Return of the Fashion Dialogue
Ioannis-Dimitrio (Yanni) Poulakos ’03
The Outfit
Tina: I think it’s very well-chosen. The colors match, even though the green of the jacket and the green of the shirt are different. I think the clothes are from Banana Republic. I think his usual style is nice neutral tones and clean lines. He looks very comfortable in his clothes but very well put together. It’s like casual elegance, but conscious elegance too—while putting in a lot of effort he makes it look as though he didn’t. The pants are kind of like cargos, but not—they also look comfortable, moveable. The green suede lace-ups look functional but very style-conscious. I’ve never seen green shoes. I like them.
Yanni: I hate Banana Republic. I’m a big fan of Zara and A/X is where most of my stuff comes from. These pants are Zara, my shirt is A/X and the jacket is French Connection. The shoes are Versace.
Hometown
Tina: East Coast, probably somewhere in New England.
Yanni: I’m from Medford, MA.
Concentration
Tina: Something in the humanities. Possibly History and Literature, maybe Literature.
Yanni: I’m Government and Linguistics.
Activities
Tina: Hang gliding, synchronized swimming, ping-pong. I think he enjoys foreign films, it just seems he has fine taste—he must like very good food, something exotic.
Yanni: I’m pretty laid back. I do a show on the radio station. I don’t do Harvard activities because I don’t live on campus—I have a dorm but have never slept in it. I’m not a real Harvard fan.
Favorite film
Tina: I could not even guess. A foreign film, maybe Like Water for Chocolate or that movie with Turkish bathhouses.
Yanni: My favorite film is Carne Trémula. It is a foreign film, by Almodovar.
Favorite restaurant in the Square
Tina: Maybe Bombay Club? He looks like a food critic, very sure of himself.
Yanni: That’s tough. I don’t like Harvard Square at all, Harvard is a waste of space. I hang out a lot in Boston, at the Lounge at Top of the Hub, but that’s not really a restaurant. I also like Spinnaker and Bisuteki in Boston.
Typical Friday night
Tina: I could see him liking to go out but not dancing so much. Maybe he gets together with a group on campus and they play Twister.
Yanni: Every Friday is really different. This weekend, I ended up hanging out at IHOP at three o’clock in the morning.
Friends
Tina: I feel like they are a variety of people—some eccentric, also some very put together people. People who are very sure of themselves.
Yanni: The people I end up with are random.
Single or taken?
Tina: I think he’s taken. He keeps on playing with that ring on his finger; I think someone gave it to him.
Yanni: I’m single.
Tina Y. Tanhehco ’03
The Outfit
Yanni: She has an interesting mixture of stuff which normally won’t go together. The jeans and boots thing is typical, but she looks like she gets a lot of stuff she likes and then she goes to her closet and picks things that go together. I think she shops somewhere like Express, maybe Gap, Old Navy, those kind of places. Shoes from Nine West? I don’t know girls’ clothing stores really well. Jeans: The tattered things on the bottom are cool, it looks like she did it herself. Boots: The boots are really high, so maybe she wants to be taller. I like the hand things; I don’t know what they are, though, and I like the little yellow thing around her waist but I don’t know what that is either.
Tina: I normally buy things and forget where I got them. The jeans are from the Gap, I have no idea where I got the boots. The mittens I just got from Urban Outfitters. I got the yellow scarf in Costa Rica four years ago. It used to be a dress, but I go into these cutting phases where I cut up my old clothes and make them into something new.
Hometown
Yanni: Honestly, I have no idea; somewhere on the West Coast?
Tina: Buffalo, NY. Actually Williamstown, a suburb, but close enough.
Concentration
Yanni: If I knew them all, that would help. Biology?
Tina: East Asian Studies.
Activities
Yanni: I think she does performing arts, possibly something musical. Anything in which she might be in the spotlight.
Tina: I do dance, mostly choreography. Recently I started Tae Kwon Do but I suck.
Favorite film
Yanni: I think something fast, with lots of action, like The Fast and the Furious. Maybe something weird like Mod Squad.
Tina: I watch so many movies, I don’t have one. But I do like foreign films.
Favorite restaurant in the Square
Yanni: Spice.
Tina: Maybe Bartley’s. I can’t do it often though, because I’ll be out after in a fit of sadness and satisfaction. But I’m vegetarian now, so I do their veggie burgers.
Typical Friday night
Yanni: I would think it would be varied, she probably doesn’t go off-campus. She has a group she hangs out with and they play some kind of weird board game.
Tina: There is no typical Friday night—I have no life. I wish I could stay home and watch movies more, but instead, it’s spur of the moment. If my friends are doing something, I jump in. Sometimes I go to Boston College, where I have friends. I like to go club-hopping, but I don’t like the club scene around here. I do like going to Man Ray.
Friends
Yanni: I think they are probably not like her or like each other. Not typical Harvard people.
Tina: My friends are wonderful. They make life worthwhile. I know it’s cheesy but sometimes life here isn’t very worthwhile. They’re very funny, very caring. Some of them are very kooky and wild, which is wonderful.
Single or taken?
Yanni: Single.
Tina: I’m single.