Trend Report: Converse Shoes and Mom Jeans

This spring, in a course called “Writing Beloit,” 13 students led by Christi Clancy, a professor of English, created a magazine called “Inside the Bubble,” intended for fellow students. Students conceived of stories, interviewed people, wrote profiles and features and food reviews, and considered the interplay between narrative and visual elements. As magazine nerds ourselves, Beloit College Magazine staff popped in to visit class a few times. Our art director even provided some guidance on layout and design.

A section on campus trends was one of our favorites. That department had students diving into subjects like campus fashion and the propensity of Beloit students to telegraph their stories and preferences through laptop and water bottle stickers.

Multi-colored Converse shoes were recognized as one fashion trend by Jaylan Dunn’18, who wrote that she owns pairs in mint, aqua, red, black, pink, cheetah, and white.

Hayley Tran’21, another fashion trend-spotter, reported on mom jeans at Beloit. Tran wrote: “Twenty years ago, mom jeans were just a fashionable type of jeans at the time, then began disappearing from stores … But now, they are suddenly cool.” For the uninitiated, mom jeans are high-waisted, with a tapered straight leg and “little to no stretch [that] creates a grungy and vintage vibe of the 1990s,” wrote Tran.