The campus as runway

Tamara Belopopsky, in blue shirt, and other students at the State University of New York at Purchase define themselves by their style.[Photo/The New York Times]

Julia Flynn was darting to her classes at Columbia University last week in a Marc by Marc Jacobs daisy-patterned dress and high-heeled Chloé boots, her polished turnout accessorized with a Starbucks venti latte. "I'm really loving the whole Chanel, Valentino and McQueen shows," she said. "They completely inspired me." She had gleaned her information that very morning from Style.com.

Ms. Flynn, 24 and a sophomore, is one in a small but self-aware and increasingly vocal contingent of college women who dress to impress. The campus is their runway, a place to show off a style sense that is derived in part from their friends but more often attained through a click of a mouse, a gesture that affords them instant access to the once arcane universe of fashion shows and to the style blogs and shopping sites so many imbibe with their morning brew.

If at one time college women subscribed to a regionally prescribed uniform — twin sets and loafers in the East, frayed jeans and ponchos farther west — now, thanks to the democratizing influence of the Web, trends are disseminated at warp speed, traversing regional borders and, paradoxically, encouraging a more individualized approach to dress.

Whether students' tastes run to an urbanely preppie composite of mannish shirts, slim skirts and blazers, flowered dresses and Ferragamo flats, or to a cutting-edge pastiche of long loose-fitting sweaters, calf-length skirts and platform booties, their absorption with fashion points to a sea change, suggesting that the style bar has been raised, reaching a level of sophistication all but unknown a mere decade ago.

"The stereotype used to be that college students live in sweat pants and don't care about fashion," said Zephyr Basine, the editor of Collegefashion.net, a blog written by college women. "But today that isn't so." If at one time coeds signaled their cool by a kind of willful dishevelment, arriving for 8 a.m. classes in trench coats tossed over pajamas, today that sort of carelessness marks them as out of touch.

"People now put more thought into what they're wearing," said Amy Levin, 24, a recent graduate of Indiana University and editor of Collegefashionista.com, an influential blog. "Getting ready for class is important. Students want to up their game. That means looking a little more serious, not just throwing on a graphic T-shirt and jeans."

Many of those students might relate to Diarra White, 18, a freshman at Columbia University. "I'm not a sweats-and-T-shirt kind of person," said Ms. White, who was decked out for class last Wednesday in a cropped leather jacket, white cotton dress and the camel-colored knee-high boots that she alternates on other days with high-heeled pumps. "Even at the library, I'll see people in heels. There's a lot of energy in that."

"Besides," she added saucily, "you never know who you're going to see in the library."

Today Ms. White and her cohort routinely trawl fashion Web sites like the Sartorialist, Fashion Toast, the Cut and Style Stalker; they scour cheap and chic outposts like Topshop and Forever 21 for approximations of coveted labels like J. Crew and Tory Burch, and for the chunky oversize sweaters, generous scarves, platform pumps and high-heeled loafers that made a splash on fall runways. Then they fill in wardrobe gaps with treasures picked up at vintage fashion boutiques.

They shop well in advance of the school year, some stepping up their purchasing throughout the term.

Spending by these inveterate bargain hunters typically adds up to a few hundred dollars each year or, in rarer instances, $1,000 or more.

"I used to shop constantly," said Elisabeth Dickson, 22, who graduated in May from Oberlin College in Ohio. At one time, Ms. Dickson confided, she spent hours on the Internet, scouring the Style Stalker, Fashion Toast, Man Repeller and Style Bubble sites, and making the occasional detour to J. Crew or Topshop "when I was in the market for something edgier or a little bit upscale."

"There was a point in my sophomore year," she said, "when I would read fashion blogs religiously in the morning. I bookmarked them and used them for inspiration, or just out-and-out thievery."

Planning to create a blog of her own, she found herself jotting elaborate descriptions of her daily ensembles. An entry marked 10/14/09 described a vintage blue and white sweater with gold buttons and shoulder pads over navy-blue tights and a white H & M tunic and vintage lace-up cream booties.

"Most people may not have been as obsessed," she acknowledged, "but the point is that we cared."

For Ms. Dickson and others, the Internet acts as a primary resource. "Students can watch fashion shows live on the runway," said Ms. Basine of Collegefashion.net. "They can see what people are wearing on the other side of the globe. Trends now are dispersed faster than ever. They're not going to stay in one isolated area for long."