A lot has changed over the past four years. In the blink of an eye, the freshmen who started at the University of South Carolina in the fall of 2017 are now graduating seniors in 2021.
Not only have classes, hobbies and extracurriculars changed; fashion trends have changed, as well. These changes have been dramatic — some trends have reemerged from 40 years ago.
Cecilia Jakovljević, fourth-year finance student, is the president of the Fashion Board club at USC. Jakovljević said she enjoys "getting to meet other people with similar interests and talk about what was going on in fashion."
All year, they work on a show that occurs in April. It's a chance for local vendors to display their upcoming clothing lines to the students.
Jakovljević said she remembers Adidas striped sneakers were huge before her freshman year, and then FILAs became popular later on. Now, she said, many people can be seen walking around campus in Nike Airs.
Julia Rothman, a first-year retailing student, said four years ago chokers were a huge hit in addition to wearing lace bralettes underneath sweaters.
Monogrammed items and big-name brands such as Lilly Pulitzer and Vineyard Vines were also popular trends, especially in the South, according to Alden Risell, a first-year fashion merchandising and retailing student. Risell works at Vestique, a boutique clothing store in Five Points.
During the pandemic, tie-dye and loungewear became very popular, according to Jakovljević, Rothman and Risell. While everyone was stuck in their houses during lockdown, comfort was a necessity.
"A bunch of stores, especially, like, Vestique, they would bring in matching sets, like cute comfy shirts and shorts and pants, that like, people could wear around the house but also go out in if they wanted to," Risell said.
Bright colors and pastels are also starting to be worn this spring and are often debuted with old trends and on clothes that are being recycled and re-worn, according to Rothman.
"I feel like everyone's going back to the 2000s, where flared jeans are in and mom jeans. That's coming back instead of skinny jeans," Rothman said.
Not only are trends from the 2000s coming back this year, but also the '90s. Baggier shirts with jeans are on-trend and are a personal favorite of Risell's, and they can be seen across campus.
"Emma Chamberlain definitely brought [the '90s] back," Jakovljiević said.
This year is the decade of "different dressing," according to Jakovljević. Styles from years ago are being brought back and revived into new trends for 2021. Fashion is a never-ending cycle, and while trends have definitely changed over the past four years, styles from the '80s, '90s and 2000s are still alive today.