Photo Ilja Bouwknegt Welmoed Elzinga (24), second-year Bachelor’s student of Landscape Architecture
‘I always dress in a mix of historical and punk clothing. These two styles overlap a bit with me. Around seven years ago I decided not to buy new clothes anymore. My style has become a bit weirder since then. I like wearing special-occasion clothes, so in my case a party dress, on a normal day. So many people have super cute clothing in their closet that they only wear once a year – such a shame!
I don’t believe in the idea that fast fashion doesn’t last long: a lot of the things I wear were once made as fast fashion. I do think about what I’m doing and I don’t buy anything that’s new. At the moment I’m buying out the entire closet of a girl in Spain, through Vinted. I discuss it a lot with her; sometimes I even have to set up a savings plan for my purchases, ha ha. Vinted can really be an obsession for me and to save money I have to delete the app from my phone every now and then.
But it does allow me to make nice contacts. Landscape Architecture is a creative study – I’m drawing every day – but you don’t really see that in the clothing people wear here. Some people think that what I wear isn’t practical, that it gets dirty quickly. That’s not true at all, as long as you’re not wearing a dress that reaches the floor. I get outside just as much as others and I manage just fine in these clothes. Skinny jeans are probably less practical.’
