Not The Fashion Police But Sort of, A Little Bit

For all that Veritas fashion is cracked up to be, Kristin D. O’Neill ’07 thinks that Harvard needs some new duds. Enter the Harvard Vestis Council (vestis is Latin for “clothing”), a month-old club that O’Neill, the group’s president, co-founded with the mission of “bringing high art and fashion to the Harvard campus.”

Does Harvard really need another highbrow club? “We’re not the fashion police,” says O’Neill. Through panels and Office of Career Services contacts, Vestis hopes to help undergraduates tap into the fashion industry.

Michael Beal ’06, a Vestis member and co-producer of Eleganza, stresses that Harvard students need broader career options. “If people want to go into pre-law or pre-med, that’s fine,” Beal says, “but at least [Vestis] will give them more information on what else is out there.”

One future Vestis activity currently in the works is a pre-frosh-weekend fashion show dubbed “Anything But Clothes.” Chelsae I. Smith ’07, another co-founder, says the event will feature “elaborate dresses made from everyday stuff,” including violin strings, bottle caps, chopsticks, and take-out boxes from the Kong. Unfortunately for those expecting scantily clad models, however, Smith says, “the show won’t have any people—it will just exhibit the clothing.” Now that’s high art.