Students carry on tradition of dressing up in hand-me-downs

Most college seniors have a short list of housing needs:
• a quick walk or bike ride to class.
• a roommate who pays her share of the rent.
• neighbors who aren’t too crabby about late-night parties.

At Colorado College there’s another “must”: a quality costume closet.
At a school known for its eccentricities — slack-lining on the quad, a world-class bowed piano ensemble, bicycle polo matches — it may come as no surprise there’s a vibrant dress-up subculture.

The likely surprise: the hand-me-down history that sustains it.

Unlike at most schools, where theme parties come with the ritual of mass secondhand-store shopping, CC students in the past five or six years have created a tradition of their own: Most clothing and accessories acquired for weekly off-campus costume parties — tan corduroy bell-bottoms, red suede vests, sparkly pink platforms, gold lamé miniskirts, black velveteen sombreros — are the unofficial property of the collective student body.

The goodies are ensconced in about a dozen houses near campus. And while the seniors living there may change each fall, the costumes remain.

Faded denim. Scuffed leather. Crushed velvet.

“A good closet’s a big plus when you’re choosing a place to live,” says Hannah Sohl, of Ashland, Ore.

Paisley. Day-Glo. Mondrian.

“You kind of get to know a house’s closet by what the people who live there wear; you know which closets are good, you know where you want to live,” Kate Wihtol says.

Feather boas. Furry scarves. Shiny thigh-high boots.

“It’s a quintessential CC experience,” says Sophie Herscu, of Amherst, Mass. “I haven’t heard of it anywhere else.”

Sequins. Satin. Spandex.

“Most of the people who come here are pretty spirited,” Herscu adds.

It’s early evening, and there’s a party planned at a 100-year-old Victorian on Cache La Poudre Street near campus. Tonight’s theme: denim. The tenor builds as housemates and friends get home from class and ultimate Frisbee practice.

Decisions must be made. What to wear?

In groups of two or three they tromp upstairs to a small room tucked under an attic dormer.
Dresses, slacks, shirts, jackets hang from racks. Footwear, headgear, belts, necklaces spill from stacked bins and chests of drawers.

Everyone grabs something denim — shorts, a skirt, a vest, a headband. As her friends disappear into the closet for accessories — a satin shirt, Jackie O sunglasses, a checkered fedora, yellow ballerina flats — Sohl methodically removes the shoelace from one of her soccer cleats and then weaves it through the eyelets that will fasten the denim dress she has chosen.

“We’re good at improvising, putting together outfits on the fly,” she says.

Freshmen and sophomores tend to go to Goodwill or Arc and buy clothing, Sohl says. Juniors and seniors make do, get creative. “By the time you’re a senior, like we are, you’re trying to get rid of stuff. You’re happy to leave stuff behind.”

Yet occasionally there’s something — a strapless dress, a pair of strappy heels — that’s too good to be true. It fits great and looks fantastic.

“It’s OK to take something you really, really like,” Herscu says. “But the rule is: If you take something good, you’ve got to leave something even better.”

FAVORITE CC THEME PARTIES
My Little Pony (pastels and glitter)
Jackson Pollack (partygoers splatter painted each other and garage interior)
Pirates (Arrrr!)
WTF Is On Your Head? (zany hats)
Flannel (soft and cozy)
Animal Planet (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!)
Harry Potter (who doesn't want to be a wizard?)
Onesies (they put everyone on an even playing field)