Clack. Clack. Clack.

Kathy Duan (12) strides through the halls, patent leather booties clipping the sidewalk as she saunters from class to class. From a distance, she’s a vision in black and white, the clean lines of her black overalls juxtaposed with the single pop of color on her person – her metallic gold water bottle. But look closer, and each element of her ensemble holds complexities. Her white t-shirt is cuffed at the arms and advertises “Cheap Monday” in off-white sans-serif font. Her leather overalls are held together with glistening silver buckles, and a necklace of strung-together geometric shapes glistens on her neck.

“When I buy things, they always seem normal at first glance, but when you look closer, there’s something off or unusual about them,” Kathy said. “I do think the details are what makes an outfit or a person what or who they are. If we’re all the same, the little things define us.”

Kathy’s style is in many ways a microcosm of her personality as a whole. Like her outfits, Kathy is deceivingly placid from afar and increasingly idiosyncratic the closer you look.

“‘Sassy Kathy’ was the only Kathy I knew for the first couple years of high school. Subtle sarcasm and witty—but sometimes terrible—jokes seemed to define the depth of our interactions,” said Alex Youn (12), Kathy’s co-Editor-in-chief of Talon yearbook. “ But, as I got to know her more, I no longer saw “Sassy Kathy;” I saw Kathy: her quirky personality, her “lowkey” cool vibe, her “highkey” embarrassing antics. Truth be told, there’s a lot more to Kathy than can possibly fit in that 5’2″ frame.”

Given Kathy’s sardonic humor, exuberant antics, and generally quirky personality, one would never expect her to fear unoriginality.

“I always joke about my fear of being basic because I would never want to be basic – clothes are a form of self expression. At the same time, there’s the need to be socially acceptable,” Kathy explained. “When I buy clothes, I look to strike a balance between the part of me that does want to fit in and the part of me that values authenticity.”

Because of these two, often at odds, desires, it’s unsurprising that people perceive Kathy as intermittently reserved and sassy. This dichotomy is also reflected in her style. Kathy’s fashion teeters on the border between trendy and editorial. She sports unicolor shirts with structured silhouettes, ribbed tanks with triangular cutouts, crisp white flatforms; pieces that are unusual without sticking out, in vogue without being common.

“To me, Kathy’s fashion is like a chord on a ukulele. Sure, you may only use four strings, but each chord can be weird, cool, and unique in its own regard,” Alex said. “When you hear those four strings resonate, you can tell it’s a ukulele. When you see a particular outfit, you can tell it’s Kathy.”

Much of Kathy’s fashion acumen is in her ability to put together pieces as outfits, an astute synthesis that allows her ensembles to transcend collections of clothes and become works of art. Similarly, while fashion is an important part of how Kathy defines herself, it’s only one outlet for her self-exploration.

“I always hate it when people try to define each other by this one core thing,” Kathy said. “I think that little things come together create the whole picture. There are different facets to a person, and none of them are more important than the other.”