The dress? Check.
The shoes? Check.
Hair, accessories, and one more look in the mirror? Check, check, and check. It might seem like putting together an outfit like this would take hours of preparation and second guessing, but the truth is actually quite the opposite: Helen Raza decides what she’ll wear while she’s brushing her teeth that morning.
The freshman fashionista began expressing herself through her preferred sense of style in the sixth grade. Raza dresses in eclectic 1920s-1970s fashion stemming from a collection that started with her mom and is ever growing. Raza’s mother, Kristina Raza, has held onto clothing from living within the Soviet Union and passed it down to her daughter over the years.
“My mom is also very into fashion, and when things she has don’t fit her anymore, she gives them to me,” Helen said. “A lot of the clothing that she’s giving me is clothing she wore that came from countries like America or France that weren’t allowed inside of the Soviet Union.”
Kristina came to her sense of style when she was young, and her journey to coming to the United States helped her to develop and pursue that, making it much more meaningful in the end. No matter how far she’s come, Kristina can still trace back to where she began.
“I remember the first time I saw a fashion magazine. It was “Cosmo”, and I just had this inexplicable interest in trends and colors and different ways of putting clothes together,” Kristina said. “Fashion is my personal expression, my personal art. This is how I express myself to the world.”
Kristina gave Helen a starting point to expand her style, and the young designer continues to carry her mother’s fashion-filled legacy while adding her own personal flair to her wardrobe. Since then, she’s personalized and perfected the way she expresses herself by looking to the root of it all: the past. Raza takes inspiration from history, and decides from there what she’ll bring to the present.
“I like the Edwardian era; I think it’s so pretty because of the flowing skirts and long dresses,” Raza said. “But I also love the seventies with the way that the blouses are put together to accentuate the waist or the arms.”
Past pieces aren’t the only thing influencing Raza — stylistic icons impact her just as much. Looking back, she’s been able to find several fashion figureheads to assist her in her journey of self expression.
“I love Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and Coco Chanel,” Raza said. “For street fashion, I love Yoko Takahashi.”
Raza’s icons, along with the pieces she takes from give her a set vision of what she wants. From there, she just has to find the pieces to put together the outfit of her dreams.
“I am a survivalist shopper. I’m only thinking of the piece of clothing I want to get. And usually, nine times out of ten, I get it,” Raza said. “I also spend so much time on Pinterest. If I see a skirt I like, I have my sister—who’s very tech savvy-–track down that skirt for me.”
Despite her confidence in her style, Raza claims she was nervous to make the transition to high school and face a new group of students. Raza has met both accepting faces and harsh critics throughout her fashion journey.
“When I started dressing like this in middle school, it was hard,” Raza said. “People would walk by me and call me Mary Poppins, or say silly things like, ‘This decade wanted their clothes back.’ It wasn’t always easy.”
In spite of these social challenges, Raza doesn’t falter. Freshman Lylli Rhoades met Raza in elementary school, but became friends with her around the same time that Raza began to develop her style.
“Helen’s bold take on fashion never fails to make me smile,” Rhoades said. “She’s just so creative and unique with the way she presents herself.”
Raza feels that her friends have given her confidence to continue to express herself through her stylistic choices. In turn, Raza’s faith in herself has helped her show her peers who she is and give others the same opportunity.
“I hope the people who I inspire can be greater than I am now,” Raza said.
