More Than Clothes: Fashion Club’s Mission At Jenks
By: Olivia Cannon
The clothes you wear tell a story to the world. The way you dress is the first impression people get from you, and it is a way you can show people who you are without having to say a word.
The Jenks Fashion Club is on a mission to show the students how they can use fashion as a tool to bring confidence and also to build a community to help others.
At the beginning of this school year, Alishba Ahmad and a small group of her fellow sophomores founded the Jenks Fashion Club with a big goal in mind:
“I wanted to create a community of kids who could work together and have a fun space,” said Ahmad, the club's founder and president. “I hope they learn how to better express themselves through fashion. I hope to run certain things like a clothing drive or make bracelets for hospitals, as well as create a space where we could learn about self-expression. I think that fashion is one of the best ways to express yourself.”
One of the club’s main goals is to teach students about self-expression, but why is this such an important thing for people to learn?
“I think that at school it's pretty often that we raise a culture where people don't feel comfortable dressing how they want because they feel like people will see that as lame,” said Ahmad. “I want them to know that they can, and they should be able to dress however they want. They shouldn't be afraid to express themselves, essentially,”
The Fashion Club's goal is for everyone to be able to dress however they want so they can show who they are through their clothes, and the officers are doing this in their daily lives. Ahmad has founded this club with a special interest in fashion and is especially interested in the way she can show her culture through the way she dresses.
Image of The Indus Valley Traditional Silver Jhumka Earrings from the brand Nida Taba that gets their jewelry handmade in Pakistan.
Photo Credit: https://nidatabba.com/product/468#:~:text=Discover%20the%20decadence%20of%20our,vibrant%20region%20of%20Southeast%20Asia.
“I'm Muslim. So one thing I struggle with is not wearing the hijab, and I think my culture influences my fashion taste a lot, like, I wear a lot of cultural accessories. Right now, I'm wearing jhumka, which are South Asian earrings,” said Ahmad while showing off her beautiful chandelier-like earrings. “I kind of like using more cultural as well as more Western elements into my style. It's kind of like how my culture has influenced me.”
Everyone has a fashion inspiration they look up to. For Ahmad it’s Vivienne Westwood, specifically some of her older styles. For some, that inspiration may not be a celebrity but someone they know, and that's the case for Samara Ortega, the treasurer of the fashion club.
“I'd say probably my older sister, I like to see how she dresses, she's just very comfortable but still stylish. Usually like this,” said Ortega, gesturing to her outfit today, a mini jean skirt, a little red top, and a thin cropped black cardigan. “This is not a good example, usually I wear a lot of pink, a lot of, like, pastel colors and brown. I like to kind of dress up a little bit every day because I feel like it helps me be more motivated in class and things.”
And for some, their inspiration does not come from a person exactly, but more so a combination of aesthetics that they created to represent them.
“My fashion inspiration isn’t necessarily from someone more of the style boho earthy, as well as streetwear or AHS (American High Street style),” said Jana Amupanda, the fashion club's vice president. “I like being comfortable but stylish things that are kinda flowy and out there are also my style. They inspire the way I dress as I like to give off an earthy, very nature down to earth type of aura.”
These girls love fashion and dressing, but wearing cute clothes is not the only thing these officers do. The club also wants to educate people about fashion. Amupanda said that in the future, they not only want to host workshops to help students discover their style but also create a clothing drive so that they can help the community outside of the high school, and it seems like they are off to a great start. Every meeting, they choose something new to teach about and find a fun way for people to participate. This month, they held their meeting after school on October 14th with the goal of teaching about the message other people get from the way you dress, and they used the TikTok performative man trend as a way to do this.
“Well, I saw that on social media a lot,” said Ahmad when asked about where she got the idea. “I also saw some posts about how it ties in with Asian culture. I think that's really interesting, and I want to have the contest. So not only just to have a fun contest, but also so we can learn about what we perceive to be performative,” said Ahmad.
The winners of the performative man contest.
Photo Credit: @Jenksfashionistas Instagram
The club held a competition and had students come dressed as a preformative man to win prizes. First place won several CDs and a cash prize of $40, second place won a LEGO set, and third place won a bag of candy. The officers have lots of plans for future meetings and things that they want to teach. Ortega shared that there may be plans to do a lesson on veils and the way different cultures and religions use them.
Since the club just started at the beginning of the school year, they are still very small. Ahmad shared that one of their main goals is to grow and reach more people, and they seem to be succeeding.
“We have gotten more student engagement with our club by trying to incorporate trends that everyone can participate in, like our recent performative male contest and letting people come and show styles and different ideas that they haven’t been given the opportunity to display until now,” said Amupanda.
The Jenks Fashion Club, already at its second meeting, had around thirty people show up and is hoping to grow more every month. If you want to join in on the amazing community this club is creating and learn some new things about fashion, follow @jenksfashionistas on Instagram to stay updated with all the fun things they are doing.
