Photo Credit: Connie Wang

Refinery29 is my go-to site for style inspiration, and with content ranging from “12 New Style Types To Know Now” to “Your Lunch, DIY, On The Cheap” to “The Illustrated History of Nail Art”, it’s easy to forget you’ve been surfing for hours without even thinking about your homework (guilty).

Connie Wang is R29’s Senior Global Editor, and she spilled to College Fashion about scoring her dream job after graduation, finding your own voice in your writing, and being a “shorts in the winter expert.”

The Interview:

College Fashion: Did you go to college? If you so, what did you study? What was your college experience like?

Connie Wang: I did! I attended UC Berkeley, and double majored in Political Science and Mass Communications (now called Media Studies). To say I was a good student might have been a stretch – I’m really good at test taking and memorization, which means my grades were really decent, but my attendance was abysmal and information retention is zilch.

School really wasn’t my jam, and since I had racked up a lot of credits through various AP scores and post-secondary credit while in high school, I was able to graduate in three years.

However, I learned how to learn at Berkeley, and the unique perspective that it taught me to approach different subjects in my life (fashion, included) was invaluable. Plus, having grown up in a pretty sheltered suburb in Minnesota, being thrown into Northern California college culture was quite the experience. Let’s just say that there was a period of time where I considered going freegan.

CF: What was your style like in college? How would you say it’s changed?

CW: My best friend in college, Marcus Leung (who’s now at Acrimony in San Francisco) and I were huge fashion nerds in school and obsessed over all the usual avant garde suspects – Rei Kawakubo, Rick Owens, anyone part of the Antwerp 6, etc. My style then was mostly all black, drapey, androgynous, and a little mean looking. Nowadays, I own maybe two black items (both holdovers from college), and love prints and colors. However, I’m still a sucker for an oversized top and weird drop-crotch pants.