New Year’s is famously a time for reinvention — what with all those pesky resolutions — but personally, I feel the itch for a fresh start most ardently when summer is ending and school is starting up again. Is this due to years and years of back-to-school shopping giving me the idea that a new school year is the time to cram in as many new looks as possible? Is it because I’m more used to running on a school calendar? Do I just really hate New Year’s resolutions? Maybe! But I think part of it is that summer is a kind of limbo; all the structure and a lot of responsibilities evaporate, and the only person in charge of what you’re doing and whom you’re interacting with is you. You can roll back into school a completely different person to all the people you didn’t see over the summer. Or, let’s be honest, a person with some new clothes who is determinedly pretending she is going to follow through on her resolution to be a fashion icon every day she’s on campus.Â
Illustrator: Mikaela Collins
