BY DESIGN : The Class of ’95 : Whether they wear denim or leather, flowery sun dresses or baggy overalls, the seniors voted “best dressed” by their peers in high schools across Southern California don’t look to magazines or movie stars to find their style--they make it themselves.
FAIRFAX HIGH SCHOOL
Chris Jordan says he likes to combine East and West coast styles of dressing. His plaid Polo hat is more of an East Coast style, he says, while his baggy jeans are West Coast.
“I like to dress casual,” says Jordan, 18, who lives in Los Angeles and will attend Santa Monica College in the fall. His favorite look is a leather jacket with jeans, tennis shoes and a long shirt. “I don’t like the high school atmosphere,” he says. “I like street style.”
Favorite store: Eddie Bauer.
Fashion love: Jackets. “I have about 10,” he says: leather, jean and different colored Windbreakers.
Most he’s spent on a piece of clothing: $450 on his leather jacket.
What he’s saving for: an $800 black leather Timberland jacket.
Friend he’d most like to re-dress: Rashod Booker. “He dresses too blah, not stylish enough. I’d give him a whole new wardrobe. He wears khakis. I’d take him to a Timberland store and remake him.”
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Although Charity Dewara, 18, admits that she occasionally looks through Glamour or Vogue or Seventeen magazines, she mostly finds what she likes by window shopping on Melrose Avenue on her way home from school.
“I like long dresses mostly, not really jeans,” says Dewara, who lives in Los Angeles. “And I like to fix my hair; to curl it with a curling iron, to put it up. Some people think I look like I’m going to the prom. But I think it’s important to look clean and fixed at school.”
Most she would spend on a piece of clothing: $200.
Favorite stores: Too Sexy, Shuki, Last Stop (all on Melrose).
What’s out: Doc Martens, flowery vests and flowery patterned clothes, shiny bright colors.
What’s in: pink, beige and brown.
TAFT HIGH SCHOOL
George Koiso, 18, prides himself on his conservative style. “Young but with class” is his motto.
“I don’t like anything too flashy,” says Koiso, who lives in Tarzana and will enter UCLA in the fall.
He doesn’t spend much on clothes--he takes care of the clothes he has. “I know what I can afford. If I shopped a lot, I’d just want more, and you can’t go around wanting everything.”
Favorite stores: Banana Republic, the Gap.
Most he would spend on a piece of clothing: $100.
Fashion philosophy: “The way you dress reflects your personality. If you dress radical, probably your mind is radical. I’m a conservative person, but I have a young heart. So I wear young, conservative clothes. But I always want to look presentable. . . . A first impression is a thing you can’t redo.”
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“I wear what is comfortable,” says Jina Lee, 18. She usually goes for skirts and dresses and prefers white, black, ivory and cream.
“I don’t try so hard to look good for others,” says Lee, who lives in Tarzana and will attend UC Irvine in the fall. “I look good for myself. If other people like what I wear, that’s nice too.”
Favorite stores: the Gap, Banana Republic, J. Crew, Max Studio.
Average she spends on her clothes: $50 on a dress, $40 on jeans, $15 to $20 on shirts.
GARFIELD HIGH SCHOOL
Greg Flores likes to “do his own thing” when it comes to dressing. “I make my own style, but I like nice clothes,” says Flores, 18, who lives in Los Angeles and will attend Cerritos College in the fall. He likes the classics: jeans, boots, flannel shirts.
What he’s wearing, above: Guess watch, Levi’s jeans, the Gap shirt, J. Crew belt.
Favorite stores: the Gap, J. Crew, Banana Republic.
What he’s saving for: brown leather boots with heels, $120.
Most he’s spent on a piece of clothing: leather jacket, $220.
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“I don’t follow a specific trend,” says Naima Sullivan, 17. “If I see something that is cute and looks good, I buy it.”
Favorite stores: the Gap, Eddie Bauer, Contempo Casuals, Judy’s.
She is big on shoes--she has so many, in fact, that she’s lost count. “I sometimes look through my closet and get a surprise with shoes I had totally forgotten about,” says Naima, who will attend Clark University in Atlanta in the fall.
Favorite shoe brands: Kenneth Cole, Nine West, Guess.
Favorite accessory: Beads. She started with a set her dad made during his “hippie days.” Now she adds to her collection by shopping at boutiques in malls and in Old Town Pasadena.
Shopping tips: Look for little, hidden stores, off the beaten track. “A lot of things that are expensive, you can find cheaper somewhere else,” says Naima, of Alhambra. She buys her jeans secondhand at thrift shops, for about $20.
SANTA MONICA HIGH SCHOOL
Buzz Pierce, 17, won the best-dressed title with a combination of vintage and thrift-store finds. A typical outfit (pictured, right): a ‘70s-style leather jacket; baggy jeans made from old overalls with the top cut off and belt loops sewn on, riding low over boxer shorts; a bowling shirt and green Converse All-Stars, worn in for a year by a friend (“I sprayed them with Micatin [an athlete’s foot spray],” he says).
Buzz, who will work for a year in film production before attending San Francisco State, likes to “alter clothes. I cut them up, add patches. All my clothes look used--most are.”
Favorite place to shop: Venice Beach.
Average he spends on a piece of clothing: $12.
Favorite clothing item: his green sneakers.
Response of father when he won best-dressed: “You? Really?”
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Tikvah Myers, 18, prefers “easy, comfortable, clothes--pretty,” she says. “Mainly I wear dresses above the knee, loose but not a sack of potatoes. Prints, not solids. My favorite dress is usually my newest dress,” says Myers, who will attend Oberlin College in Ohio in the fall.
Favorite store: The Outlet Store in Santa Monica.
Most she would spend on a piece of clothing: $80, “if I really wanted it.”
CRENSHAW HIGH SCHOOL
Maurice Shields, 18, admits to spending most of his money on clothes. “I’m a shirt lover. Shirts make the outfit. It doesn’t matter what brand of pants you have if you have a nice shirt.”
Shields, headed for Cal State Long Beach in the fall, is big on brand names. Above, he’s wearing his favorites: Tommy Hilfiger jacket, New River belt, Nautica shirt, Eddie Bauer jeans and Eastland loafers.
Under his bed are 12 pairs of shoes in their original boxes, lined up in order of purchase date. “I’m not into trends,” he says. “I just like clothes, and to look good.”
Favorite stores: Bullock’s, Nordstrom, Guess.
What he’s saving for: $215 reversible Tommy Hilfiger jacket.
What’s out: Perry Ellis.
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Rachel Nixon, 17, prefers casual, baggy clothes: long-sleeved, button-down shirts with jeans. “I don’t like tight clothes, or little bitty shorts and tops,” she says.
“I look for deals. I won’t just buy anything,” says Rachel, who will enter USC in the fall.
Favorite store: Warner Brothers, at the Beverly Center. “I can always find a nice sweat shirt or hat there.”
Rachel owns about 50 hats in different styles and colors--but mostly she alternates between about 15 baseball and applejack caps--which have full, rounded tops.
What’s out: “Cross Colours. You should not come to school wearing that brand.”
Fashion gospel: “Clean shoes. They don’t even have to match your outfit, but shoes show the person. Dirty shoes really bother me.”
Her clean-tennis-shoe tip: Take a toothbrush and Ivory soap, scrub shoes, and wash shoe laces in the sink. Let dry.
“The shoes will look as good as new,” she promises.
