On May 5, friends and family of Sydney Wekstein gathered in the basement of a church in Bushwick for the runway show of fashion brand and collective Worldofmyown’s “Lappel du Vide”–french for “Call of the Void”–collection.

On Monday, February 13, after cold-emailing 20+ press contacts, I was invited to attend Cucculelli Shaheen’s New York Fashion Week debut as a volunteer dresser. Their 15th Collection, titled “Les Radiants,” featured thirty-one looks at Webster Hall in the East Village. 

Balletcore has swept through the internet, quickly becoming a highly influential fashion and lifestyle trend pioneered by apps like TikTok and Instagram. Ballerinas are known for thriving in a dainty, regimented, and uber-feminine atmosphere, albeit not the easiest circumstances to live under. Regardless, this lifestyle has been romanticized.

The pieces that I cherish most in my closet are those that have been passed down by my mother and lived through a variety of trends. One of my favorite articles of clothing is a white Ralph Lauren turtleneck my mother gave me while sorting through her closet. The sweater managed to follow me from my home in Germany to New York for college, and now I wear it almost daily.

One of the most important things we can do as up-and-coming twenty-somethings is to take risks and force ourselves into a variety of opportunities. The “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude is gaining traction amongst the Generation Z community–for good reason.