Modelling his favorite pair of olive and gold sneakers, Rahmel Dixon ’17 complements his outfit with a pair of khaki joggers and an olive-green sweater. To add a unique twist, he wears a pair of socks covered in orange, blue, and red geometric shapes.
“The kind of style I usually go for is casual and streetwear. That can be in the form of jeans and a graphic tee; it can really be anything, but something cool that you don’t really see around usually, something different. Most of [my style] is pretty basic, but when you get down to the socks or the shoes, it’s like a type of flair that you have with it,” said Dixon.
Although Dixon grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., he did not begin to draw inspiration from his hometown until after he arrived at Andover.
“Because I was in a new place and I had never been away from home before, I missed home. Even though a lot of people [at Andover] are from New York, not many of them are specifically from Brooklyn,” said Dixon. “Many of the people here, I don’t want to say dress the same, but there is a specific type of way, a New-England-ish kind of dress. That didn’t really fit how I thought I wanted to dress, so I just thought, ‘If I don’t want to dress like that, why not try something else?’ While missing home, I just thought, ‘Okay, maybe I should just put my home into it.’ And I liked the way I looked and felt good about it, so I kept doing it.”
Dixon believes that shoes are an integral part of his outfits. Since Dixon’s clothing consists of basic color schemes and patterns, he typically plans his outfits around his footwear of choice.
“[Your shoes] are the last thing that you usually see [on a person] because you’re usually looking at their face or the top part of their body… So any cool thing about your shoes, or your bottom half, will really make you stand out… I start [picking my outfits] with either the shoes or the socks, but mostly the shoes, and I’m like, ‘Alright, what shoes do I feel like wearing? Do I want to wear these kinds of shoes tomorrow?’ From there, I use whatever small details, maybe in the shoes and the socks or the combination [of both], to give way to the rest of outfit,” said Dixon.
For Dixon, his fashion speaks for himself and is a large part of his identity.
“[Your clothes] are usually the first thing people see, so you’re making an impression on others every time you step out the door and see a new person, or even see the people you already know. That ability to show and not tell is cool, and I capitalize on that. I’m not one to usually speak a lot or talk or go into a conversation like, ‘Hey! How are you?’ I’m not like that, so I think the clothes that you wear is a way to do that without saying any words.”
