While the University’s club scene prides itself on a variety of offerings, it can often feel dominated by exclusive pre-professional organizations flocked to by students looking for extra lines on their resume. Simply getting into these clubs may require a certain stilted image, stifling authenticity. HoosFits, a fashion-oriented club of student photographers, videographers and graphic designers that took shape in September 2024, encourages the opposite.
The student group celebrates student fashion on Grounds, looking deeper into the unspoken expressions of individuality within one’s day-to-day outfit. They are most known for their Instagram slideshows that portray impeccably dressed students, showcasing a range of styles as a microcosm for the student body’s fashion. The handful featured on the page weekly are approached impromptu by the club’s photographers who pick out peers sporting experimental, thoroughly accessorized and carefully curated outfits.
The group originated over a dinnertime conversation about a “fit check” — a short video recorded to show off a well put-together outfit. Justin Zhang, HoosFits President, co-founder and second-year College student explained what bore the idea.
“Another co-founder, Edmund … was posting some fit check that he had on his personal story. I was like, ‘Dude, do you want to do this for a U.Va. account?’” Zhang said. “We just made the account [at] the dinner table.”
The popularity of their Instagram page, now with over 1600 followers, has made a photo in their slideshows an exciting badge of honor for the effortfully well-dressed. Its most recent gallery put a spotlight on nine students staying fashionably warm, some clad in glossy Dr. Martens boots and some in trucker hats, with teal-tinted full-body portraits taken from the Corner and the Amphitheatre.
Many arrive at the University flustered by the pressures of daily fashion, from former boarding school pupils with enforced uniforms to those intimidated by the common Southern ‘preppy’ motif. Additionally, as a smaller college town, Charlottesville may not necessarily provide exposure to a modern avant-garde fashion scene that undergrads can get involved with, both in terms of exploring their own tastes or professional avenues.
HoosFits is vital in filling in that gap in opportunity, providing a model for self-experimentation in fashion choices. While venturing into new corners of a wardrobe can be a daunting task for many, the club and the students it celebrates serve to inspire that kind of dabbling in various styles.
Vice President of HoosFits and fourth-year College student Noel Sierra Hernandez said that when such experimentation is recognized and appreciated by the club’s fashion enthusiasts, students become more willing to dress authentically in the first place.
“Since starting the page, a lot more people have been, I guess, willing to put themselves out there and dress up,” Sierra Hernandez said. “We go up to people a lot of times … and they'll be like, ‘Oh, you guys are HoosFits. I've been wanting to be featured.’”
Zhang and Sierra Hernandez hope to capture and reward artistry and in fashion among the student body as a whole, which incites a celebration of diversity on Grounds. The two themselves have their own diverse fashion senses. Sierra Hernandez often dons heavy-duty workwear, which he considers abundant in his wardrobe due to his extracurricular tree service business. Zhang personally explores a range of clothing genres, but has an inclination for baggy denim and outdoorsy pieces.
Still, Zhang said that an important aspect of arranging their social media posts is acknowledging the scope and variety of fashion seen on Grounds beyond their own tastes.
“We try to be as diversified as possible, because the point of the account and the club was to capture what U.Va students are wearing, not just, you know, a specific genre that we're looking for,” Zhang said.
Sierra Hernandez echoed this idea, emphasizing that any outfit can be aesthetically worthy of praise, regardless of the brands it is composed of.
“It's not really based on if they're wearing designer clothing or anything like that. It’s just whether we think they look cool,” Sierra Hernandez said. “[We don’t] favor specific brands that we think that would exclude a lot of what U.Va. people wear.”
Hope for an inviting space also led the organization to develop relationships with other student-founded University arts clubs, such as the music club IndieHeads, the arts magazine VMag and fashion organization Runway. While addressing different niches, these other organizations carry the same mission as HoosFits — allowing students to be confident in their authentic self via the arts. Zhang explained that this shared goal is what leads to crossovers between the groups.
“We want to, together, sort of make sure that whoever is interested in fashion, they have a way to express themselves, through either us or Runway or whatever covers their interest,” Zhang said.
HoosFits’ photographers occasionally document outfits at other clubs’ events to form “lookbooks,” preserving the intricately assembled regalia of a voguish night. In the fall, HoosFits paired with IndieHeads to host their own event — a party celebrating unconventional outfits, where attendees had to wear what they “couldn’t wear anywhere else.” Partygoers sported outdated One Direction merchandise, ties over their t-shirts, pirate-esque eye patches and anything else perceived too strange for class.
“It was just such a great feeling knowing that everybody was able to express themselves as much as they did there. It was a little different from, I think, your standard party,” Sierra Hernandez said.
Beyond its dedication to the broader University community and fashion scene, HoosFits points its members to a range of opportunities for their own personal development. The club hosts weekly events where members can indulge in their fashion interests and develop creative skills in photography and graphic design. Zhang and Sierra Hernandez recently introduced a project where each member could produce their own Instagram post for the account on any topic with complete creative liberty.
Day to day, club members scour Grounds for snazzy students to take pictures of, with a handful of repeating sites — like those hosting events put on by other creative student groups, or the School of Architecture — known for being fashionable. Though fun, this endeavor can pose its own unique personal challenges. After locating a student dashing enough to photograph, spontaneously approaching them on a crowded campus requires some poise — and risks rejection.
Overshadowing that awkward prospect is HoosFits’ overall sense of acceptance, providing an inclusive space for every type of fashion connoisseur. Long-term, Zhang and Sierra Hernandez hope that the platform carries these ideals forward as it continues to quickly grow.
“We started literally just [as] friends who had interest in fashion … We got to, upscale our members … but that's where we're hoping our club's going. A lot of people who share interests, who are not afraid of being judged,” Zhang said.
Applications are open for the organization’s creative team, in videography and photography that highlights the University’s panoramic fashion tastes. Nonetheless, anybody on Grounds, regardless of club affiliation, can further HoosFits’ mission by proudly dressing as their true self.
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