Allison Relyea – CollegeFashionista

WHAT TO WEAR: Hopping Into Spring

Lovely spring is finally here! There have been so many cool looks and outfits going down the streets of New York City lately. With so many people out and a plethora of inspiration, it’s been so amazing to be out and be a part of it!

I spotted this amazing outfit on this adorable Fashionista this past month! What caught my eye about her outfit right away was the oversize, comfy looking T-shirt dress that she rocked so well. Her long blonde hair flowed beautifully through the wind making her a definite head-turner!

I asked this Fashionista what her inspiration was behind the look, “I love St. Tropez,” she began, “and I’m a big thrifter for sustainability reasons. So when I saw this Wildfox T-shirt I was so excited. And, I looked it up… It retailed for like $400 or something!” she told me. Amazing! I love hearing thrift stories! It’s like clothes are getting a chance at a second life.

This Fashionista also went for a bold statement with some beautiful accessories that I’m still obsessed with! She went for a necktie which are so in right now! Neckties have been a huge trend, as they should be. They’re so simple and easy to style, as well as cute! The necktie is my favorite part of this outfit. I love the color blocking she’s creating, with such a simple accessory piece. The maroon and yellow overlays nicely with the blue dress that creates a vibrant look for spring!

Another accessory piece that is making a statement are her cat-eye sunglasses. They give such attitude to the look and really makes one look sassy and sweet at the same time! Cat-eye styled sunglasses are personally my favorite, so I was able to connect to the accessory piece in a great way. It’s another great element to style up this look that includes unique accessory pieces. It’s silly, but I also include beautiful long, golden hair as an accessory! It’s so beautiful, especially on her, because she’s so tall and it flows with the necktie and T-shirt dress so well. For shoes, she’s wearing white sneakers, which looks best with T-shirt dresses in her opinion. “It’s just so comfy, you know?” she told me. I do–It looks comfy!

This Fashionista achieved the goal of using just two simple accessory pieces, the neck scarf and sunglasses, to dress up a simple graphic T-shirt dress with sneakers. It caught my eye and that of many others I’m assuming!

I hope to be seeing this Fashionista around campus a lot more to totally obsess over more outfits!

STYLE GURU STYLE: Street Style Strutting

I wanted to share this really cool outfit I put together. It gives me such a classic New York City street style look. In New York City, during the fall and winter seasons, the weather is always fluctuating. One day it can be 29 degrees and two days later it can be 67 degrees! It can be really difficult to know what to do when it comes to outfits!

Today’s look was on the warmer side, as you can maybe tell, maybe spring will come early this year (yay!). This outfit is really chic looking, which is great, as this was a very comfortable outfit to wear! You can see I’m wearing this denim jacket. I love the embroidery on the back! I love the “Au Revoir” along the back. It’s so cool! I’m in love with graphic pieces and clothing with words on them—specially on the back! I love anything Parisian. I’m planning on going to Paris next month, and this elevates my obsession of Paris and the French language! I love that this piece is long, unlike other denim jackets. The color, it’s a very dark denim, nearly black, making it edgy and unique!

I wanted a more simplistic look, as I wanted the jacket to be the focal point of the outfit. I wore a black V-neck bodysuit, making it sexy while keeping me cool on the warmer March days we have been having. It’s very flattering to all body types and is also comfortable. I styled these two pieces with some black jeans. It’s very rare for me to do an all black outfit, as I’m a very colorful Fashionista! However, as you can see with my booties, I did add some color. So, this is cool for me to try out something new!

The booties are a beautiful rustic orange/red color which goes beautifully with this outfit. They are a great accessory with an all color outfit, or any winter look, for that matter. They are a velvet material, which is awesome because it adds various textures to my outfit. Mixing textures are a really cool twist to one’s outfit. For an accessory, I added my beautiful Chanel bag which adds some simplicity to the outfit. Which as I mentioned, is something I was going for.

This is an outfit I would definitely repeat, and one I think inspiration can come off from. I picked a staple piece; the denim coat, to be the focal point of my outfit. I worked around it with some black pieces and colored booties. As you can see, taking one or two pieces and working around that can be a fun way to create an awesome street style look!

STYLE ADVICE: Layering in the Winter

I met an awesome, sweet Fashionista passing through the West Village in New York City. I was caught by her outfit because she looked so stylish while still looking casual and warm! It was not too cold today and her outfit represents that! What I really like about her look, which is something I try to achieve myself, is that of comfort and style. Most of the time, I’m sure we all want to go to work or school in baggy sweatpants and a tee shirt to have that comfort feeling; but we still want to look cute. The way to get that is by mixing the two together.

