Photo Ilja Bouwknegt You see the most fabulous looking people and the coolest outfits around the Wageningen campus. In this feature we put someone in the spotlight every two weeks. This time, Roald Nooijens, a Master’s student of Forest and Nature Conservation.
‘I get a lot of inspiration from the fashion world. There you often see the more extreme expressions of fashion and I try to tone them down to something that looks a little more normal. I’ve also been in Rotterdam a lot lately, and a lot of young people there dress strikingly. And then my girlfriend is in the art world, so she inspires me too. Young people and the art world are ahead of the game; they’re the fashion pioneers, I think. I take my inspiration from them and water it down to clothes you can wear every day.
So: colour combinations, shapes, proportions, the role of shoes, how you can combine smart clothing in modern styles. A lot of people just go along with all the fashions. I try to stand out in contrast to what everyone is wearing. I like to look for unique, good clothes in the ‘normal’ second-hand shops. There are also vintage shops where every garment is interesting, but what I like is precisely to find something special in the messiness of an ordinary second-hand shop. I often buy trousers there that are much too big and I alter them. A lot of garments only look nice in combination with other clothes. The only thing I buy new is shoes.’
