Gavin Galiardo ’20 stays true to his own fashion sense at Choate.
Too frequently do I hear people say that fashion does not exist outside of the world of women. I have therefore believed that men’s outfits scarcely receive as many comments or compliments as women’s, and that, especially while growing up, a male will often be regarded as eccentric if he is interested in fashion, as opposed to a female, for whom it will be deemed a very natural and quintessential aspect of being a woman.
That is how I perceived this aspect of the fashion world —until now.
Gavin Galiardo ’20 has not felt this to be accurate. He said, “There are always environments where people see what you’re doing and are going to be skeptical of it, but I don’t find it to be such a problem. If it helps you stand out, then that’s great. As far as being a guy into fashion, I feel like every step that we take, we’re getting more and more accepting of other people doing whatever they want, and I think that if you’re passionate about something, you should go for it.”
Galiardo has shamelessly immersed himself, fashion sense included, into the Choate community and continues to search for his true stylistic identity with original experiments. He explained, “I think that I’m kind of bold sometimes, not to compliment myself or anything. I wear jewelry and stuff like that. I’d say a lot of guys are kind of afraid to wear jewelry, but I’m not. I’ve started taking classes, at the YMCA back home, to make my own jewelry. You’ve got to have a lot of confidence in what you’re wearing.”
Galiardo has only recently begun developing his personal style, for only a couple of years ago, his school required a strict dress code. He commented“I went to a school before this where I had to dress up in a suit and tie everyday, and my mom would always help me out, you know, pick what I’m wearing and stuff. When I stopped going to school like that is when I was really like now I can really express myself, you know what I mean? There weren’t any rules. I could wear what I wanted. That’s when I was like, yeah, it’s gotta reflect who I am, it’s gotta say me. If there’s anyone who was looking for inspiration or anything like that, I feel you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment. Not everything looks good on everyone, but you just find our own style and it should reflect yourself.”
Galiardo has such a profound interest in fashion that he sees himself pursuing it in his future. He said, “My dream is to design clothes. I would love to be a designer. I would love to go to F.I.T. or Parsons. I draw my own clothes, but I haven’t really done anything. I’ve brought things to a tailor just to see what they think, but not really much other than that. Just drawing my own stuff and sketching, even stuff that’s not clothing related can kind of help, too.”
