Ever Evolving: Senior Charlie Kitten uses style to express himself

Senior Charlie Kitten has always tried to fit himself — and his style — into one category.

Freshman year: preppy. His wardrobe consisted of stereotypical Lululemon and Vineyard Vines — the brands everyone else wore. He wanted to fit in and didn’t feel a need to change up his look. 

Sophomore year, he ditched the preppy attire and opted for a more emo look — trading his country club polos for six-inch platform boots, band t-shirts and spiked dog collar necklaces.

He went through three phases junior year, jumping from wearing basic graphic tees, to spiritual clothing with evil eye decals and back to emo again. 

But this year, Charlie has stopped defining his style as one thing, accepting that his upbeat personality makes him unique despite his clothing aesthetic.

“Someone could dress one way and act totally different, so just don’t judge people based on the way they dress,” Charlie said. “I would say, even though I look like a different person every year, my personality kind of stays the same. I’m very high energy and a social person and I love talking to people … it’s still the same me under it all.”

Changing styles has allowed Charlie to express himself. It’s helped lead him to new interests: crystal collecting, making his own clothes and a possible career in fashion. But most importantly, the development of his styles has given him confidence, giving him a creative outlet to break away from what everyone else was doing.

Then-sophomore Charlie noticed the stares. 

After trading in the preppy attire for various dark band t-shirts and black nail polish, groups of people gawked at his six-inch high platform boots and the spiked dog collar around his neck on his way to class. He knew he made a drastic style change — one day he wasn’t emo, and the next day he was. 

Onlookers were probably thinking, Wow, that kid’s super emo. And Charlie couldn’t have been happier — it was just what he wanted people to think.

He doesn’t entirely know why he wanted people to think this, he just knew he liked the appearance of the style of others online and wanted to try it for himself — despite his outgoing personality. Some people were nice about his change in style, still seeing him as the same Charlie. 

But others cut ties with him. 

“It really does kind of show who your real friends are,” Charlie said. “I remember some people just didn’t want to go anywhere with me anymore because I looked different.”

The lost friendships made Charlie doubt himself — questioning whether or not the friendships he once had were even real. He didn’t understand why people would hang out with him when he dressed one way, then totally disregard him when he dressed another.

“It just kind of made me feel like, ‘Wow. All of that was for nothing, our whole friendship was fake,’” Charlie said. 

But the lost friendships didn’t stop him. Looking back, now-senior Charlie admires the confidence he had sophomore year. 

“I would come to school in six inch platforms and I’m just like, ‘How did I do that,’” Charlie said. “I just don’t have the desire to do [that] anymore. And if I really miss that style, I could go back to it.”

Charlie still enjoys some elements of this style, like the band t-shirts he used to wear, but overall doesn’t like his past-emo look anymore. But he credits sophomore year for giving him the confidence to try out new styles.

Junior year — a year of chaos. After a year of dressing in dark colors, Charlie needed a change in style.

Three changes in style to be exact: basic, spiritual and then back to emo.

Charlie credits his changing of styles to simply being bored. He spends a lot of time on Pinterest, scrolling through outfit ideas and saving them for later. 

“I get bored of styles so easily,” Charlie said. “I’m on Pinterest all the time, which means I discover a lot of new styles. And I guess, at the time why I would change so dramatically, is because when I [found] a certain style I [wanted] to be perceived as that.”

Charlie used junior year to experiment. When exploring a more spiritual style, he discovered crystals and started implementing them in his daily routine through wearing crystal necklaces and doing daily manifestations — helping him to implement more positivity throughout junior year.

“I tried to not wear dark colors because they negatively affect your aura which affects your happiness,” Charlie said. “I [tried] to wear light colors so they [brought] good vibes.”

But looking back, Charlie cringes when thinking about the inconsistent style he had during junior year. 

“Junior year is the hardest year of high school, and this was the hardest year for me style-wise,” Charlie said. “I feel like I just was trying a lot of different things that weren’t consistent or cohesive.”

While his style during this year was chaotic, he still uses some elements of it today. He still enjoys going to local boutiques and thrift stores. He doesn’t wear his crystals as much, but he still manifests and stashes them throughout his room. He even brought the emo back at the end of junior year, dying his hair purple and pulling the band tees back out. All of these style changes helped him realize he doesn’t need to commit to just one style.

After posing for the camera wearing baggy jeans and a baby tee, Charlie selected his favorite photos and posted them on Instagram. He always wanted to think of his style as one thing, but this year he’s done with restricting himself to that.

“I feel like I can just dress however I want,” Charlie said. “It’s really nice to not feel restricted to only one thing anymore. And I feel like I’ve used a little bit of everything from all of my past styles.”

Throughout this year, people compliment Charlie about his style. People swiping up on his Instagram story about his style evolution or TikTok comments praising his outfits help Charlie realize how confident he can be when he doesn’t restrict himself to one thing.

“It’s made me so confident, and I feel really supported knowing people like my style,” Charlie said. 

Charlie says that his versatility has changed the most throughout all of his style evolution. When going to school, he loves wearing baggy jeans and a t-shirt. When he wants to dress nicer, he’ll wear a mesh top and skirt. When he doesn’t want to try, he wears something more casual like Lululemon shorts. He’s happy to incorporate multiple style aesthetics in his life — not just one.

He doesn’t envision himself having another annual and drastic style change like he’s done in years past. But he still wants to implement new outfits into his daily routine.He wants to experiment with layering clothing and even start making his own clothes. 

He hopes to one day move to New York and pursue a career in fashion — either working with fashion design or marketing fashion.