Emily Radler PO ‘12 has a strikingly androgynous look, and it comes from a genuine place.
“It’s important to me that how I look reflects how I feel,” she said. “It’s especially a gender thing; I have a masculine style because I feel that way.”
Radler’s style is also motivated simply by what she thinks is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.
Radler said she has enjoyed dressing this way since she was a child.
“I really liked the idea of my dad’s work shirts and sweatshirts,” she said.
She also grew up surfing and skateboarding and was influenced by, for example, what she saw guys wearing to the beach.
Radler’s style is simplistic; a pleasing subtlety in her clothing shows her sensitivity to aesthetics.
“I like nice fabrics and nice designs,” she said, but she also maintains a minimalism which “keeps my looks from being ‘out there.’” Her short hairstyle is simple, as well, and unobtrusively and effectively brings out her features and radiance.
Radler said she prefers there to be a slight tension, rather than overwhelming matchiness, between the individual pieces she wears.
“I’m drawn to certain articles of clothing and put them together in a way that’s matching…but not too matching,” she said.
Radler is also influenced by the image of the classic American male and an ever-present consciousness of comfort.
Living on Pomona’s campus has changed Emily’s style somewhat.
“There are days I want to wear black, but black is just too much for Claremont,” she said.
However, since coming to Pomona, she’s partially re-adopted the preppier style she had growing up. She recalled that khakis and boat shoes had at first seemed out of place: “Now I’m like, whatever—I really like that stuff.”
With the arrival of fall, Emily looks forward to sweaters and boots as well as maroon and other darker colors.
“But it’s so hot out!” she said. “I can’t wait to be able to wear clothing and to be cold and not be sweating.”
In anticipation of colder weather, she’s also been enamored with the idea of wearing two button-downs. The possibilities: “Oxford with plaid over it. A striped shirt under a chambray shirt.”
Such subtlety is in line with her overall intention of dressing discretely, in both senses (and spellings) of the word.
Radler lets each carefully selected article of clothing do the work it was intended to do, and in doing so, reveals glimpses of her individuality.
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