Week 3: Euro-Chic

I feel like I should be fully transparent with you guys, so I will admit this week’s feature is someone I know and didn’t just stop on the street. In retrospect, that was a cute idea of me to think that I’d romantically stumble upon people on campus who have the time or desire to speak to some random girl who wants to ask them a bunch of personal questions that have to do with clothing…

Now that I’m realizing that pretty much everyone has headphones in and simply cannot be bothered to even make eye contact with another human being, I’m going to have to start being a little less *spontaneous* with my subjects.

Anyyyyyyway, this week I’m showing off my wonderful, creative, brilliant, not to mention, stylish, friend Carola Sacchi. Carola is a business administration major here at USC after she transferred from Chapman after freshman year.

Carola basically has fashion in her blood–her grandmother started her own clothing line and then subsequent department store in the 1970s when she immigrated to Argentina from Italy. This financial independence was pretty much unheard of for a woman in a Latin American country at this time, so these values of hard work and fortitude have been ingrained within Carola since she was a child. With her mother and grandmother always having an eye for style, Carola has felt comfortable talking fashion from a young age.

Starting in college, though, Carola began to develop her own personal sense of style and a career-focused mindset. Besides likening herself to the women in her family, she started to understand the purpose of dressing up and the messages that outfits can convey. “It’s a really tangible way of showing who you are,” she shares. “Whether you care about fashion [or you don’t], every single person wakes up in the morning and puts clothes on their body. These clothes reflect how you see yourself or how you want other people to see you.”

Her style is simple, elegant, and classic. She sticks to neutral colors and likes a tailored, but not too-polished look. If you ask her, she’d describe her fashion personality as “European vibes”.

Carola thinks of fashion as the underdog of the art world. And she’s really right, when you think about it. Look back on history in terms of the cultural pieces that represent time periods. There’s television, movies, music, paintings, sculptures, but fashion is omnipresent. When you think about a particular era (the 20s, the Renaissance, Victorian period), you imagine the people of the time in the context of their appearances. So by typical standards, fashion is the new player on the field who everyone forgets about but continues to have a prolific impact on the game.

Besides the creativity and aesthetic beauty of clothing ensembles, fashion has created a complex industry in a business sense. “Clothing is a financial investment,” she explained. “No one is going to buy clothes they don’t like, right?” Fashion is an unavoidable part of our lives, and although people like to tag it as frivolous or a waste of time, they are forced to come face to face with it.

Instead of just embracing the prevalence of clothing and glamour in our day-to-day lives like most fashion-focused people do, Carola actually internalizes it. Each article of clothing she wears genuinely means something to her. When you talk to her, you can tell that each of the garments she puts on her body have a story, and all of these individual stories come together to form her identity. She bought her button-down top while aimlessly strolling through stores during a layover in Milan. Her distressed jeans are the “only kind she wears”, since tight pants are a huge no-go for her. Her shoes? Not just basic Air Force Ones, but a specially made pair that features reworked vintage designer pieces.

To Carola, fashion is a part of who she is. It won’t be long until she forges her own unique spot in the industry.

quick questions

who is your style inspiration?
audrey hepburn.

what’s one article of clothing you can’t live without?
black leather boots. right now from zara, but i always have a pair because you can dress them up or down!

heels or flats?
heels, i’m 5’1″!

if you could only shop at one store for the rest of your life, where would it be?
chanel — i don’t have anything from them yet but one day i’ll buy myself my first piece, hopefully soon!