Teapot Glusac combines comfort and cuteness, sporting baggy sweaters, soft socks, and earth tones.

Tina “Teapot” Glusac ’18 likes to be comfortable, but that doesn’t mean she can’t look cute. Glusac sat down with The Argus to chat about the pleasures of baggy sweaters, the importance of soft socks, and the attraction of earth tones.

 

The Argus: Describe your personal style in three to five words.

Teapot Glusac: Multi-purpose. Pajama-like. Actually pajamas.

 

A: To what extent are you interested in fashion?

TG: I really care about what I wear in the sense of how it makes me feel, but I don’t adhere to actual fashion, because I don’t consider myself very fashionable. I’m really into my specific style, but I don’t think it’s very chic. It’s very baggy and comfortable, but that’s my interest.

 

A: So is comfort your number-one priority?

TG: Yes. Comfort, but I do want it to be appealing to me, at least, and attractive in whatever this style is—I care about that.

 

A: Do you stand out?

TG: Where I’m from, definitely. The style that I now embody, it reflects my personality and how I don’t feel, in this stage of my life, very feminine. So I just prefer a less gendered style of dress and more unisex, and where I’m from [people wear] tight clothes. I think I stood out that way. But there are a lot of creative dressers here, so I don’t think that I necessarily stand out here. But I’m not trying to, either. I just really like this look. It feels good.

 

A: How has your style changed since high school?

TG: I felt that this was the way I wanted to dress for a really long time. I definitely used to wear tight clothes and makeup and dresses and stuff. It didn’t benefit my inside. It really affected my mental health, because dressing in that way does make some people feel good—but I just wasn’t one of those people. And I was surrounded by people who did feel that way, so I felt that something was wrong with me. Coming here, I realized that there are so many people who don’t identify with that type of clothing; getting up and dressed in the morning is less of a big deal to people here.

 

A: Where do you get most of your clothes?

TG: Let’s see. All my favorite things are from Goodwill and random thrift shops. But I’m really into socks, and I really care about where I get my socks. You don’t really buy socks at Goodwill; you get socks at a store. So there are some pieces that I enjoy shopping for. The men’s section of H&M has done me a lot of justice. But mostly Goodwill.

 

A: What’s your favorite pair of socks?

TG: I pretty much never not wear striped socks. I kind of re-wear the same four pairs of striped socks every day, and I wash them every week—I promise. Anything striped. It’s a weird day if it’s not striped, but if it’s not striped, it’s some sort of pattern.

 

A: Do you care if they’re visible in your outfit, or is the important thing that you know you’re wearing them?

TG: Yes. My socks are always visible. I usually tuck my pants into my socks. Or they always pop out of every shoe I’m wearing, even if it’s boots. You can always see my socks. They’re my favorite accessory.

 

A: What’s the story with your bracelets?

TG: I used to have a lot more, and a bunch of hemp necklaces and stuff, and I have some anklets, and they jiggle a lot. But it was kind of around the same time that I stopped being into makeup and tight clothing—I decided to detest jewelry that cost any money. I would be really like, to any partners or family or anything, “Please don’t buy me jewelry. I really won’t wear it.” I stopped wearing earrings. I have a bunch of piercings, but I don’t wear them anymore.

 

A: What’s your color palette?

TG: I’m into earth tones, I think. Darker colors, I suppose, but I’d say a more earthy palette. But I do have accents of black.

 

A: Are you an earthy person?

TG: I think so. I spent the summer farming, and I love being outdoors and doing anything I can. Even in the dead of winter, I’ll run six miles outside, because I just need to be outside. I get really upset when I can’t be outside.

 

A: Do you ever try to make political statements with your clothing? Is everything ethically sourced?

TG: There’s a bunch of things I’m learning about as I get older that are really horrifying to me, and I don’t really know what to do. There’s so much exploitation of all marginalized people, but children especially, in the clothing world. I want to find a way to know about whether the things I [wear] are sourced from that or not, but there’s other issues in my life that I’m fighting for more—that’s one of them, but I’m not educated enough on the topic. But I do believe in repurposing clothing instead of buying, so that’s why I love flea markets and donation centers and thrift shops instead of creating more waste.

 

A: What do you do with your clothes when you’re done wearing them?

TG: I always give them to Goodwill. I try to go through my closet once a year and give away all the things that are too small. My size fluctuates a lot, so I’m outgrowing things even though I don’t look different—things feel different from year to year.

 

A: What’s your process of getting dressed in the morning?

TG: I think of one thing I really want to wear that day, and I carve everything else around it. And sometimes I don’t end up wearing that one thing, because in carving around it, I’ll realize, “No, I want to wear these pants and not the shirt that I thought.”

 

A: How would you define style at Wesleyan?

TG: Style at Wesleyan is awesome. It’s really, I find, individual here, because even though there are general trends—trends from our parents’ age coming back—I think that people take it in so many different directions. It’s inspiring to me because I feel like I can do the same thing.

 

A: To whom do you look for style guidance?

TG: Pretty much everyone’s pajama, going-to-bed, watching Netflix-wear is my everyday wear. It’s perfect for me.

 

A: How does your hair complement your clothes?

TG: This semester I got a really big haircut. It used to be down to here [gestures] but then I stopped feeling all that feminine, so I thought a haircut would be in order. I really wanted to embody more of myself. My hair definitely goes with it by being a little less noticeable. It was a lot, so that was a defining characteristic for me, and I didn’t want to be defined by my hair anymore.