Henry Winter Fan Art (credit: @malkettu on Instagram)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIf his name didn\u2019t suggest enough, Henry Winter encapsulates all that is dim, cold, ancient, and abnormal. As a very obvious winter pallet, Henry is described as pale, tall, broad shouldered, and extremely serious looking. With a constant stern expression, cooler color palette, and blocky build, Henry\u2019s personal style is already suggested to be something classical and academic, with fine tailoring being a valuable aspect of his clothing. Although many of the other characters in The Secret History <\/em>share similar style characteristics, Henry is an excellent case when studying the correlation between physical appearance and personality and behavior. Which leads into the next section\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\nSection 2: Mystery in Black Overcoats<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHenry Winter is soloed out almost immediately from the rest of the characters. His rather mature choice of clothing, combined with his stark and serious attitude marks him as an abnormal character, especially when you factor in his age and identity as a college student and NOT <\/em>an esteemed academic with a rich career to support his behavior, and the entirely-too-serious manner in which he carries himself. So what is it about Henry\u2019s personal style that makes him such an intriguing character to Richard, the readers, and to the narrative? In my opinion, it\u2019s Tartt\u2019s writing of his persona as trope-ish and severely intentional that paints him as a perfect reflection of the world Richard finds himself in. If Henry were to be any less of himself appearance-wise, this fictitious spell would be broken, and the reader would imagine Henry as any old pretentious college student. It\u2019s because of his thoughtful outerwear and put-together style that the narrative becomes more intense, more real though every descriptive detail. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSection 3: Desire for Drafty Libraries\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEven if you haven’t read the novel, the \u201cmysterious academic clad in black, flowy overcoats\u201d trope is commonly associated with the story and its characters. Scroll through BookTok for no more than five minutes and you\u2019re sure to come across a collage of figures in dark coats with white, collared shirts running in snow and old libraries with shelves reaching to the heavens, accompanied by Tartt\u2019s reading of the novel\u2019s opening paragraph. <\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Photo from Dark Academia TikTok collage (credit: @Slytherin4Life on Pinterest)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe aesthetic of the novel is made perfectly clear with these moodboard-esque videos, working to bring returning readers back into the cool autumns and cold winters of Hampden College, while simultaneously introducing new readers to the haunting and mysterious visuals of the novel and its characters. The Dark Academica aesthetic is translated in a way entirely unique to those who know of the story and it\u2019s themes, with black overcoats and clean haircuts being synonymous with those channeling the quiet intensity of Henry Winter in their day and day, and oversized, knitted sweaters and monocles in reference to the eccentric Francis Abernathy. These desires to be closer to our favorite characters and their stories are best expressed physically through styling articles of clothing together that remind us of their vibes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 4: Okay\u2026Why Should I Care?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nStyle is forever. Who was it that said that again? Well, that doesn\u2019t really matter in this case. What does <\/em>matter however, is the urgent need to preserve personal style. So much of today\u2019s \u201cfashion\u201d is fast, easy, uniform, and to be honest, quite boring and uninventive. Developing and nurturing personal style is entregale to the creative world, which is threatened now more than ever before. Instead of purchasing another <\/em>tank top with a stolen piece of artwork cheaply printed onto it, consider investing in yourself, and purchasing clothes thoughtfully. If you\u2019re a writer like myself, or an avid reader, analyze what it is that makes your favorite characters intriguing and enjoyable to read about, and buy pieces according to those aspects. Combining both fashion and fiction into one creative outlet provides creatives with a new way to explore self expression and honor inspiration in a fun, inventive, and even therapeutic way!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blog Writer \/\/ Tehya Tenasco When you look up \u201cbooks about fashion\u201d what fills your screen is either self-help articles, advice books, or nonfiction titles providing information about the fashion…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,29,6],"tags":[180,49,179,178,77,38],"class_list":["post-2905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-reading","category-current-events","category-opinion","tag-aesthetic","tag-books","tag-dark-academia","tag-fashion","tag-fiction","tag-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2910,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions\/2910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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