This Fashionista’s outfit reminded me of doing that exactly! She’s wearing a long hoodie that can be styled as a dress, with a slip underneath. I love the color of the hoodie, a dark blue, it’s great color for the winter time. What I really like, styled with the hoodie, is her coat. It looks so warm, but the faux suede texture mixed with the light laying fur lining on the inside makes for a really eye-capturing look! Her white sneakers add a nice pop of color to the outfit and makes it look sporty and chic as well!
“It was finally a little warmer today,” she said. “The sun is finally out. But I’m dressed warm on top, I love layering”. Her effortless look is combined with the various patterns and textures along with one another. Layering is such a difficult thing to do, sometimes, because it’s hard to know what goes with what. This Fashionista does everything right! She mixed patterns, colors, textures and it looks effortless.
Layering has been such a big trend over the last couple of months, as we want to bring it into the spring and summer months, and this girl’s got the trick! I love her glasses, such a staple accessory, as glasses have been more on trend. Fake ones and real ones! They’re being shown down the runway as well as being seen on a ton of street stylers!
Simplicity needs to go a long way when layering! A tip for when you’re looking to layer during either the spring or summer, is simplicity, as I mentioned, but it’s also trying different pieces together and seeing what works. This Fashionista added a slip over her hoodie, so it peaks out underneath. Mixing patterns, as this fashionista did, adds to layering. She’s got a hoodie, cotton material, mixed in with the suede and fur. Not all patterns work, of course, so play around with what you’ve got and you can be unstoppable!

WHAT TO WEAR: Trying to Beat the Cold

Cold business looks are the “norm” in New York City, it feels like. There’s either casual cold or business cold. I met up with this Fashionista today, who’s a part-time student in the Bronx and a full-time manager of a gym in midtown. Since she’s a student and an employee, having a versatile look is a must for her. She’s a student studying liberal arts but eventually she may want to pursue a career as a math teacher. Circumstances led to her having to find a full-time job and give much time to that, but studies are just as important to her. Her hard work and ethics allowed her to move up at her gym from cleaning service, to sales, to now manager. So inspiring! Hard work and dedication is all it takes. Showing up to work on time, being professional, and looking professional is the key!

This Fashionista’s look is very important to both of her jobs. Her job as a manager and as a student. She wants to maintain the fun, preppy, and casual look of a student while still being able to pull off a professional look at work. She tells me that it’s not often she goes to school and work on the same day. She goes to school about two days a week and works the other days. If she has time at the end of the day, she will stop in at the gym.

Her look here provides a nice balance of student and work life. This Fashionista has some black pants on, which can be worn for any occasion, and a nice thick jacket, as it was about 30 degrees that day. Along with that jacket, she accessories with a long matching gray scarf, and some nude heels. Similar to the one’s this Fashionista is wearing can be found at these two links!. She tells me she always keeps a pair of flats or heels in her bag, in case she decides to go into work. She also keeps a spare pair in her office, at work, as well. When she walks into work her boss mode comes on. When she steps into school her student mode comes on.

It is not uncommon for college students, as we all probably know, to balance a life of school and work. This Fashionista’s style and personality are very relatable which makes her outfit eye grabbing and her personality attractive. I love how her outfit reflects herself in that way–a balance. Her look is also very cute and chic. The coat and the scarf themselves, alone, look so warm and cozy too. I love that the coat and scarf are matching colors. It looks great along side the simplicity of the nude heels. The heels have a small strap right above her toes, which styles the outfit down a bit, but still enough to make her look professional. This is one of my favorite looks!

WHAT TO WEAR: Finals Takeover

Earlier this month I met this Fashionista who is a student at Penn State. I photographed her outfit as her outfit screams finals! What really drew me to the outfit was just how comfy and cozy she looked. Although most of the time we may like to dress up or we do dress up, this outfit is the most “college student” you will ever see—in a good way of course. I found her outfit would suit the cold weather quickly approaching.

Penn State is known for its sports and passionate students. This Fashionista is a huge baseball and football fan. “It’s freezing at Penn State, it probably snowed there three times already,” she tells me on her weekend trip home. With a freezing campus, her big puffy coat is the answer. It’s easy to feel warm just by looking at her in that jacket. Big puffy winter jackets are the most practical when you’re dealing with snow and the frigid weather. “My mom’s always texting me to put on this jacket even though she lives far away in the Bronx,” she says as she laughs.

With her jacket she’s wearing some classic jeans she borrowed from her sister. Jeans are such a college girl staple piece and can go with anything. Personally, I think they’re comfortable. “I wear sweatpants whenever I can, though. I work a lot so I have to look the part but on my days off sweatpants or jeans are where its at,” she tells me. I can’t help but notice how comfy and warm her Uggs look. Knowing more about the snowy freezing days at Penn State, I can’t imagine getting out of bed early for class. Uggs must seem like the best invention in the world at that moment. “I’m always wearing Uggs. They’re so comfortable, especially in the snow,” this Fashionista says.

What is great about the coat, jeans, and Uggs look is that it fits in with the “norm” of Penn State. This Fashionista is in the sports communications major which means she is surrounded by a lot of boys. “There aren’t a lot of girls in my major. When there are the professors are always shocked at the girls in the classes,” she says. With that in mind, her fashion choices make a lot of sense.

This Fashionista’s outfit is perfectly representative of what the local college student would look like if you dropped by Penn State and I find that really cool. Schools definitely come into play when you are coming up with outfit choices. A fashion school student, sports school student, and law school student will all wear different outfits and probably one that identifies more with their school and personality.

