Andee has one and a half suitcase full of clothes

The campus is sometimes just like a catwalk. Students talk about what they wear and why. This time: Andee started experimenting with her clothing style during the Covid pandemic.

Andee (18) arrived in the Netherlands five days before Eurekaweek. She couldn’t bring all her clothes from Shanghai and had to make choices. “Comfort is important, and I had to prioritise my winter clothes because I knew it would get cold in the Netherlands”, she explains. “I have a lot of tracksuits that take up a lot of space, so I could only bring a few of them. Altogether, I think they filled one and a half suitcase.”

On the last day of Eurekaweek, she is wearing a comfortable army-green pair of Levi’s jeans with a folded elasticated waistband. They are sturdy, wide-legged trousers that can take a bit of wear and tear. “I often wear baggy clothes. The problem is that my trousers hang on the ground and get wet.” On the rainy square, she has rolled up the trouser legs, so they are still dry. “When I first started wearing this kind of trousers, I suffered from baggy blindness. I didn’t realise they were so wide that they didn’t suit me. They had a strange shape and were always dragging along the ground.”

Experimenting

During the Covid pandemic, Andee and her friends started experimenting with their clothing styles. She was inspired by the clothes worn by the people around her. She dyed her hair for the first time and bought a lot of clothes from Chinese brands online. “I wouldn’t know how to describe my style.”  She is wearing a top that looks like two T-shirts layered over each other but is actually one piece, with silver-coloured chains and old trainers. “If I see something I like, I just wear it.”

It was with that attitude that she also chose the keychains hanging from her fake designer bag. She has an owl-like Pokémon and a monster with a wide mouth and large eyes. “This is a Fuggler, a funny ugly monster”, Andee explains. Hanging among the cuddly toys is a set of miniature tools, including an adjustable spanner for very small bolts and nuts and a small tape measure containing a real measuring tape. “I actually bought it for the aesthetic, but the measuring tape really works. Maybe it’ll come in handy one day if I suddenly need to measure something.” That probably won’t be necessary for her International Business Administration degree, but Andee is prepared nonetheless.