Our film WEAR we are is a take on the popular street interviews found on TikTok about people’s personal styles. We asked a random pool of students at Clark University questions such as where their outfits are from, how much each clothing piece costs, and how much thought they put into their outfits on that day. Our film was inspired by the hegemonic idea of wealth representation through clothing that is reproduced by most media. We attempt to counter this dominant narrative by exposing how Clark students (who attend a private, predominately white university and are statistically wealthy) are instead hiding their wealth by thrifting or wearing casual (but expensive) clothing. However, we also wanted to provide a disclaimer that the thrifting culture that has permeated this university is not a bad thing. Thrifting has many benefits: it is environmentally friendly, helps to reduce waste, and doesn’t contribute to fast fashion and overly capitalist clothing culture. We are aware that some of the people we interviewed and many other Clark students likely rely on second-hand stores as their main way to get new clothes for one reason or another. This documentary is not meant to be a criticism of thrifting in any way. It’s intended to, as mentioned at the beginning of the film, showcase how students at Clark (who statistically come from households with money) don’t want to purposely express their wealth through their clothing. This is not always the case at other colleges, where many times, brands and logos are valued and are signifiers of wealth. Instead, we found that Clark students likely represent their possible wealth more subtly.
