Harvard Home to Haute Couture

Smarts and studiousness don’t necessarily have to preclude style.

The Boston Globe Style & Arts section recognized five Harvard faculty and students on its annual list of “The 25 Most Stylish Bostonians” released yesterday.

Other Bostonians included among the 25 range from boutique owners and designers to athletes and CEOs, all chosen for “that certain something—a spark that transforms mere good taste into bona fide style,” according to the Globe.

Humanities Center Director Homi K. Bhabha, who describes his personal style as “eclectic,” drawing influences from India and Europe, said in an interview that he was surprised by the recognition.

When the Globe called his office to inform him that he made the list, he was taken aback.

“The style editor at the Globe said congratulations, you are among the top 25 stylish people, and I had to run to teach, so I ran,” Bhabha said.

At President Drew G. Faust’s installation last month, Bhabha shielded himself from the rain with a pink-and-red umbrella decorated with flower blossoms. When asked what fashion myth about academics he would like to dispel, Bhabha told the Globe: “That they always wear baggy tweed jackets. Or shapeless jeans.”

Ivy A. Lee ’09, another of the 25 most stylish and assistant producer of the student-run fashion show Project East, described herself as a “jeans and tee-shirt type of girl.”

“I wear very simple clothes and I don’t think that I’m very edgy and fashion forward, but I do like to take my simple clothes and elevate it into something classic,” she said.

“I wear very simple clothes and I don’t think that I’m very edgy and fashion forward, but I do like to take my simple clothes and elevate it into something classic,” she said.

Lee considers the recognition an honor for those making an impact on the culture of fashion, not necessarily just for those with a distinctive personal style.

The other two Harvard students recognized, Kristin S. Kim ’09 and Timothy M. Parent ’09, also work as organizers for Project East, a showcase of Asian designers.

In a photo featured next to one of Bhabha, Harvard Film Archive Director Haden R. Guest wore a polished suit reflective of what he described to the Globe as his “old-school, but streamlined” style.

Guest, who came to Harvard from the University of Southern California in 2006, said that his style has adapted to his new environment.

“I can wear a tie now,” he told the Globe. “In Los Angeles, ties make people nervous, you wear one and everyone asks, ‘What’s the occasion?’ When I lived in L.A., I only wore ties at funerals.”