By Chloe McGeehan, staff writer
The hallways of River Hill High School might not be Paris runway level, but they are, in fact, a tile walkway used by hundreds of students and staff wearing styles both new and old. Whether consciously or not, the student body at River Hill wakes up and selects an outfit for the day that impacts the culture of the school. So on that note, what is the River Hill “look”?
According to senior David Hornik, the answer is sports wear: “sporty clothes, shorts, athletic shorts, sometimes I see some jackets and jeans, but really it’s just sportswear.” This would make sense because River Hill is a school that prides itself on athletics with three coaches recently achieving the feat of 200 wins.
But on closer examination, the fashion of River Hill seems to be influenced predominantly by comfort. “It was cold in the morning so I picked a sweater,” remarks senior Lindsay Khalluf. “It was colder and then I have cross country after school,” adds tenth grader Thomas Jayne wearing a cross country t-shirt, athletic shorts, and a sweatshirt.
Weather, after school activities, and general convenience all impact the comfort level of an outfit, which needs to be as high as possible to enhance confidence or at the very least not restrict your performance in River Hill’s fast-paced and demanding environment.
Fashion at River Hill must also balance self-expression with these educational comfort demands. Arnav Bommareddy was spotted wearing his bright yellow Lebron James Jersey to remind others it was the opening night of the NBA, and he layered a sweatshirt underneath his jersey because of the fall chill. Sports/casual wear seems to be a quick and easy way to achieve the balance of expressing yourself while staying warm and unrestricted.
River Hill student Charlotte Krausz offers, “We have to wake up at like 6:40 in the morning or something, so you don’t have all the time [to pick an outfit].” Basically you either plan an elaborate outfit the night before or think quick and dress quicker the morning of, relying typically on staple looks like sweatpants and a sweatshirt. This led Charlotte to an interesting conclusion,”I bet if we started at 8:20 people would be dressing way differently”.