The Monthly Fashion Spotlight is an article written every launch that highlights EOM students' personal style. A photoshoot and interview is conducted on a student with a unique style to learn more about what their style means to them, and to inspire other students to evolve and build their own personal style. This launch, we interviewed grade 11 student, Justin Tan, to find out what he would describe to be his own style.
Where do you get your clothes from; favourite brands?
“I get the majority of my favourite clothes from thrift stores. I also go through Instagram, through apps like Depop or Grailed, and I curate pieces too. For example, a piece on Grailed, like a Carhartt piece. Then, one jacket will have like one tear on the left side, and the other will have nothing on it. I think it’s really cool when they are pre-used items because all clothing is different and I like vintage stuff.
How would you describe your style?
“What I attempt to be is a Japanese guy that is a wannabe American dude, that is what I attempt to be. But what I would describe my style to be is more of a vintage style. The colours I go with are more of the skin tones like beige and it’s all faded.”
Why is fashion and clothing important to you?
“I think because of first impressions, when you look at someone, you can know what they’re like sometimes and I think fashion is important wherever you go because it is a way to express yourself and it kinda puts people into different groups of fashion (friend groups, stereotypes).”
What is your favourite piece of clothing to style?
“I would have to say it’s a t-shirt. It’s the most simple thing. A t-shirt could be distressed, it could be oversized, it could be tiny, it could have sleeves or not, it could be faded, and sometimes with the graphic you can rep whatever you want so that is why it’s my favourite thing to style.”
Do you have any style inspirations like social media influencers or celebrities?
“I have one social media influencer, it’s this account on Instagram called Old Man Alan (@oldmanalan) that has a similar style as me. They mostly go with old beat up sneakers like Nike Dunks and Jordan 1s. There’s also this guy, he’s not really a celebrity, but he wrote some movies. His name is Kunichi Nomura (@kunichi_nomura on Instagram), his style is basically cardigans and t-shirts.”
How much do your outfits usually cost?
“It all depends on what I’m wearing. As an average for shoes the average for what I’d pay for is $200, my pants are probably like $50, and for my t-shirts I’d average around $100. So in total my outfits could range from $200-$500.
Justin’s Business, LeWrongGeneration:
What is it like running your own business, LeWrongGeneration, and working with other entrepreneurs like yourself in the fashion industry?
“It is pretty fun. You get to meet a lot of new people at the vintage events. There are people from all different ages. What I like about running it is that I get to meet people that I sell to, it is fun meeting the community, and when I’m running it since I’m at a young age, I get more compliments from other people so that’s cool.”
How did you start your business?
“I remember that one day I went to one of the stores (flagship stores) because I used to sell sneakers, and it was so cool because at the lineups people used to wear all of the swag, and all I had was cheap Jordans from the outlet and everything, and I thought I want these clothes. I could not make money off of [selling] Supreme [products] because it was too expensive and too hard to get. Then vintage came along when I came to a [flagship] store and they were selling a $30 Raptors piece and my dad said it was overpriced cause it’s literally old, but now the market is going up.”
What is one piece of advice you would give to people trying to find their own style?
“First look at what you want to wear, look at the fits. You don’t want to copy off of a person but instead try to have your own sense and flow to it. You should keep getting inspiration from people you look at and try to wear whatever you want without caring about what people will think about it. I think fashion now is getting more normalized and anything now is considered fashion which is a good thing. Like I saw someone with a full emo fit and I thought they looked cool.”
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