Benita wears rain boots for show

The campus can sometimes feel like a catwalk. Students talk about what they wear and why. This time: the vibe for Benita’s outfit is structured Winx Club with edge.

Benita (24) is drinking an iced latte with soya milk and carrying her winter coat over her arm. She stands out with her colourful clothing and cheerful appearance. “This top belonged to my mother in the eighties”, she says. She is wearing a long-sleeved shirt in pink, green and yellow, with words like rock and funky in different fonts around a woman with wild hair, flowers and butterflies. “If you look closely, you can see there are little holes in it.”

“Before I get dressed, I start by finding a vibe. Today that is structured Winx Club with edge.” Colourful and romantic like a fairy, but with a tough, practical side reminiscent of a festival outfit. Her look has clean lines, for example the high waist and pleats of her skirt and the angular rain boot, without looking stiff. “All it needs now is wings to turn it into a fairy outfit”, Benita jokes. Her clothes are second-hand. Her skirt, a dark blue pleated one with red stitching, cost 2.50 euros. She bought the bright turquoise rain boots on Vinted.

After studying Musical Theatre, Benita went on to study Law. In her final year she became fascinated by space law: the laws and agreements related to everything beyond Earth. “Space law is only just beginning, so we still have very little”, she explains. “I feel like I can really add something. I don’t want to be part of carrying out an existing system.” During her astronomy minor, she says she learned that every astronomer believes in extraterrestrial life. She does too: “I believe in everything, until I know it is not true.”

Benita wears many eclectic pieces of jewellery: earrings with the female symbol, a hair clip shaped like a tin of sardines, beaded bracelets from different countries. Each item says something about her. “In a way, I am all these pieces of jewellery together: they contradict each other, but if you took one away, I would no longer be myself.”

One necklace stands out: a small silver figure pushing a pearl, a gift from a partner. It is Sisyphus, the man in Greek mythology who was punished by having to push a stone up a mountain forever without ever reaching the top. Not a positive story, but Benita still finds it beautiful. “I want to stay positive, even though the world is in crisis. I study law, everything I do has to do with crisis situations”, she says. “I don’t know if I will succeed, but I want to make sure that as a society we do not move backwards.”