College Tribune: The Siren

I picked up a copy of the first issue of the College Tribune this week and its supplement, The Siren, with two pages on fashion. I've uploaded a pdf here, without permission, to save you the hassle of using Issuu. the articles are on the website, each is linked below.

In a paper otherwise obsessed with freshers, the first article here covers fashion for old women. It's a book review on "a street style book documenting the eccentric and elegant styles of older women in New York." Seemingly originally a blogger, this woman is selling books about what people are wearing. I like it. The idea, that is, not the photos of strangely dressed old women on the blog. The article is reasonably well written, by Roisin Sweeney, though it could be a bit more critical. This is getting a bit meta here -- I've just realised I'm reviewing a book review.

Next up is a piece on the magazine Vogue. A nice bit of history. I didn't know much about the magazine and assumed it was targeted at people who actually have money so I searched for reader demographics and found them for Australia: 26% of readers are 18-24. Vogue is 120 years old (not the Fade Street one), hence the article. Lauren Tracey, the article's author, unironically slips in a quote from one of Vogue's editors, “Most people haven’t got a point of view; they need to have it given to them.”

A paragraph on Daphne Guinness tells us how privileged she is and influential she is. She does have an enviable life and I just learned about haute couture. It's a protected term controlled by the Paris chamber of commerce and only top class fashion houses are offered membership.

Niamh Kelly tells us about two billionaire teenagers who dress well and... I don't know. I thought maybe the article might delve into the psychology behind the cult of celebrity but it just tells us who the latest cool rich kids are. I'm sure I'll fall prey to it all myself soon. Watch this space.

These fashion pages didn't fit as part of a freshers' guide. I would've preferred a vox pop outside the Arts Building and the prices of a few trendy items in River Island. They're fine for a student newspaper and I'm sure I'll learn lots from reading them through the year, but you'll have to come here to find out what's really in fashion in UCD.

Does anyone know where I can get a pdf of Vogue?

Varsity Jackets

I haven't really noticed a trend in jackets yet, except that nobody seems to be wearing the ones I own, but I do like varsity jackets. Here's Adam, 2nd year nursing, modelling this year's Arts Soc crew jacket.

Before I saw anyone in UCD wearing this, I had been at a party the Saturday before and complimented a guy for wearing one. It had no logo and looked really well on him. For some reason, he told me I wouldn't be able to get one like it. I hit up eBay but gave up when I remembered I had better things to waste my money on.

The party was good fun. I found it on Facebook and crashed it with my friend's sister. On the way out of the taxi I dropped my iPhone and smashed the screen :(. When we went into the party, we had to sign a release because it was being filmed as part of some low-budget movie. Not a bad excuse for a party. The host was nice and didn't notice we hadn't been invited. Andrew, whoever you are, thanks!

Then it turned out Arts Soc all had varsity jackets. Adam got his trousers in Zara for €30. I don't like his colour coordination. Orange Sony headphones too. Big headphones seem to be fairly hip right now. He said he didn't have €250 to waste on a pair of Beats. His t-shirt is from River Island. He told me the shoes are “Nike-e 6-ohs". Skate shoes -- definitely trailing the fashion here. Adam also said “Arts Soc is in... so in right now... so hot right now... see you at the Arts Ball.” He's kinda right.

Sorry about the rubbish in the corner of the photo. Adam said my clothes were “kinda last year,” “casually understated,” “shoes are dunnes” (they weren't) and that I should wear “brown loafers”.

UCD Soc

I joined a lot of societies this week. No sports clubs. Waste of money for the most part, but no news there.

So who's popular? Arts Soc, L&H and Law Soc were winning. I don't have solid figures, but 4500+ for L&H and 2000+ for Arts Soc, with a guess that Law Soc was somewhere in between. I think I joined all three. After my stroll around the tent, I just emptied the bags out, put all the flyers in a pile that I labelled "read later" and put all the junk food in a pile that I then gave it away. I'm going to put all the membership cards in my locker because otherwise they'll ruin the minimalist wallet I have going on.

Probably the best thing I got out of it was the scented soap from Lush that I got from UCD Fashion and Design Society. Obviously, I was eager to join them, but they were later setting up than most (that's cool) so I managed to get top of their list. On Thursday I went back to ask how they were getting on but they wouldn't tell me how many people had signed up, so I'm not able to tell you how cool they are here. The soap has been in my bag since joining and smells great. I haven't even opened it. It's actually reached the point where I'm worried I won't notice any bad smells in my bag because the soap smells so good.

I was surprised at the fact there were three Christian societies: Christian Union, Newman Society and another whose name I can't recall right now. The popularity split was 70/60/80, according to themselves. I neglected to tell them I was pitting them against each other on a blog and ended up giving €2 to Newman Society after misleading them into thinking I was in some way religious. It's solace for my sin.

Really, I just want to know what's going on and where's cool to go. The societies' websites would be good for that, yeah? I stopped bothering with links to the societies because they were all so bad. Newman Society site is "The Newman Society Web page is currently unavailable. Please check back later" and nothing more; Law Soc's site has instructions on how to set up a website; and Arts Soc says "Welcome To Artssoc.com. Blood Transfusion Only used in very serious forms of anemia when treatment is urgent." So I guess functional websites are out. I'll find them on Facebook, then write an entire post about it.

Wedges

My iPhone came back to life, so I'm able to take photos again. I almost started using an actual digital camera, which I would like to so I could learn how to do those shots with the background blurred. Not really relevant when the background is a white wall.

I thought I was going to Arts Soc beer pong on Monday but it was really just drink the beer. Lots of people were dressed to go out and the girls were wearing wedges.