STYLE GURU STYLE: I Felt It, So I Went With Velvet

Red. Orange. Brown. Those are some of the colors we often see this time of year. I happen to love the fall time—the colors, the clothes, the weather and the spirits. Velvet, silk and thick knits are some of the textures we often wear during this time of year. Here in New York City, the weather definitely fluctuates between cool and warm; so here’s an outfit I’m sharing with you for this time of year during school. As you can see I’m wearing this beautiful red velvet matching set. The set is from & Other Stories, which was a collaboration with Rodarte. The thing I love most about this set for the fall is the color and the velvet. Velvet is such a staple piece and fabric for this time of year. Velvet has really been popping out on scarves, boots, clothing and more. The color of this is a beautiful wine color which makes this set even more perfect.

With this beautiful outfit I am also wearing black flats by Alice and Olivia. This wine shade of red goes much better with the color black than any other color. On a cooler day I would wear black boots and a long black suede coat with this outfit. The velvet would complement the suede nicely as well as add another kind of texture to the look. This set is very soft and comfortable and I love the compliments I get while wearing it. As I mentioned, New York City’s temperature goes up and down during the spring and fall seasons. On this warmer day I thought I would still include some fall colors and textures into my outfit.

Two-piece sets have been in for the past year and they’re great for any occasion. There are also sets that are long-sleeved, short-sleeved and for the winter or summer. They’re perfect for lazy days when you want to look more dressed up but you’re too tired. They’re a whole outfit in themselves. All you have to add are shoes, some accessories and maybe a coat. This outfit that I’m wearing is really great for any occasion. Styled like this you could wear it to school, dressed down of course. You could wear it out at night with friends, on the weekend shopping or to a concert. The possibilities for this and other two-piece sets are endless.

STYLE ADVICE OF THE WEEK: Let’s Make Back to School Cool

It’s that time of the year again, back to school! Today, we meet Dafina and catch up with her on during her first few weeks of classes. She starts off the year by going with a casual look for school. Let’s check out her “uniform”. Today she went with a great basic and comfortable outfit! She’s wearing a simple white cropped tank with a pair of classic blue jeans. This is a great way to go to school as you can dress a look like this up and down. She went with a cute pair of black sneakers, which are very appropriate for walking around New York City.

She also styled herself with a cute burgundy handbag from Calvin Klein. “Since I have a small laptop, this purse is perfect for class,” Dafina tells me about commuting to class from Midtown. Commuting is also another reason to be dressing down and more comfortable in New York City. Shuffling through people, subways, and streets it’s important to be in a cute outfit that you also feel comfortable in.

This is a great, classic outfit to wear for school. This is also great inspiration for dressing cute and casual. The inspiration that can be taken from this is the idea of taking basic pieces and styling them together, creating a great outfit that takes less effort. In the morning, it can be really hard to put a really cute outfit together that you like. You’re tired, it’s early, and you decide to just go with a sweatsuit again… well have no fear! Here with some jeans and a crop top you can create a great start to your outfit. When you take the pieces you have selected you can pick a cute pair of shoes and purse to tie in with your look. Another attempt on this outfit can be white sandals, a black small backpack, and even a choker. There are endless amounts of ways you can take simple/casual clothes and turn them into unforgettable outfits.

College outfits can go back and forth, depending on one’s schedule and feelings, outfits can go up and down. “I definitely have my more dressed up days; it’s all about how I feel,” Dafina says. In my opinion no matter what kinds of clothes you decide to wear, the best thing to wear is confidence. Rock what you wear and what you love. It will make a difference and remember you can rock any outfit you choose to wear!

STYLE GURU BIO: Allison Relyea

My name is Allison Relyea and I’m 21 and a Junior at The New School in New York City. I’m so excited to be interning here at CollogeFashioninsta! I’m excited to not just post about my fashion and the fashion around me, but to read other articles from you all as well!

Like I mentioned, I attend The New School and I am a fashion and writing major. Fashion as well as writing has always been a passion and interest of mine since a very young age. At The New School I am able to channel both of my passions into one and I am in the process of making a career out of the two. I enjoy people’s styles, different textures, and mixing up pieces when it comes to fashion. I write, and blog, about fashion to help give some insight and help for others.

I also run a fashion blog (dressedbyallie.blogspot.com If you would like to check it out) in hopes of helping people find inspiration, share my fashion tips, and style as I briefly mentioned before. I also wanted to share my love for fashion and writing through that blog. I think it is really fun to document my fashion style over the courses of a few years. I also like to document my life and personal things that happen as well. I would love to extend and be a lifestyle blogger as well one day. At the moment, I’m committed to my blog, school, and traveling as much as possible.

I have a wide variety of interests and I’m trying to channel it in a direction that makes me happy and expresses my inner passions. I would a career in fashion as a fashion blogger, fashion stylist, or writer, own my own brand, or own a company. Anything that I feel works towards my passion and interests.