Imagine you're at home on an off-term, taking a break from the Dartmouth scene to try new things and maybe gain a little work experience. Naturally you miss your friends at school and, being that you are home in Boston, you decide to head up to campus for a quick visit just the weekend. The second you step off the coach your Blackberry is immediately bombarded with messages from two '13s you've never met asking to interview you about your personal style. And there's more, they also want to do a photoshoot to capture your fashion sense, but here's the catch, you can only use the clothes you brought for the weekend.
This is the situation Grey Cusack '11 found herself in this past weekend. Once we received the tip from an anonymous but fashionable source we began spreading the word about this week's style icon. Everyone loved her style and her personality, now we just had to meet her and pray that her weekend wardrobe was as fabulous as everyone said she was.
Grey's modest fashion sense matches her personality. She looks to her mother's closet for inspiration, finding functionality in some of the old clothes Mama Cusack doesn't wear anymore. Blessed with a natural talent for thrifting, Grey knows how to find pieces that one might miss.
"The trick to thrifting is patience," she said. "If you go often enough you'll eventually find great stuff."
Grey loves to go out to lunch with her younger sister, a freshman at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, on Newbury St. and then peruse through "Second Time Around" a small chain of thrift stores in Boston that sells secondhand designer clothes. Because of her master thrifting skills, Grey and her sister recently found a gorgeous, yet reasonably priced Diane Von Furstenburg dress.
Grey said her junior year of high school she traveled to London as an exchange student to study at the Westminster school and learned a lot from British fashion.
"I learned it's ok to wear navy and black," she said. "And that sunglasses are appropriate at any time of day."
This lesson has continued to stick with Grey she often uses black as a base adding colorful accents to make her outfits pop.
Grey added that she expresses her artistic personality through her passion for film as well as her clothing. Her credits include internships on movies such as "The Departed" and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." Last year she worked on "Company Men," a film starring Ben Affleck, that is set to be released next year. And due to her work on that film, she was invited to intern on "The Town," which is directed by Ben Affleck and should also be coming out next year.
"I try to stay busy" she added modestly.
At Dartmouth, Grey is majoring in creative writing, and focuses on screenplays and productions with her friends.
"One of the most important things about my life at Dartmouth are my friends," she said. "I have the most wonderful friends."
This past summer Grey experienced her proudest moment at Dartmouth when she and her artistic posse wrote and directed nine shorts about Dartmouth life. They compiled these shorts to make a feature length film in the style of "Paris je t'aime" which showed at the end of the summer.
We are so grateful to Grey for her ability to look chic and fashionable without notice a feat, let's face it, most people struggle with. As for the rest of you, we'll be on the lookout. You never know, you could be next!
If you see fashionable people on campus that you think deserve to be recognized, send them our way. We would love your help in keeping Dartmouth looking her best.