On our left we have Emily, third year Food Science. Those shoes are purple. She bought them in Australia for $20, reduced from $80. Everyone loves a good bargain. The top was also bought in Australia for $20, making this a very boring post so far. In my notes I have the word "peplum" in reference to her top. I had to look it up on Wikipedia and I'm not any wiser about it. Check Google Image Search if reading articles doesn't suit you right now.

"Peplos" is a woman's garment from Ancient Greece. There's a See Also link to Clothing in the Ancient World that I'm tempted to edit an 80s section into. It wouldn't compare to the time I edited the Winners Don't Use Drugs article to say See Also: Michael Phelps. Or the time I entered a Late Late Show competition and hurriedly edited Wikipedia to give the wrong answer.

I made it past the first Google search result and it turns out peplums have been back for about a year. Probably not the Ancient Greek ones, though I see the connection. The Guardian has an article with a video explaining it. I'll be honest: I didn't know what Emily was talking about and I can't see it in the photo. Best I can do is let you all know if anyone else is wearing them in Belfield. Emily's also wearing "Just a fuckin’ mini-skirt" (I may have put words in her mouth) and she was happy to report her bracelets came from Penny's and her ring she found in a bathroom -- of course, none of which can be seen in the photo.

Ally, on our right, second year Sociology and English, is wearing grey wedges. She wasn't planning to go out (she did go out) though her outfit is in her "top nine" -- it's something she wears around college. Wedges are from River Island: €45. Jeans from River Island -- high jeans, "above my belly button." The top is from Top Shop, appropriately.

I asked her what she thought of my shoes (no photo) and she said "very fancy ... maybe too fancy for jeans." I said something about counting down the days until I buy Cons but got a negative vibe, even though there were loads of Cons at the Arts Soc thing.

I was going to talk about my weekend but this post is too long already. I've another photo ready for this week and plenty I can say about Freshers' Week in another post.

Converse are IN

The first class I tried to go to today was in Smurfit and not Quinn so Quinn is out. I did end up going to two though, both in the Arts Block which I think is officially called the Newman building now? I'm guessing it's not cool to call it Newman yet. Newman himself's pretty cool. He says quite a lot in The Idea of a University that can be quoted against UCD. There's a whole chapter arguing against the practical use of your degree and in favour of intellectual culture, so back to the Cons.

There are loads of people wearing them. Guys and girls, almost doesn't matter what colour. Only girls seem to be wear the low ones. A few people were about wearing canvas Vans, but nobody seems to be wearing skate-shoes. I'll keep an eye out now. I've a cheap pair of canvas shoes I bought one year when I had to buy clean clothes after Electric Picnic. I think they were €15 in H&M. I'll wear them in and get a photo up soon.

Are they still called Cons? Converse? Americans call them Chuck Taylors but I've never heard that here. Turns out Nike own Converse now so it's all Asian sweat-shop chic.

And there's no photo today because my iPhone died at lunchtime. I was waiting in the Newman building for someone and when I tried to call them again it was blank and not turning on/vibrating when muted. Luckily I got phone insurance three weeks ago so phone insurance is in! And the phone insurance was free with my Ulster Bank account, so Ulster Bank are in! I also got €60 back from Ulster Bank this week because I bought my EP tickets through them. Is there a favoured bank I should know about? Everyone should just change to Ulster Bank. They're hardly going to fuck up again like they just did.

I ordered a phone on eBay to tide me over until I can get the new iPhone. Hopefully it will arrive by Friday and I can post photos next week.

Black Monday

For Black Monday I took a photo in the dark. This is Anna, third year History and Politics.

Anna's on her way to Dandelion to fool freshers into giving her their email address so they can be spammed for the next three and half years. I question how ethical that is -- hopefully she got paid well. I decided earlier in the year to start unsubscribing from anything that wasn't addressed specifically to me. Now I don't get much email.

She got her red top in Catch on Liffey Street. Catch has one review on RateMyArea.com: one star. Don't let that put you off, I've seen some killer jeans come out of that shop. They were so nice I sent my ex back to buy another pair, on my dollar. Maybe not the best quality but a great fit -- now they're torn at the knee which I think is in. Guys are definitely wearing ripped jeans, I'll keep an eye out to see if girls are too or if my ex was looking a bit tattered.

Anna had no idea how much the top cost but luckily her boyfriend, Simon, interjected to say it was €20. I had happily opened the conversation with the line "Anna, what are you wearing right now." On the other hand, Anna had 15 minutes to get to work so we didn't get to talk too deeply about her wardrobe. The skirt was from Miss Selfridge, Anna loves it, I was trying to be at least a little polite around Simon.

Anna was pretty happy with what she was wearing. She looked good; sorry about the crap photo. I asked her about my clothes and she said "nice", "green". I get it.

Day One

I didn't go to any lectures and hopped the fence into Res to stick it to the man. I wore a shirt and blazer last week but must've been the only one on campus dressed so well, so I toned it down for the first day of term.

Dani, 3rd year History and Politics, said:

Puma is out "maybe if it was Hollister". She didn't mind the colour, but definitely got the point across not to wear this t-shirt again. I might try it again some time when I'm at the swanky new gym. I'm pretty sure green is in -- lots of people around campus rocking green today.

"The Dubes remind me of secondary school ... can we bring Dubes back, they're so comfy." I guess they're not in if they have to be brought back, but damn, they are comfy. I'll cycle through my other shoes but they're generally too formal or I bought them on a whim because they were cheap, hence not exactly bangin' style.

She didn't have much to say about the jeans, maybe she was being nice, and I forgot to ask about the hair. I also forgot to ask for marks out of ten, but you'll forgive this on the first post.

Dani was wearing a UCD hoodie and stained sweatpants. I didn't have lectures today because I don't have a timetable yet.