Style Scoop: Marina

By Glory Okeleke, June 29 2023—

Maintaining elegance by looking sharp in classic looks is one of Marina’s strong suits. Soon after getting a glimpse of her voguish style displayed in some zebra pony-hair wedge heels, matched with a pair of light jogger pants and a silk white top, and then topped off with a bright yellow blazer, I knew immediately that Marina was a notch above being an eligible candidate for the style scoop.

Did you have a specific aim/intent behind putting this together? 

“Absolutely! I usually start with shoes, and then I kind of build my outfit from there, and I make sure that it has to match…I have a zebra purse which I don’t have right now but it has to match,” Marina emphasized in response. “And I love black and white but then I have to break it up with some kind of colour,” she explained further. Being stylish and expressive with fashionable choices is no novelty to Marina, because as she personally accounted, “I dress up every day, I find it very important for my mental health and happiness.”

What would you say inspires your style the most?

“Classics” — the best route to take, according to Marina. “Most of my clothes are regular clothes, but then I have some pieces that just make everything pop [and come together],” she recounted. “Yeah I think it’s generally classics because I don’t like to wear things that go out of fashion really fast,” she alluded. When we think of fast fashion, Marina believes these pieces lack substantiveness and “don’t seem worth it.”

Could we possibly get a breakdown of your outfit and where you got everything from?

Marina was keen to enumerate specifically where she had acquired all the amazing pieces she was dressed in. The zebra heel shoes were from Nine West, the black light summer pants she wore were from H&M, and lastly, the bold yellow blazer that finished it off was purchased from Banana Republic. 

Then, moving on to jewelry because “you need to [kind of] close everything… it’s sort of like whipped cream on your dessert,” Marina joked. Her earrings which could be classified as a statement piece were a rustic silver abstract style pair which were purchased from travels in Spain, and then the rest of Marina’s jewelry, silver specifically, were all purchased from Banana Republic as well; brushed silver accessories are another thing Marina is enamoured by these days. 

Do you have any essential fashion/styling tips to share with those on campus?

In response to this question, Marina paused and then said, “this might sound ridiculous and you don’t have to put this in at all,” little did I know she was about to drop the best fashion advice ever — “when you dress up and with the way you present yourself you wanna look like a sunset, you don’t wanna be a fried chicken.” 

I laughed too, but then she proceeded to explain the meaning of this, which is why I think it has so much wisdom infused in it. This saying simply means that when dressing up and getting ready, you want your appearance to always leave a lasting impression as a sunset does, it resonates with whoever catches its beauty. A fried chicken on the other hand, is very short-lived, “it’s crusty, it’s fun, you take a bite and then you’re done with it,” commented Marina. “So you wanna have this appearance that brings up different emotions and almost something others can connect to,” she finished. 

And I agree with her, on everything — one thing that is going to stick with me, however, is the fried chicken advice. I’m for sure going to remember that one in whatever fashion phase I go through. 

Well, catch you guys real soon on the next drop.