Do you have the latest (fill in the blank) ?

In an age where every American sees at least 3,000 discrete advertisements a day and almost every ensemble can be identified by the unmistakable label, it is hard not to be influenced to buy certain products or look a certain way. The notorious show Sex and the City portrays the main character, Carrie Bradshaw, spending lavish amounts of money on Manolo Blahnik shoes that she could never afford on a columnist’s salary.

However, the glamour and glitz of that lifestyle intrigues average Americans so much that they spend millions, even billions of dollars every year on merchandise to emulate characters like those on Sex and the City.

Proof of this societal influence can be found among the females of Castleton State College. Many Castleton females vouched that they are in some way influenced to follow trends whether they do so on purpose or not.

“I try not to follow too many trends, but then again, trends pop up even when you don’t want them to,” said Joanna Doolan.

Other students agreed that they didn’t follow trends closely, but they still were able to arrive at some unpredictable examples.

“I like being my own person, however, I think the biggest trend that I see myself trying to keep up with is losing weight to be fit and as small as most other women these days,” said Sarah Delia.

Doolan also pinpointed another trend that deals with self-image– the way girls wear their hair.

“Side-swept bangs seem to be pretty big. I used to hate bangs when I was younger.I never thought I’d go back to them once they had grown out. But they actually work really well on a lot of people. Two of my best friends and I have them, not intentionally,” she said.

Courtney Gosselin even looked at the big picture of Castleton when she named off the trends she observes.

“Being active is pretty important and is a pretty big trend at our school. Like all the different athletic groups we have are kind of trends. People look up to those people,” she said.

The hot topic across campus, however, was clothing trends. Nearly every female named fashion examples in their responses.

“Some of my friends follow fashion and stuff like that more closely. I see them with UGGS and other name brand clothing like Coach,” said Delia.

Another student was able to pin-point specific clothing examples to demonstrate the way many females dress across campus.

“I know I see a lot of people following each other, like wearing the hip hugger pants, the low cut tops, and the long tank tops underneath so it shows,” said Shayna Rogers.

However, Rogers describes her own style in a fairly unique way.

“I don’t know if you could say I have a certain trend. I like to dress kinda hickish, but at the same time I like to be fashionable,” she said.

Even female students who aren’t into following trends can live with some of the clothing choices others make.

“The trend I find least repulsive is putting long boots over pants. Sometimes it looks classy, but you can also make it look kick ass with a pair of combat boots,” said Doolan.

Gosselin is quick to point out that some clothing choices students make are odd, but she isn’t one to judge.

“Certainly different styles are considered cool. Like if you were to wear leopard leather pants or something, people may look at you funny. But then again styles are always changing. For all I know that’s the next trend,” she said.

Students also identified electronic products that have swept up Castleton students, as well as, the entire nation. Those electronic devices include ipods and iphones, which seem to be attached at the umbilical cord for most.

Doolan offers up what she believes the next trend will be.

“I think the new trend is to not be trendy,” she said. “A lot of people try so hard to not follow trends, when in all actuality, everything is a trend whether or not you see it in your own life. I’m sure half way across the world people have the same ideas, we just don’t know because we can’t see them.”

Many students cringe at the sound of the world “trend” and the idea of conforming to someone else’s idea of cool, but it doesn’t have to rely solely on negative connotations.

“.The greatest form of flattery is someone copying you, right?” said Doolan.

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