On Tuesday, April 16, teachers and students from all grades gathered on Community’s front lawn for a spring photoshoot. The many people who attended the photoshoot got to show off their spring styles. Members of the yearbook and Communicator staff held the photoshoot event. Many members of staff took photos of people at Community, while others held interviews and directed the photoshoot. With people’s styles changing rapidly throughout each season and each school year, the photos, which will be published in the yearbook, will serve to show how people’s styles at Community change over time.
Community’s seasonal photoshoots began last year when members of the yearbook staff decided that they wanted to include fashion in the yearbook. The first photoshoot that members of staff held was in the fall of 2022, and they continued by having another in the winter of 2022-2023, and a third in the fall of 2023. Yearbook planned on putting together a spring photoshoot last year, but the yearbook publication was due before they could put on the photoshoot. However, this year, with lots of extra pages going into the yearbook, staff was able to hold a spring photoshoot, the first ever.
Junior Grieta Ham, who has attended seasonal photoshoots both this and last year, believes that fashion is a very important part of Ham’s life. Before Ham developed a style, Ham tried to wear clothes that made Ham fit in with Ham’s peers.
“I saw what the popular girls would wear at my school, and I would ask my mom for clothes like that,” Ham said.
However, after Ham started using TikTok, Ham got lots of fashion inspiration and began developing a style “bordering emo or punk,” a style that Ham purposefully tried to develop not based on the style of other people at school.
“Putting aside all the bad things, social media does give access to so much more information,” Ham said. “And I just started realizing that fashion can be an interest and that caring about your looks doesn’t have to be detrimental to your mental health, it can also be a way to show that you’re expressing who you are. And that was just kind of the first stage of [the development of my style], with TikTok. I just saw so many different types of styles and different types of people that knew who they were and expressed that through what they wore.”
Having shifted away from being self-conscious about outfits and from wearing things to fit in with others, Ham now wears a style developed from Ham’s inspiration on social media. Ham has come to see outfits as a way to connect deeper with Ham’s self.
Similar to Ham, sophomore Claire Theiss, who also attended the photoshoot, developed a style using her own inspiration. However, rather than using social media for inspiration, Theiss’s inspiration has come from her personality.
“I have tried to develop what my personality is and put that into my style, and develop it from there,” Theiss said. “When I’m not wearing something that feels like me, I just don’t feel like myself.”
Theiss’s “whimsical” and “fun” style has been channeled by her identity.
“I’m just fun, loosey-goosey and flowy, and so I feel like that has channeled into the way I dress a lot of the time,” Theiss said.
Theiss feels like she can connect deeper with her emotions and her personality when she wears outfits that reflect her character.
“I feel better when I’m wearing an outfit that feels like me, which is a flowy outfit, a fun outfit. So [wearing flowy outfits] makes me feel like myself and more connected with myself,” Theiss said. “When I’m wearing outfits that I like, like what I’m wearing today, I feel more like my insides reflect my outsides and vice versa.”
In addition to her personality reflecting the way she dresses, Theiss also believes that when the weather and seasons change, her style should change too. Now that it’s the start of spring, Theiss has shifted from wearing jeans, cargos, and less flowy tops, to wearing skirts and flowy tops, outfits she feels better reflect her personality and make her happier.
“In spring and summer, I’m so happy because it’s sunny, bright, and nice out, and I’m getting my vitamin D and so I’m just so happy,” Theiss said. “When it’s not spring or summer, I am usually less happy, so I’m a little less flowy.”
Sophomore Skyler Genewick, who also attended the photoshoot, has a “bold” and “expressive” style that she believes not only channels her emotions but also helps her through her everyday life. Before Genewick got to high school, she was way more toned down and not expressive with her outfits. However, after she got to high school, Genewick began wearing powerfully expressive outfits.
“I used to just wear sweatshirts and sweatpants, which restrained me as a person,” Genewick said. “Going into high school, it was a new environment and new school, which helped me [wear more expressive outfits].”
Now that she’s in high school, the expressive outfits Genewick wears motivate her to get through the day, making her feel charged.
“If I just wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt, I would just feel not right. I think going in depth into my outfit helps me get through the day,” Genewick said. “Wearing expressive clothes refreshes my mind, so having a good outfit really motivates me.”
Not only does wearing expressive outfits make Genewick feel motivated, but being bold with her outfits makes her feel more confident and bold as a person, thus helping her to be less timid and more composed around other people.
“I tend to go into my own bubble and try not to express myself,” Genewick said. “So trying to express myself through my outfits motivates me to go outside my comfort zone.”
The Spring fashion photoshoot, which will hopefully become an annual event at Community, serves as a great opportunity for students and teachers to express their identities and character through the clothes they wear. With people’s styles changing rapidly before our eyes, this photoshoot will serve as a reminder of what people at Community wore in 2024 and how they used fashion to display their uniqueness.
