Quad Style: Cecilia Sheppard
Meet Cecilia Sheppard, a first year in the College planning on majoring in Visual Arts and Art History. She's hoping to start up her fashion blog, Cecilia Roses, again next quarter. She loves being the Assistant Style Editor for the MODA Mag, does yoga and sings for University Chorus in her free time.
How would you describe your personal style?
My personal style is always evolving. Of course I use all of the same pieces in my wardrobe, but I mix and match to create ensembles that allows me to take on a variety of looks as if styling myself for a film where I take on a very romantic and altogether feminine look, very collegiate, colorful, or edgy, done up or relaxed. I have a lot of fun getting dressed!
I’m wearing my favorite piece, a red Junya Wantanabe coat with attached ruff scarf, my go-to Zara culots and heeled zip-up boots.
Where do you find style inspiration?
I find my biggest style inspiration from movies, artworks, plays, and literature. I watch all of the runways, but I don’t like trends. I love treating my wardrobe as a sort of trove of timeless things. By looking to the arts where a certain character or mood is presented, I dream up the looks that would fit into that setting and then style what I own to take on that mood that I fell in love with on the screen or in the pages of a book.
Where do you like to shop?
I love Ikram, Chicago. It’s more of a museum of the most fantastic well known designers and ones just being discovered by owner Ikram Goldman herself. I don’t go shopping that often. I tend to buy the pieces as I come across them, never buying in bulk. I love pieces that catch my eye because of their craftsmanship, how they feel and how they catch the eye across the room. Those are the qualities I want to have noticed when I wear them.
Do you have any fashion regrets?
I wore almost exclusively a Ralph Lauren aesthetic up until high school, and so I wasn’t as experimental as I could have been. Yet, I’m not sure I regret that. I still wear a lot of those pieces. Even leggings that have gotten too small I’ve deconstructed and changed to wear as new shirts. I don’t get rid of many pieces from my closet, I have too much of a love affair with them. I don’t regret, I alter.
“I don’t get rid of many pieces from my closet, I have too much of a love affair with them. I don’t regret, I alter.”
What is your relationship to fashion? Has it changed over time?
My dream is to work in fashion. I’ve wanted to be the editor for “the best fashion magazine” for a long time. Right now that’s Vogue, but who knows, maybe I’ll start my own or I’ll branch off and create my own label. I love fashion, especially the editorial magazine side, because its an industry where art meets people. I want to make the world more beautiful and to realize fashion’s best purpose: to empower.
For my other look, I’m wearing a Topshop Boutique dress, Gucci shoes and rings, and Nina Ricci coat.
Why is fashion important to you?
Fashion is important to me because it has allowed me to be creative every morning getting dressed and feel confident anywhere I go. It’s also made me appreciate all sorts of people. What looks they take on make me curious about who they are, where they’ve been, and where they’re going. Fashion just happens to be a great conversation starter for meeting people and finding the answers to all of the above. I simply love that.
“[Fashion has] made me appreciate all sorts of people. What looks they take on make me curious about who they are, where they’ve been, and where they’re going.”
All images courtesy of Charlotte Wang.
