Minyoung Choi models her comfort-chic style
Photo courtesy of Alexis Fores
ALEXIS FORES
Staff Writer
Name: Minyoung Choi
Year: Senior
Hometown: Seoul, Korea
Major: Psychology, Business Minor
What are you wearing?
Skirt: Local store in Korea
Sweater shirt: Forever 21
Vest: Local store in Korea
Shoes: Local store in Korea
When it comes to sneakers, I always pictured them more as a gym wear than everyday wear. Minyoung Choi, whom everyone calls Min, surprised me when she wore her skirts and dresses with sneakers; something you don’t see often in Fredonia or anywhere. So, I couldn’t help but to ask her what her fashion story is.
AF: What do you classify your style as?
MC: Comfortable and casual. Actually, I don’t care what I wear everyday because I just pick something from my drawer and I put it on. I don’t care about what I put on.
AF: Why do you dress this way?
MC: Because it’s my usual fashion for when I lived in Korea. I also wear the same casual wear, like dresses and tights, over there as I do here.
AF: What are your style inspirations?
MC: My friends. I think because my friends who live in South Korea just upload their pictures on Facebook or I look at blogs that I will see a lot of times on the popular pages, so I just follow them but I just try to find my style with skirts or something else.
AF: What are your favorite stores to shop at?
MC: I love Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters. Yeah, I like both of those for when I am in the states. The stores here are different than the ones in Korea. I cannot explain the difference well but while I am in the states, I just buy clothes at Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters.
AF: What is your favorite season to dress for?
MC: I like winter because I can cover my body. I like skirts and I like to wear the tights underneath. So, I like winter dresses and I think it is easier to choose your outfits in the winter because we usually wear a long sleeve and outerwear.
AF: What is the one clothing item you can’t live without?
MC: Skirts because they fit my body well and also wearing a short skirt helps compliment my legs.
AF: What is your fashion story?
MC: I think I just try to avoid making any changes or try new fashion because I know my body, like I have thick thighs or bellies like that, so I just want to try to cover those parts of my body so I do not try any new fashion or new styles but I just want to try to find the pretty and the fresh design between the same style and skirt. There are so many kinds of skirts like flare skirts, but I just change the way I should wear it but I don’t change the types of skirt.
AF: What is your opinion on college fashion?
MC: I think the college fashion is just comfort because we are students and we need to take a class with a few hours in a day so I think being comfortable is the best – except when going out or going to party.
AF: Korean style vs. college style:
MC: I think so many girls want to be pretty with wearing pretty skirts or pretty pants. I think so many Korean people are fashionable and also they are so interested in fashion. But I don’t know why so many Korean people want to be skinny; because if someone has confidence about their body and they know their bodies, like how I know what to exactly section of my body to cover, but they just want to be so skinny, so I think if they can choose the various kinds of fashion and various types of new fashions, they can wear whatever they want. I don’t like the skinniness in Korea. The Korean style depends on the towns. Unlike here, Korea has two tests in the semester, midterm test and final test. When they are not busy they just want to wear pretty dresses, but during the exam term they just want to be comfortably dressed.
AF: Do you have any advice for college fashion?
MC: I think I am not fashionable personally. Dress what makes you comfortable. I think it depends on each person and what makes him or her comfortable. In my case, I just wear skirts because skirts are so comfortable to me. But in the case of my Korean and other friends, they just want to wear pants, long sweaty pants and leggings, so I think depending on their types of body and how they feel.