After I sat down with Shayna Jeffers ’06 to discuss Absolutely Fabulous, the April 16 fashion show on student of color pre-frosh weekend, I walked away with no doubt that fashion is a legitimate art form.
Wesleyan Argus: What’s your position for the fashion show this year?
Shayna Jeffers: I’m on the coordinating committee for the fashion show, and what I mostly do is fill out the paperwork and go to the meetings with Admissions and the Administration to keep updated knowing what I have to do and what the committee has to do by what time.
WA: So why did you decide to take on such a big job?
SJ: Because I was on the committee last year but I didn’t really do that much. To tell you the truth, more committee members did other things. I just wanted to be more responsible in something that I like doing. Since I’m not responsible in anything else [laughs].
WA: Why do you think the fashion show is important?
SJ: It allows another outlet for people who are not able to take classes in fashion design—or can’t get into art classes (like myself)—to be able to exhibit some of their passion for fashion art.
WA: Doesn’t it have another important side, with student recruitment?
SJ: Yeah, it does. The technical point is that it’s one of the things that students really remember when they come for their pre-frosh weekend. I know that I did. It just kind of shows you what the school has to offer. The people, the potential, and what you could contribute to.
WA: How’s it going to be different from last year?
SJ: Well, for one the stage is different. It’s going to be like in the Jay-Z “Change Clothes” video, or like a standard couture catwalk, if you will. It just has a different vibe to it, just a more…artistic vibe. It’s not really based around fashion, so to speak, as it is about expression in clothes. It doesn’t sound like there’s a difference but there is. As opposed to people just wanting to make clothes, it’s more people making statements with the clothes that they’re making. Instead of just different versions of clothes, it’s more of an expression of the person behind it.
WA: So why do you like fashion?
SJ: I don’t know if I really like fashion as much as I like to get dressed.
WA: Pearls are a signature Shayna statement. When did that come about?
SJ: Well, I always liked pearls. And when I graduated from high school, I took my mom’s pearl earrings and pearls and wore them, and decided that they’re just amazing things to have and they make everything look so classy. And I just love them.
WA: Do you think you’ve evolved a definite style?
SJ: Umm…yeah.
[As she hesitates to describe it, her friend and fellow committee member Awilda Rivera ’06 steps in.]
Rivera: I feel you have a definite style, but the thing is that there’s nothing definite about it. Cause it’s always fresh, it’s always different. Cause it’s always Shayna.
SJ: Yeah.
WA: Do you ever question whether fashion stops being an expression of self and starts being more like a means of conformity?
SJ: I feel like that happens all the time. With certain lifestyles, there seems to be a certain uniform. People feel that once they adopt certain aspects of this lifestyle, they should represent themselves in a certain way. And I think that happens a lot, and that sucks, but it happens. And then there are so many other people who just are themselves.
WA: What’s the most beautiful thing that you’ve seen in your years at Wesleyan?
SJ: [Thinks it over]. Andreas [Gurewich ’05] at Queer Prom last year. He cross-dressed, and his eyes were …he was just so into being the person that he appeared to be. It was amazing.
WA: So what makes something beautiful in your eyes?
SJ: Something that evokes an emotion from you that you wouldn’t think it could. That makes you think about it, and engrains itself in your memory. And you just feel this new way about it, even if something deters you, but you still think about it and it has to be beautiful in some way or another. Or you wouldn’t be obsessed with it [laughs].
WA: What role does nudity have in aesthetics and beauty?
SJ: Well, I feel that you have to be comfortable with yourself in the nude to really be able to represent yourself to people. You’re not uncomfortable with the ways the clothes fit you or anything like that because you’re comfortable with your body. I feel like nudity is… the purest form of self-expression.
WA: What’s made it possible for you to be so comfortable with your own nudity?
SJ: At my house, everybody walks around pretty much in their underwear, because we just do. And I guess I’ve just spent a lot of time making sure I was comfortable with my body, because other people seemed to be comfortable with it [laughs]. And then, I posed nude for the first time on Wednesday. I just felt that that was the last step to really make me feel comfortable.
WA: Do you think people are too quick to link nudity and sexuality?
SJ: It’s easy to, and they are linked in a way. Nudity as nudity is just your body, and it is sometimes a sexual thing but it’s still just a reflection of your body and yourself. In certain aspects and environments it can be linked to sexuality because you do use it to express your sexuality, but not all the time. And yes, sometimes people jump to conclusions that just because I posed nude I’m going to be wilin’ out all the time [laughs].
WA: There’s been a lot of emphasis on color lately in the fashion world. Why do you think that is?
SJ: There’s always going to be an emphasis on color of people in the fashion world because of the emphasis on the Other, the exoticized Other. People with exaggerated features in some sense are praised because it’s the Other. But we still have all of those people who pretty much look the same. It’s just like, “oh, another black model.” But think of how they resemble one another. And how you may never see them together.And color as in just color, I think that it’s kind of people wanting to get over this overwhelming present depression that’s been going on and just feel better.
WA: And color can do that?
SJ: Definitely. Color definitely affects your mood. Being in the spring, and being in the resembling colors, camouflaging with spring as it looks like we’re doing with the greens and pinks. It’s so that we can get back to that whole beautiful world of how it should be. If we ever get nice weather [laughs].
WA: What did you come to Wesleyan to do?
SJ: Be myself.
WA: Have you been able to do that since you’ve been here?
SJ: Yeah, I definitely have.
WA: What’s made that possible about this environment?
SJ: It reminds me a lot of my high school, in the sense that it’s “progressive,” and we can use quotations because that word never seems to be defined properly. I’m kind of used to the liberties but not really, and the expectations. I was just able to come here and be this person that I am, in whatever way, and to be able to change it if I have to, and not worry about somebody accusing me of anything because I’m evolving. And there are people who judge, but, I don’t care [laughs].
WA: How do you measure your own success?
SJ: By how good I feel about whatever I accomplish.
WA: Has anything surprised you since you’ve been here?
SJ: My tolerance.
WA: Is there anything that you’re afraid of?
SJ: I’ve been thinking about that a lot, actually. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t really be afraid of anything if I want to be free. That’s purely on a personal level, because obviously we’re living in a society with poverty and health issues. But really, I can’t be afraid of anything. I desire my freedom.
WA: Is there anything you would forbid yourself to do?
SJ: There probably is, but I can’t talk about it on record.
WA: Is there anything else that should be in this interview that hasn’t been said?
SJ: Just that this is going to be the first of many interviews along our careers, I feel.
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