USM Club fosters sustainability and fashion at ASU
If there is one thing the University Street Market (USM) Club makes sure of, it is that ASU students are never going out of style. The USM Club is a student-run organization devoted to sourcing thrifted and vintage articles of clothing to provide its members with autonomy in fashion and self-expression. Their meetings are every other Monday at 7 p.m. in Hayden C12.
Riva Surana is the president of the USM Club and is a senior double-majoring in journalism and marketing. She has loved fashion since she could remember and is dedicated to USM’s mission of giving old clothes new homes.
“We're hosting our first meeting of the semester. It’s a styling contest, so we have sourced second-hand vintage clothes for students. They've been divided into teams and they're styling those clothes, then taking those clothes back home, giving them a new home by the end of the night,” Surana said.
To Surana and many of the members at USM Club, clothing is a form of self-expression. USM Club promotes circular fashion and provides clothes to students so that they can feel their best selves on a budget.
“When I came here, I realized that I cannot buy expensive high-fashion clothes, so I got into second-hand vintage fashion. I realized that there was no platform or no community space at ASU that encourages vintage fashion, which is why we built University Street Market,” Surana said.
Students scrambled to the table full of thrifted pieces. As they scattered, clothes were in every direction, being pulled, layered and adjusted to be just the right fit for the contest.
It’s important to find community through a love for fashion. First-year, Ryder Friedman, is majoring in accounting but is looking for his crowd in the fashion scene at ASU. It can be daunting to navigate a university for the first time, but through USM he is able to connect with other fashion aficionados.
“I wanted to show up because a lot of likeminded people come here. That's kind of hard to find. I’m in Hassayampa right now but there's not a lot of people with the same interests as me,” Friedman said.
Friedman finds a lot of his clothes online or at thrift stores. People often ask him where he gets his pieces and Y2K-inspired garments.
“It’s important to do what you want to do, the more you compare yourself to other people, the less confident you will feel in your fit. I would say that my biggest piece of advice is to do your style for yourself,” Friedman said.
Fashion is a part of identity and clubs like USM give students the chance to express themselves through the art of dressing, all while promoting ASU’s values such as sustainability. One team consisted of four girls — Soha Mahmoud, Nazifa Hasanhasa, Sahar Abid and Afifa Arif — some newer and some returning members.
“It is so much fun being around other people that enjoy thrifting and see the importance of sustainability. It’s even more fun just making amazing fits! I really enjoy being at this club because of that,” Abid said.
The meeting ended with an impromptu runway showcasing all of the outfits from the contest, each model draped in everything ranging from knits to chiffon. Skirts were transformed into headbands, scarves into tops — even the wackiest pieces were put into style.
“We just had headbands and like a random top, so we made the top a headband and turned the headband into tops with a belt. We worked with whatever we had to make this look,” Hasa added.
Students applauded and recorded it on their phones. By the end of the night, a winner was chosen but each student got to take a piece home.
Photography by Jr De Chavez