Opinion: Students should alter their boring wardrobes

Take a stroll through the Pit anywhere between noon and 3 p.m. on a busy weekday early in the semester. Or even a less busy weekend. It doesn’t matter.

You’ll see the same thing. Guys will usually be in khaki or athletic shorts, short- or long-sleeved T-shirts and some sort of Nike or Asics running shoe. Girls, more than likely, are in running shorts or leggings, oversized shirts (usually UNC organization-related), and all-white, high-top Converse All-Stars (commonly referred to as Chuck Taylors).

Don’t believe me? Sit in the Pit for a 30-minute span on a Tuesday afternoon and watch it all unfold.

Both above descriptions are definitely generalizing statements about what students at UNC wear during the late summer/early fall, but are they completely incorrect?

While these statements don’t apply to the fashion choices of every UNC student who daily steps foot on campus, they do apply to far too many. While very few students have never worn an outfit like the ones described above, many do.

Moreover, many stick to that formula day to day, week to week or even month to month, even when weather attempts to force them to deviate. Rain, sun, snow or shine — it does not matter. Some students will wear the same thing when it’s snowing as when it’s 99 degrees outside.

Homogeneity is not cool, especially when it comes to fashion.

Being “in style” is not cool. This isn’t to say you have to try something new and shocking daily, but giving new life to your style rotation would be nice. It helps everyone be exposed to new ideas and helps get creative juices flowing to create more great things for campus culture overall. Yes, some students just don’t care enough to put a decent amount of effort into their fashion choices.

But it seems that a large number of students would love to try new things. They just don’t know what, or maybe they’re scared of messing with the status quo. (No, that wasn’t a “High School Musical” reference.)

Either way, they need a little push, a little help, in expanding; trying something normcore is the perfect new style for everyone to try, mainly since it incorporates many style choices students already use.

Normcore is a unisex fashion style, described in The New York Times as “a fashion movement, c. 2014, in which scruffy young urbanites swear off the tired street-style cliches of the last decade ... in favor of a less-ironic (but still pretty ironic) embrace of bland, suburban anti-fashion attire.”

Sneakers like New Balances and Air Monarchs, mom/dad jeans and beer advertisement T-shirts complete the normcore look — pretty similar to what UNC students already wear, with an ironic generational twist.

Many people will find it funny, some will find it ugly, nowhere near stylish, but that is their flawed opinion.

It’s something different, which can’t be said for a lot of the things students wear.

Whether normcore is the look for you or not, we should all strive for individuality within our wardrobe. Individuality breeds creativity and inclusiveness, something the UNC community could definitely use right now.