Photo courtesy of Michelle Nagler

By Ishmam Rahman ’14, A&E Section Head

Ishmam Rahman: How would you describe your personal style and what sort of things do you incorporate into it?

Lauren Melissa Ellzey: I really like to wear dark, neutral colors. But I like to wear clothes that I feel fit my environment, so depending on what I’m doing that day, I’ll tweak the style. If I’m going to a café, then I’ll wear something that I feel looks a little bit more like I’m going to a café.

On Monday, I went to West Hollywood so I wore a blazer, a button-up and some dark jeans with oxfords. It depends on where I’m going, but it always has this theme of black or neutral tones. I’m never bright. I don’t feel like bright colors fit my personality, and I always want to maintain my personality with what I’m wearing.

IR: What is your personality?

LE: I’ve been told that I’m kind of sarcastic but not in a mean way. I have a dry humor and sometimes I say things in a very flat voice. People don’t realize that I’m actually being nice to them and “I always want to maintain my personality with what I’m wearing” they take what I’m saying as sarcasm just because my tone of voice wasn’t correct. So I guess that mood of neutrality and sarcasm is there in style. That sounds horrible. [laughs]

IR: Do you accessorize a lot?

LE: I don’t usually wear too many accessories, typically. Sometimes I’ll wear a watch, or I’ll wear a long necklace or a short necklace. But I stay away from accessories a lot because I have allergies to fake gold, silver and nickel. Plus I have two nose rings, which are my constant accessories.

IR: Where do you normally get your clothes?

LE: I get them a lot of the time online from a website that I don’t want to name. [laughs] Just because I’ve been giving them away and people have been on campus now wearing the same clothes that I’ve bought. But I do have favorite brands. Star. MIMI is my favorite number one brand of all time; star. MIMI is from Taiwan. Then, I really like Redopin. I used to dress a lot from the Korean brand Dodostyle. I still love them. Recently I haven’t been dressing as significantly girly and I’m trying to lean more toward maybe dark-romantic as opposed to girly-romantic style. Dodostyle has started to use florals. So I’m not buying as much stuff from them anymore.

IR: What are you majoring in?

LE: I am a junior and I am doing a self-designed major in creative writing fiction and a minor in Hispanic studies.

IR: Does your major alter your clothing style at all?

LE: It significantly alters my clothing style. Well, it sounds a little ridiculous but whenever I’m writing a story, I typically go a while wearing the clothes of my protagonist, like how she would dress. I feel like it helps me understand her life experiences more.

IR: Sounds like method acting.

LE: [laughs] I call it method writing. It’s really ridiculous but it really helps a lot. Currently actually I’m having difficulty because my protagonist dresses in a style that I would never dress. So I keep fighting dressing like her but it keeps happening…but not today. She’s a tomboy and she wears converse and skinny jeans. She also tends to wear oversized baggy clothes and layer after layer after layer. So I’m looking forward to it being winter again so I can do that, and hopefully it’ll help get me back into writing the next few chapters.

IR: What are your thoughts on fashion at Scripps?

LE: I mean, I don’t typically sit around judging people’s clothes all day. I feel like so long as every other day I turn around and I see someone wear something that I think is really cute, Scripps has got it going pretty well! [laughs]