Mariel

Name: Mariel A.

Year: Senior

Major: Advertising

Hometown: Portland, Oregon

Mariel pairs an Ann Taylor Loft sweater with Nordstrom pants.

What sort of design work do you do? Well right now, I’m going to work at the Emerald. I do illustrations for them and also layout design. I generally do graphics and illustrations.

What’s the weirdest thing you have done a graphic or design of? I did protestors smoking pot outside of the White House for a story at the Emerald. So that was pretty weird, but it was fun.

This H&M hat (similar here) is a staple in her wardrobe. “A lot of people say, ‘Oh there’s Mariel with her hat again,'” she said. “I feel like it’s easy if you have a bad hair day or if you just want to add something a little bit extra to your outfit.”

Who are your style inspirations? I don’t really have any specific style inspirations, but I do definitely look on Pinterest a lot and look at pins that are related to ones that I like. But in terms of specific people, I do follow a blog called Love Cloth, and I like her style a lot. But other than that, I don’t really subscribe to a specific person.

Is there a link between your design work and how you dress? Kind of. I would generally say I kind of have the same style throughout, sort of minimal and a lot of neutral colors with maybe sometimes a pop of blue or something because that’s my favorite color.

Do you think that minimalism is a trend? Oh absolutely. I think minimalism is definitely a trend. I don’t know if it is going to start going away because I think color is starting to come back in style. So, who knows if that will switch around a little bit. But I think before, it was all about big pieces and loud stuff, and now it’s definitely more about being more minimal.

Mariel said she is into the trend of small, golden jewelry, especially her Gemini astrological sign necklace. She bought her gold bracelet, which says, “Cheers” because “it was just a good reminder to be happy in life and celebrate things.”

What do you like about minimal style? I definitely like that it’s versatile because if you just have all colors that go together, you can really mix it up easily, and then everything matches with everything, which is really nice and easy. So that’s what I like about it.

Is there a dream piece you have been looking for recently? I really wanted a pair of clogs, and I just bought some over spring break, so that sort of was my dream piece that I just got.

Her booties are from DSW.

Has your style changed drastically at any point in your life? Yeah. In high school, I was all about bright colors. I had purple pants, yellow converse. I was all over the place. I thought I was a “skater kid,” which I wasn’t. Since then, I’ve sort of definitely gone over to more basic, neutral pieces, which I used to think were boring, but now I see the value of.

What is that value? Just the versatility and that you can wear the same shirt once a week, and people won’t even notice because you can just put different accessories with it. It’s not necessarily about that, but that it’s just a lot more versatile and easy.

Do you think that has been a personality shift as well? Yeah, I would say a little bit. I would say it’s also me having more of an awareness of the things that I own and buy because it’s a goal of mine to not own a whole bunch of excess stuff. I feel a lot of people have a hard time letting go of things just because of sentimentality and that sort of thing, but if I don’t wear it, I just get rid of it. I just sell it or give it away.

She bought most the pins on her Fjällräven backpack (similar here) in England.

How do you see yourself dressing 20 years from now? Hopefully still kind of in a similar vein. I never really want to let myself fall by the wayside and just wear what’s easy. Because I do like to stand out a little bit and look a little bit different. I just want to be classy, but a little bit elevated in terms of style. 

How do you want to stand out? For me, when I feel like I dress the same as everyone else, I feel like I just blend in. I just hate that. It feels like there is nothing different about me that anyone would wonder about. I think I would be really bummed if I couldn’t have my clothes speak to who I am as a person.

Words by Hannah Steinkopf-Frank, @HSteinkopfFrank

Photos by Elinor Manoogian-O’Dell, @ElinormODell