The fashion culture at Trinity, although somewhat well-renowned, can be utterly bizarre to those tourists and students entering the college for the first time. To untrained eyes, the myriad of peculiar outfits, bold (and oftentimes clashing) colour choices and Doc Martens everywhere you look can be quite bewildering. However when broken down, the different clubs and societies within Trinity lend a helping hand in understanding the origins from which many of these curious style choices have stemmed:
Law Soc vs Pol Soc
Words like networking and nepotism get thrown around a lot these days- the latter more often than not in a negative light- but that does little deter the members of Trinity College’s Law Soc from sporting their maroon quarter zips around campus. After all, nothing screams “just finished my summer internship at mummy’s office” quite like Polo Ralph Lauren, only ever half zipped up as they don’t want you confusing them with UCD.
On the other hand, Pol Soc members would tend to pair their polos with chinos, finishing off the look with a pair of black loafers, in what they think is a more “subtle” nod to quiet luxury than the more professional attire of Law Soc- they’re probably right . Those who are observant will also notice the Law Soc member’s fervour to wear a suit at any occasion that has even the slightest hint of corporate, but it’s not the suits so much that it is the toe cap oxfords that truly underpin this beguiling look.
GAA Club:
Before the release of Lenny Abrahamson’s ‘Normal People’, the standard ensemble of a GAA jersey and
skinny jeans would have been a shockingly far cry from anything state-of-the-art. In recent years however, the commercial success of the BBC production has catapulted this conventional style into “global fashion trend” status. With this development, the members of Trinity College’s GAA Club, who were once able to live their lives in peace, have become the reluctant fashion icons of every American tourist’s latest infatuation: Paul Mescall in GAA shorts.
DUHAC:
Unlike GAA Club, the members of Trinity Athletics aren’t as readily recognisable by their campus style alone. You may see them walking around campus with their gear bags before training, and on the rare occasion rocking their new pair of Lulu Lemons (if Fashion Soc haven’t chased them off campus for wearing leggings on Trinity grounds). However a fashion renaissance could be in the works for this society this year as there’s a rumour going around that they’ll soon be sporting matching team merch…
Germanic Soc:
With the many different states and cultures within Germany, one would think that the members of Germanic Soc have an abundance of influences to draw from, yet each and every time the bundesliga jersey comes out in a transparent attempt to appear niche – we know you don’t know where San Pauli is, just be honest and admit that you’ve only ever been to Berlin.
Med Soc:
It’s no secret that for some time now, Fashion Soc have been turning a blind eye to Med Soc “couture”. They walk around campus in fleeces and sweatpants and only ever interact with their own kind, discussing their monthly rewatch of Grey’s Anatomy (the prom episode always gets a suspiciously long debrief). According to inside sources, they can continue this antisocial demonstration in perpetuity, as long as they keep a minimum distance of 100 feet from the arts block at all times. This agreement has managed to avoid what would be a most disquieting clash between the polar aesthetics of these two groups, the reason for this unlikely harmony being the majority of med students have no idea where the arts block even is.
Fashion Soc:
Funnily enough there is no set style for the members of Trinity Colleges Fashion Soc, but that’s not to say you wouldn’t know immediately if one of them was standing right in front of you. In fact, their main objective is to intimidate you with the unpredictability of their positively idiosyncratic outfits- the bolder the better. And despite the fact that deep down they’re actually well aware that there’s only so much je ne sais quoi that the confinements of the arts block can afford them, they also know that it just wouldn’t be Trinity without them, so we should probably just let them at it.
