Fashion at SMC

Diversity, pop culture, and fashion: take a few steps onto any one of the five campuses at Santa Monica College (SMC), and you’ll witness these three characteristics in students every few feet. Eclectic and traditional tastes come together across campuses to highlight SMC's proud cultural diversity, embracing the artistic pursuit of self-expression through fashion. Through clothes, colors, and cuts, the unifying language of fashion represents the ever changing faces of SMC.

James Royale

Sophomore James Royale enjoys zooming across the SMC campus on his cruiser board. (Jacob Victorica/Corsair Photo)

Emma Carlson

SMC freshman Emma Carlson sports a poppin’ pink suit. (Jacob Victorica/Corsair Photo)

Emma Carlson, an SMC freshman, uses fashion to express herself and to curate her social interactions. “I always use how I dress as a way to make friends but also keep people distant,” Carlson said. She collects most of her fashion items from her workplace – Goodwill – and added, “I’m wearing a bright pink suit, not a lot of people are going to come up and approach me.”

Christian Hendric

“People want to be remembered,” freshman Christian Hendric said when asked about SMC fashion. (Jacob Victorica/Corsair Photo)

Freshman Christian Hendric found his identity through fashion. Hendric, originally from Northern California, said, “You can definitely tell who the foreign exchange students are by what they wear or even the way they walk, compared to American students who wear less brand names and dress more summery.”

Courtney Robinson

Sophomore Courtney Robinson believes a simple outfit equates to a chill person, while a bold-colored outfit signals someone outgoing. (Jacob Victorica/Corsair Photo)

The main SMC campus on Pico Boulevard, in particular, is well known for featuring students matching different colors and patterns. Sophomore Courtney Robinson said, “Fashion plays a huge role at SMC, on-campus. I’ve never seen some of the styles that I’ve seen here.” Robinson describes her style as comfortable and approachable. She often turns to the weather, social media, and season to determine how flashy or simple her outfit will be.

Ian Oliveira

Corsair sophomore Ian Oliveira dreams of one day living off his photography and filmmaking. (Jacob Victorica/Corsair Photo)

This time two years ago, sophomore Ian Oliveira was living in his home country of Brazil. Fast forward to the first week of 2018 fall classes at SMC, and Oliveira has since lived in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles. “I don’t like to live a normal life,” he said.

Oliveira has passions for photography, filmmaking, surfing and skateboarding, all activities that brought him to West Los Angeles. His Youtube channel has over 337,000 subscribers, a massive total accumulated throughout his world travels.