When walking across Boston College’s campus, you might expect to see a swarm of Canada Goose jackets, Vineyard Vines zip-ups, and Patagonia pullovers. But, if you look a bit closer, you will find some slept-on standouts. Nyah Nassif has an eye for such individuality.
“There is an unsaid thing at this school where it’s weird to try [to look good] when you’re on campus,” Nassif, CSOM ’22, said. “You are putting yourself out there if you wear a cute outfit.”
Nassif highlights students who break norms with their fashion choices on her Instagram account @bc.dailydrip, which launched in January after returning to BC for the spring semester.
“Over Winter Break, I wrote down a list of things I wanted to accomplish in my last semester of Boston College and things I wanted to do before I left, and one of the things that I wrote down was [to] leave a mark in some way, shape, or form, and I just felt like I hadn’t done that yet,” Nassif said.
From there, Nassif said the idea for the account came naturally. Fashion has always been important to her, and the two main influences on her passion for fashion were her mother and growing up in Los Angeles, Calif., she said.
“I’d say, more than anything, my mom influenced my interest in fashion,” Nassif said. “She is one of the most stylish people I know.”
In California, Nassif noticed influencer trends as well as beachy styles, which tend to have a more masculine feel, she said. Because of this array of influence, she said her style does not fit under just one label, but instead pulls from many areas.
After deciding that she wanted to leave California for college and experience something new, Nassif said she applied to several Jesuit schools on the East Coast. Nassif, who is studying finance and marketing in the Carroll School of Management, took on a lighter load of classes for her last semester at BC, and running her Instagram account allows Nassif to leave some sort of legacy behind at BC while spending her free time productively, she said.
Each post on the account features a new student, highlighting their outfit in two pictures. Nassif captions each post with the student’s name, class year, and favorite musical artist at the moment. Nassif said she aims to keep the captions short but uplifting to avoid the toxicity that social media can foster.
“There are a few influencers that I really like because I feel like they’re raw, and they’re authentic, and they keep it casual and fun and lighthearted,” Nassif said. “That was the main thing I wanted to maintain throughout all the posts. … I try to keep a light tone throughout all of my captions, just kind of to be something bright in each person’s day who follows the account.”
Including each student’s music taste in the captions may seem unrelated to the account’s fashion focus, but as someone who is passionate about both fashion and music, Nassif said she sees a strong connection between someone’s music and clothing tastes.
“If you have a love for fashion and you like picking and finding inspiration in other ways, then I feel like it completely ties into music,” Nassif said. “You pick and choose what your playlist is and what your specific genres are, and I feel like that’s very similar to how you pick and choose from different influencers or different celebrities or just people you see on the streets and their fashion sense and you create your own.”
The inclusion of the featured students’ favorite artists also allows Nassif, along with the account’s followers, to explore the music tastes of other BC students.
“I’m always looking for new artists,” Nassif said. “I want to hear what other people are listening to in general [and] maybe discover some new artists that I don’t already know”
In her first post, Nassif took the opportunity to introduce herself and the inspiration behind the account. From there, she said she first featured some of her friends so she would have content on the account before approaching students on campus.
Now, Nassif approaches students whom she does not already know. She stops students wearing outfits that stand out to her and asks if they would be interested in being featured. As a self-proclaimed extrovert, Nassif said she is usually pretty confident when she approaches people.
“I’ve mastered my little spiel now,” Nassif said. “I’m like ‘Hi, I’m Nyah, I really like your outfit. I started this account featuring fits on campus daily. Would you mind if I took a photo of you and posted it on the account?’”
Nassif said that every single person she has featured has expressed excitement to be included on @bc.dailydrip. Nia Santos, MCAS ’24, said she knew about the account and hoped to be featured on it prior to Nassif stopping her.
“It was my goal this semester to be featured on it,” Santos said. “Literally everyday, I was like, ‘I’m putting on a fit just in case.’ And so luckily, that day … I had a good outfit.”
Nassif said that although who she decides to feature is subjective to her own fashion sense, her main goal is to create a lighthearted and inclusive account. As a result, she doesn’t focus on the brand that someone is wearing and considers that there are multiple perspectives on what is truly stylish.
“I just wanted to be as inclusive as possible,” Nassif said. “Because I don’t know who you are when I approach you, that makes me feel like I’m doing it to the best of my ability. It’s not my friends and their outfits. It’s literally just people I see walking around.”
Emma McCobb, Lynch ’23 and one of the students featured on the account, said she was happy to be on the account since she supports Nassif’s mission to display students from different backgrounds.
“I’m always in favor of showcasing diversity in whatever form that it may be, and I guess, in this form, [it’s] diversity in clothing and that you don’t have to wear just a certain BC look to fit in,” McCobb said.
Santos echoed the sentiment that the account promotes diversity in expression and said she has been more attuned to noticing stand-out styles around campus recently.
“I’ve noticed a lot more unique outfits … walking to class and stuff,” Santos said. “So I do think that the account is kind of promoting people to be more out there with their expression.”
Rather than letting the account end along with her time at BC, Nassif said she plans to pass it on to a different BC student when she graduates. She said that students have already reached out to her, expressing their interest in continuing the account.
Whether it be promoting inclusivity, embracing self expression, or using social media for good, the positive impact that Nassif envisions for the account has already been realized, in part, she said, through the impact that her seemingly simple interactions have on students.
“Every single person has always been like ‘Oh my gosh. Of course. I’m so flattered. You just made my day,’’’ Nassif said. “People light up at just a simple compliment like that, which is really rewarding in and of itself.”
Featured Graphic by Annie Corrigan / Heights Editor
Photos Courtesy of bc.dailydrip
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