The fall
It’s sad but it’s true: somewhere between 8:00am and 8:32am last Monday morning I fell. Don’t worry I’m not talking about a physical fall - although this one in many ways is just as dangerous. I’m talking about going down an extremely slippery slope into areas of fashion disaster.

To understand the importance of Monday morning’s event, I cast your minds back to the start of term. Optimistic and hopeful, myself and a group of friends set ourselves a number of New Year resolutions. Amongst the obvious (eat well, work well, party well) we decided this year to add: dress well. It only takes a few minutes on Elvet Riverside to realise that  dominating the Durham fashion scene at the moment is the ‘casual’ look: tracksuit bottoms with a large baggy hoody and, more often that not, a woollen scarf/pashmina and the staple pair of Ugg boots.

Trouble in Paradise
There is, of course, nothing wrong with wanting to be comfortable at lectures. The walk down Elvet Riverside is, after all, not a catwalk and people are entitled to wear whatever they want to.

But I’m sure 90% of the people reading this have initiated, participated in or at least nodded approvingly whilst over hearing a conversation going along the lines of, “There’s no individuality in Durham, everyone just looks the same, it’s such a bubble…. etc. etc.”

Whilst we all agree that it would be nice to see some more variety in what people around Durham wear, I pose this question to you: how unique or unclichéd is what you’re wearing now? It was answering this question that made me and some others decide that, rather than waiting for everybody else to tune into or discover their alternative inner selves, the easiest and best thing to do would be to start making the changes ourselves.

The term initially got off to a good start. Bright colours, A-cut lines, belts, pinafore dresses, stripes, floral, polka-dots, they all came flying back into our lives. The phrases, ‘I saw a dress like that in cosmopolitan,’ ‘Where did you get that hat from?’ and ‘Oh, don’t you look nice today’ were not uncommon in our household. But, as all good things do, this honeymoon period came to an end. At somewhere between 8:00am and 8:32am, last Monday, four ‘snoozes’ on the alarm later, I thought to myself: I just can’t be bothered. I even contemplated which outfit in my wardrobe would be best at disguising my pyjamas underneath (don’t judge, we’ve all done it!).

And so, ladies and gentlemen, as I walked to lectures in loose-fitting, scraggly attire and a pair of old converse, I knew there and then that I had fallen.

Why does it always rain on me?
But - and this is a big but - something good came out of that morning’s long and contemplative walk to my lecture. I realised that it is not our fault. In fact, I managed to pin-point three major factors in Durham which are combating our abilities to be stylish.

1. It’s cold – knees-knocking, muscle-spasming, nipple-erecting, teeth-chatteringly freezing-cold. The result being we’d all rather just wear our duvets to lectures than having to face the thought of leaving our heat-proof cocoons.
2. It’s rainy – the result, no one wants see their best clothes a soggy, curling and crumpling heap by the end of the day.
3. Those god awful cobbles – the result, even those most professional at strutting their stuff in a pair of heals are almost 70% likely to end up by the end of their walk face down, sprawled across the floor with a twisted ankle to deal with.

So, the solutions to these problems. As a fallen woman I am in no position to give such advice. However, as I see people tackling these every day – walking around Durham like diamonds in the rough -  I decided to catch up with a few of these beauties to see what they had to say:
Fashionista numero uno: Mr A. R. Driscoll, talking on how he deals with the temperature: “Yes it’s cold, but this means we have to embrace the layers. Whatever design or style clothes you like best, lots of thin layers are a lot warmer than one big jumper. Make sure that the colours don’t clash and the shapes are complementary.”

Fashionista numero dos: Miss S. Siram, revealing how she always looks so glamorous and in her best clothes despite the rain: “It’s about investing in a big, but stylish coat, to protect your clothes but look good at the same time. Big hoods are preferable to keep your hair and face protected. I find that any outfit can be styled with at least three colours, a belt or a decent pair of earrings.”

Fashionista numero tres: Miss G. Peach, discussing how she deals with the long walk from the viaduct to the riverside crossing the dreaded cobbles: “Every term I turned up hopefully with a huge selection of stilettos, and every time I quickly learnt it’s all about investing in a nice selection of flat shoes. I’ve now got quite a few pumps to add to the collection, but make sure that they are quite thick otherwise water seeps through and your feet are cold all day.”

Unacceptable in the noughties
So there it is, advice from the experts. We need lots of layers, big coats, at least three colours on our outfits and a few decent pairs of flats to survive. With these basics, the only way to go is up, people of Durham; if they can do work it, so can you. Student fashion has been a huge means of expression throughout history. The seventies was an era of braless women, psychedelic t-shirts and flared trousers; the eighties a decade of exuberant colours, bold statements on clothing and the introduction of androgyny with men and women wearing suits for the first time; even the nineties was a defining time where women wore belly tops and tight clothing with big platformed shoes. I beg you, please oh please lets not make ‘the tracksuit’ the thing of the noughties.