The UP fashion scene

by Edgar Felizmenio

Come as you are - UP fashion has always been described by those four words. The University of the Philippines has always been known for its unique culture and the extremely diverse blend in the members of the student population. The university is known for the freedom that it gives to its students regarding all aspects of life, from the subjects they take, to the organizations they join, to the time they choose to go to class, and ultimately, to what they wear to school.

Fashion in UP is a challenge because there is no uniform in the university, hence everyone is allowed to come in whichever preferred pieces of clothing. It is a popular notion that UP students tend to go the extreme and be as eccentric as they can be in fashion, and that holds true to some extent.

Fashion scene? It is observed that real fashion scenes exist on colleges that are inclined towards the arts, like the College of Fine Arts, College of Arts and Letters, and the College of Mass Communication. The students in these colleges are stereotypically (and generally) more creative than the rest of the student population, and the way they dress serves as evidence. These students have better artistic eyes, and it is easier for them to see whether a piece of clothing would look good with something else or not. It is easier for them to wear eccentric clothing, because these are people who generally have higher tolerance for exploration and have low regards for convention (which could be explained by the courses they take, partly).

There are fashion scenes in the CBA-Econ end of the Academic Oval as well. The College of Business Administration and the School of Economics are colleges which are clichéd as the rich colleges. The students here generally belong to the higher socio-economic edge of the social spectrum, hence giving them the money to spend for fashion. They are known to be the more “sosyal” component of the population, and so I rest the case.

It is a little uninteresting to note that as for the other colleges, there isn’t really a “fashion scene”. Most of the UP students are defined by maong jeans, and it is ironic that although UP does not require a uniform, jeans seem to be taking over.

Why maong jeans? Maong jeans are your reliable fashion friends. They are comfortable and can be worn with anything else. It is only in UP where you always see students who always wear their UP shirts and org shirts and their jeans, paired with the most comfortable footwear, rubber slippers.

This doesn’t mean to say that the way one would dress up is dictated by his college or course. Of course not. It is possible that the culture in one’s college affects one’s way of thinking, although it is also a possibility that one’s way of thinking is actually the one that affected choice in course or college. Whichever the case is, the point is some colleges happen to exude a certain style that adds to their overall image as a college.

In general however, there is a common ground for all UP students, whether they live in style or not. UP fashion is all about comfort, and subjective as it is, comfort varies for everyone. If comfort for you is to wear your dirtiest look or your most glamorous attire, as long as it’s comfortable, UP embraces that. The atmosphere in UP is so laidback and relaxed that students are able to wear whatever they want at whatever day they choose. This is why the pambahay look is so popular – it provides comfort at all times.