DAKOTA RICHTER
Community Engagement Coordinator
WILL KARR
Life & Arts Editor
Fredonia student Henry Wang grew up shopping at Macy’s with his mother. His mom would pick out outfits for him, cultivating his passion for fashion in the process.
“My mom has always been my main and biggest supporter,” Wang said.
Wang is from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He grew up wearing mainstream clothing brands like Hollister. However, he eventually started wearing more niche brands as he began to develop his fashion identity. He explained how growing up in the city has overall influenced his personal sense of style and fashion.
“Living in New York City … everyone is so well dressed,” Wang said. “I saw other people and was like, ‘I gotta start dressing up.’”
Wang experimented with fashion during his sophomore year of high school, but it wasn’t until he entered college when his interest fully developed. He went on to explain how it can be difficult to find good quality clothes for a low price while being a college student who isn’t making a six figure salary.
Wang is a senior psychology major at Fredonia and is the social media manager for Kappa Sigma. He expressed that when he first became interested in fashion, he was hesitant because he was busy and didn’t know if he could manage it.
“My friend was like, ‘Everyone [is] saying you look good and dress well; why don’t you start something?’ I was doing a lot with school so I hesitated,” Wang said. “But I started making a logo, and one day, I just made an Instagram page.”
Wang has since created a personal styling Instagram page (@styled.by.henry), purchased a camera and started shooting and posting portraits of his friends’ fashion. He now takes portraits of people on a regular basis.
Given that both Wang and his audience are college students, he explained that good fashion doesn’t need to be expensive.
“I believe in affordable fashion. I believe [buying] designer [brands] at any college age [is] very unrealistic,” Wang said. “For me, it’s more about putting stuff together, so if it looks good, that’s more important.”
There are cheaper and more sustainable options college students find for their fashion needs. For example, thrifting costs significantly less money than buying new clothes, and also prevents clothes from going into landfills.
However, Wang said he often finds difficulty thrifting because most of the clothing sizes he finds are larger, so he has had to seek out alternative ways to find clothes at a good price. While many college students are already familiar with fast-fashion brands like SHEIN, Boohooman and Fashion Nova, Wang recommended checking out a few other alternative fashion brands such as his personal favorites Zara, Minimal LA and Maniere De Voir.
“I’ve gotten a lot from Minimal LA recently and they are always on TikTok. Their jeans are actually really cheap,” Wang said. “You can get a pair of cool jeans for only thirty dollars.”
When you see Wang walking around campus, he is often dressed in a street-style inspired outfit. He described his personal style at the moment as street and business casual. He likes to layer collared shirts under crewnecks and t-shirts under oversized cardigans, radiating, what Wang calls, “preppy school boy vibes” in the process.
He often wears minimalistic white and black t-shirts, while incorporating hints of artistic designs into his clothing. Recently, he has found himself experimenting with more “poppy” and vibrant colors.
“An easy tip [that I would recommend] is having the [bulk] of your wardrobe be base colors and then layer[ing color] on top of that,” Wang said. “White, black and gray are the colors that match with most things. … For me, it’s all about putting stuff together and layering on top of that with jewelry.”
By putting artistic patches on his denim, Wang started out expressing himself. He has recently grown to start sewing fabric on his jeans and designing tote bags.
Wang loves layering with not only clothing, but accessories as well.
“I really think jewelry can amp up any outfit like in every shape and form — earrings, watches, rings, bracelets and chains,” Wang said. “If you are wearing a tank top [with] a choker chain, … I think that is awesome; it’s all in the little details.”
For Wang, fashion is a way to let his creativity flow through self-presentation. He explained how people on campus would comment on his choice of styling and how they would say how nice it looks. This led Wang to develop a passion and repertoire for personally styling people on campus.
“My goal right now is to make [more] content, which right now is on pause because I’m a senior and going to grad school for psychology,” Wang said.
If you are interested in receiving fashion advice from Wang, you can directly message him on instagram at @styled.by.henry, or by emailing us with any inquiries at leader@fredonia.edu.