FALL FASHION: Five guys you are likely to meet on or around campus

by Sean Vidal

After finishing my freshman year here, I have identified some campus fashion basics that correspond to social life at MSU.  

Let’s be honest -- when it comes to fashion, guys don’t have too much to work with.  Girls can mix and match so that they never have to wear the same outfit twice. It’s trickier for men. T-shirts, polo shirts, button-downs, jackets and jeans are about it. But there seem to be specifics for certain groups of MSU students. 

After a year and another Welcome Week of partying under my belt, it’s safe to say I have observed the five guys you can typically see walking around downtown East Lansing on a Friday night.

1. The Senior Bar Hopper - Driving by the bar Wednesday through Saturday nights, you see a sea of dark denim and long-sleeved buttoned-down shirts

Top: Striped-collared ironed shirts can be seen on the top half of many older MSU men going to the bar to buy women drinks and get ignored by them. They are either worn tucked-in or out for a casual look.

Pants: Uusually dark jeans giving off the sophisticated older look. 

Head and feet: Short dark hair and black leather shoes are standard on the man waiting to get into Rick’s and hit on some older women.

Pick-Up-Line: “Here’s a beer, wanna f***?” Or maybe, “It’s last call, but do you want to go back to my place and watch a movie or something?”

2. The Freshman - The freshman male style at MSU is a highly general style that can be seen throughout the four years of someone’s social career at Michigan State, if this person’s wardrobe does not mature as he matures. 

Top: A Hollister, Abercrombie, or American Eagle T-shirt usually sporting a sexually suggestive theme that is supposed to get girls either to laugh or become mildly aroused just by looking at the it.

Pants: Light denim jeans, usually with enough holes to give the impression one has been in a fall down a mountain.

Head and Feet: Sandals with either a Boston Red Socks or Detroit Tigers baseball cap. For some reason, the Red Sox and the Tigers are the only Major League Baseball teams supported at MSU.

Pick-Up-Line: “Will you assist me in a study of the amount of pressure and movement my futon can take?”

3. The Fraternity Man - I think fraternity men understand the best way to be casual and dressed up at the same time, but maybe I just have a bias because I am in a fraternity. 

Top: Polo shirts, whether its Abercrombie, Hollister or a higher class like Lacoste, Ralph Lauren or Le Tigre. Usually in vibrant colors.

Pants: The polo is the fashion statement, so the pants are generally one’s favorite pair of ripped or dark blue jeans and a leather belt.

Head and Feet: This is tricky because every fraternity man or frat party-goer is different.  Guys in this social group at MSU are partial to baseball caps, but not everyone.  A wide variety of leather shoes, gym sneakers, and sandals can be found in every house.

Pick-Up-Line: “My biceps aren’t they only thing huge, veiny and thriving for attention!”

4. The MASP, Shaw, or Co-op Kid:- You can spot these guys walking around the streets of East Lansing at night or at co-op concert parties on M.A.C Avenue. Long hair, T-shirts and cargo shorts.  That’s not to say anything bad about their style; I live in MASP. I don’t dress like that, but I see it often.

Top: Raggedy old T-shirts and shorts can usually be found on my Vans-wearing anti-establishment-minded Democrat friends. 

Pants: Whether Army green, khaki or navy, their cargo pants come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

Head and Feet: Grooming is not on the agenda.  Hair is disorderly, extremely frizzled and uncombed.  Shoes, as I previously mentioned, are straight-up Vans or… Vans.

Pick-Up-Line: “Does the smell of incense turn you on?”

5. House Party Sparty!: House Party Sparty is the guy going all out in his Michigan State gear. 

Top: He just loves going to house parties in a “Sparty On” or “Michigan State _________ (insert sport here)” T-shirt. Come winter, he’ll throw on an “MSU Hockey” sweatshirt and a black fleece.

Pants: Usually ripped, extremely stone-washed carpenter jeans.

Hair and Shoes: Party Sparty usually wears a baseball cap of some kind, maybe even an MSU baseball cap backward to top off the overall MSU pride theme of their outfit.

Pick-Up-Line: “I’d take you home, uncork a bottle of great ’05 white wine, lay you down on the couch, grab my remote to put some soft sexual music on and blast the Fight Song.  Can you feel the magic?”

If you do fall into one of these categories, don’t be offended. There’s nothing wrong with these styles — they are just stereotypes — and you’re definitely not the only guy who dresses this way. If you are really offended by this article (probably because it’s true and you know it), you can even email me at vidalsea@msu.edu with your comments. 

But have fun with guessing where you and your guy friends fall in these categories.