DENICIA SUAREZ|

ST. CROIX- At The University of the Virgin Islands, most students wear T-shirts and jeans, but within the trendy crowd there is a distinct and peculiar group of people called “UVI Fashionistas.”

We stepped into the closets of Shakirah Ritter and Ajah Richards style to learn more about the in-fashion on campus.

Shakirah Ritter is a 19-year-old ticking fashion bomb that explodes when she steps out for a girl’s night out or heads to class. She emulates simplicity, yet her unique style is super high-fashion, sleek and versatile.

Shakirah’s favorite trends are inspired by tribal prints and pastels and she studies fashion through magazines like “Vogue.” Celebrities like Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian inspire Shakirah’s daily  outfits. Shakirah says she enjoys pairing high heels with her outfits.

In “In Style Magazine,” Kim Kardashian states, “I wear a lot of heels! They give you extra height, plus they lengthen your legs and make you look leaner.”

Even though Shakirah looks at celebrity fashion for inspiration, she never copies. In fashion, clothing is not the only fashionable factor. Makeup and hair also are key ingredients for the perfect mixture of a fashion soup.

Messy buns, occasional braids and sew-ins are Shakirah’s main  hairstyles. She uses Mac makeup, which creates that perfect natural look for regular days and a dark smoky eye for photo shoots. Fashion makes her feel cool and she enjoys expressing herself through fashionable clothing.

Ajah Richards is a 22-year-old sophomore at UVI. His fashion sense is very urban and stems from New York City.

This urban guy likes to create a chemical mixture of fashion that blows people away.His mixture of urban and casual are meticulously put together to ignite his finished product.

Ajah’s urban twist is totally unique because he is inspired by women fashion too! However, he finds a way to twist feminine styles into “masculine macho.”

He says that almost 89 percent of the time, styles and prints such as galaxy, Aztec, and even floral are not only for women but are also available in styles for men.

“Fashion is risk taking,” Ajah says.

Some people are afraid of wearing fashions that they admire; however, he has no fear. Fashion makes him feel confident. For example, Ajah has a T-shirt with a ballerina design on the front. It may seem strange, he says, but the ballerina on his T-shirt  actually is just  cover art from Kanye West’s track called “Runaway.”

Ajah shops at Urban Threadz in Sunny Isle and occasionally online at Dr. Jay’s.  Ajah dresses up his look with some cool glasses, snap backs and male accessories.

To conclude, Ajah and Shakirah both gave advice. To someone who is trying to develop his or her own style, Ajah says “Find someone whose fashion you admire and use that as a base to create your own style.” Shakirah says, “Be unique, think about your personality, the things you like and work around that.”