Comfortable is always in style on the Kansas University campus.

Platform flip flops, baggy shorts, Puma tennies, blue jeans and even pajama pants are standard attire at KU.

Although the typical dress code on Mount Oread may be a casual and cozy look, KU students say they know how to dress when they go out at night.

“On campus people don’t care or try,” said El Dorado junior Andrea Yarbrough. “When they go out, it’s like total makeover; even their hair changes.”

The trend is to blend

Tulsa, Okla., senior Jenny Long said her hair expressed her personality. Long’s blonde hair has been in dreadlocks for four years, and from time to time she has added a colorful, decorative charm to give it personality.

“It’s kind of like a road map of where I’ve been,” she said.

Long wishes more KU students would display their originality by wearing clothing that says who they are.

“Express yourself. Adorn yourself,” Long said. “Let your personality come through in what you wear.”

She said most KU students simply wore what their friends wore.

“On campus, not that many people stand out,” she said. “They wear the same old stuff.”

Amik Ahmad, New York City senior, said not many KU students put effort into being fashionable. He said everyone on campus dressed the same.

“Ankle bracelets, cargo pants, jeans or big, baggy basketball shorts,” Ahmad said.

Andrea Yates, Kansas City, Kan., junior, agreed with Long and Ahmad.

“Everyone seems to dress kind of similar,” she said. “There are a few people who are extremely eccentric or always have a cute little outfit on, but for the most part it’s pretty basic.”

But Long said students in downtown Lawrence were better dressers.

“It’s so diverse down here,” she said. “You have your rockers and your squatters and your hippies.”

Fashion lives

Yarbrough said it was not fair to say that no one at KU had style. She’s seen some trendy students.

Besides, Yarbrough said, as long as students are wearing the right gear, it’s OK for them to look similar.

“One thing that’s really, really big right now are those Britney-influenced, low, Brazilian jeans,” she said.

She said denim in general would be popular for fall. Yates said students almost always dressed in blue jeans.

Ahmad said men on campus should get away from jeans and purchase black or pin-striped slacks.

“People stare at me when I wear my striped jeans,” he said. “KU students should wear suits sometimes.”

Yates said female students had become more formal lately by wearing skirts and more feminine clothing. Yarbrough said this feminine fad was why lace was in style.

“Ruffles and frilly, frilly, fluffy frou-frou,” she said.

Yarbrough said 70s-inspired bell-sleeved shirts would be seen all over campus this year.

This is part of the return of retro, Yates said. She wears vintage clothing from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Yates said another new trend was embroidered clothing and belts.

“It adds a little ethnic trend to it,” she said.

Yarbrough said not to forget about accessories. Purses, belts, shoes and hair are key to looking stylish.

Shorter, flipped-out hair cuts will still be the favorite hair style at KU this fall, she said.

Yarbrough said anything from chunky Puma shoes to stiletto heels were popular footwear, but Yates said there was an appropriate time and place to wear certain kinds of shoes.

“Every once in a while I’ll see a girl wearing stacked heels on campus, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh honey, what are you doing?'” she said.

Yates said students should always dress for comfort.

“I wear a lot of flip flops and tennis shoes,” she said. “In Lawrence you do a lot of walking.”