thrift shops and consignment stores, such as Goodwill. She also loves to shop on Etsy, a website comprised of numerous vendors selling handmade and vintage clothing, during their “Random Sweater Sale” in which the buyer purchases a sweater without seeing it in advance.
“I try to show that you don’t need to shop at expensive stores to get really interesting, great clothing,” said Kowdley. “If it’s over $10, I’m going to think really hard about buying it.”
Kowdley’s style also catches the attention of her friends.
“At Andover, I think a lot of people tend to dress very similarly — but [Kowdley] is definitely not one to conform to that mold. Her wardrobe of thrift-shopped shirts, high-waisted pants and crop-tops is undeniably unique and impossible to pull off for anyone but her,” said Arzu Singh ’16, a friend of Kowdley’s, in an email to The Phillipian.
Kowdley believes that her fashion sense is a part of her quirky clothing combinations.
“You can wear whatever you want color-wise, pattern-wise and material-wise, and, if you like the way it looks and you’re confident, you’ll pull it off,” said Kowdley.