Fashion

Syracuse University students transition summer pieces into stylish fall layers

SU students transition summer styles to fall

Three fashion-minded students reveal their top tips for effortlessly layering warmer weather pieces into chic autumn looks.

Two women leaning against a brick wall in casual clothing.
Jada Williams and Amaya Evans showcase their distinct styles.

The fall fashion seen on celebrities and Pinterest boards can feel so out of reach when you’re not in the habit of purchasing an entirely new wardrobe for each season, but you might be surprised by how many of your favorite summer pieces can become fall layers with just a little creativity.

Syracuse University is home to some very fashionable students, three of whom agreed to reveal their tips and tricks for fall layering by transforming their favorite summer clothes into fall looks.

So, do you want to switch it up without looking like the cast of Shake it Up? Here’s how you take the confident layering we saw on Disney Channel into 2024.

Three Fashion girlies, six outfits, so many great ideas…Let’s get into it!

Amaya Evans

Hailing from Manhattan, Amaya Evans is a 21-year-old Fashion Design student and the Creative Director of Syracuse University’s Fashion and Design Society.

As a fashion design student, she is especially interested in storytelling and expressing a sense of self-knowledge through clothing. She uses her outfits to visualize her story, describing her style as, “New York City-coded,” inspired by the rich streetwear scene of her hometown. 

She feels especially New York when she plays with plaid and layered denim in her outfits, and her ability to style Timbs year-round confirms she’s the real deal. 

For her summer look, Amaya paired a blue scoop-neck tank with a long light denim skirt, a Takashi Murakami-style flower necklace she found at a Soho flea market, and her Timbs.

 

Woman posing against a railing wearing a long jean skirt paired with a blue tank top.
Amaya’s summer look features a denim maxi skirt with a slit, highlighting her NY Timberlands.

Amaya says she loves dressing for spring and summer because the simplicity of highlighting just a few key pieces makes warm-weather outfits stand out. Still, fall gives her opportunities to take her looks in new directions.

“That’s when the layering and the more street wear and grunge part starts to play in, more blacks, more darker tones start to come into play, rather than in the summer where it’s mostly light and bright colors,” She said, “I would say the shift would be within layering the colors and the energy of how I feel when I wear those clothes,” she continues. 

A young woman in three poses wearing a blue crop top, denim maxi skirt, white jacket tied at the waist, and Timberland boots, showcasing her fall fashion against a tree and brick wall.
Amaya layers a denim maxi skirt over blue jeans, pairing it with Timberlands and a blue crop top for her fall look.

For her fall look, Amaya layered baggy jeans underneath her denim skirt, tying a white button-down around her waist for added style. She finished the look with a blue and white sports cap, tying together the blues of her tank, skirt, and pants while highlighting the white of her button-down and socks. The sports team the hat is supposed to represent isn’t important because to her the “A” stands for “Amaya.”

“This hat was a gift from a friend – they just got it because of the A for my first name,” she said.

The lines and shape of a look are Amaya’s primary focus when putting together an outfit.

“I build it off a silhouette, and then if the layering starts to get too much, that’s when I can remove pieces or add more.”

As for layering denim, she advises: “Do it for yourself, you do it for fun. It’s just, you know, seeing the different blues together and seeing which ones pair well, and then going off of that color palette and building off of it.”

Amaya’s fall outfit featured a lot of layering, but her attention to color and shape kept the look cohesive and the silhouette clean.

Wesli Autrey

Eighteen-year-old Wesli Autrey is a very stylish psychology student from Harlem, NYC. She describes her personal style as bright and girly. 

Wesli advises that we should view transitioning outfits from summer to fall as taking one from day to night. She makes sure she’ll be comfortable all day by creating outfits with removable layers that she can adjust in unpredictable weather. 

Wesli emphasizes that accessories are key to her styling, helping her transition her summer favorites seamlessly into fall.

Accessories that double as layers, like leg warmers, and tights are a great easy way to wear skirts and dresses in the fall. Colored or patterned tights are a fun way to add detail to your look! While bolero tops are a helpful layer to add over or under your sleeveless shirts and dresses.

Wesli emphasizes color in her outfits, making sure the vibes of the colors she’s wearing match the season, the weather, and her state of mind. Some of the colors (and prints) you love to wear in the summer might not be a match for the fall season. 

Wesli usually sticks to muted colors as the skies get grayer. 

“I try to wear a solid color[s], like gray, black, a brown, dark brown, dark burgundy colors,” she said.

But recently she’s been enjoying adding yellow to the mix.

Woman in yellow sundress poses in a squat.
Wesli’s summer outfit features a yellow sundress paired with clear heels.

For her summer outfit, Wesli kept it simple with a strapless yellow dress paired with slip-on clear spool heels. The light yellow of her dress reads well as a sunny summer color and can transform into the yellow of fall leaves in an autumn color palette.

A lot of summer clothing features patterns like flowers and stripes that can look out of place in other seasons – like wearing christmas pajama pants in the summer. 

Wesli’s solid-colored dress is a versatile fall piece that can easily adapt to various styles, allowing for added layers and accessories to enhance the look. 

Woman in three poses wears a yellow sundress underneath a black and white varsity jacket with sneakers.
Wesley layers her summer dress with a varsity jacket, adds leather gloves, and swaps her heels for comfy sneakers.

For her fall look, Wesli styled her yellow dress with an embellished varsity jacket, gloves, a scarf, and sneakers. The dress’s simplicity allowed her to add a new pattern, color, and texture with each fall layer. 

Jada Williams

Jada Williams is a fashion design student and Syracuse University’s Fashion and Design Society president at only 20 years old. Madame President is from Dallas, Texas which she describes as, “way out the way.”

Jada says her personal style has been greatly influenced by her reverence for the variety of Chicano-style art forms she grew up immersed in. She says the graffiti, in particular, is something really special in Dallas. 

Her interest in graphic art has also influenced who she is as a fashion design student. She is especially drawn to the digital aspects of fashion, like graphic design and fashion photography, viewing her outfits through the lens of how they’d appear on camera and how they could be transformed into digital art.

For her summer outfit, Jada paired a lightweight knit long-sleeve shirt with a long, flowy skirt which she pinned into ruched layers. A studded leather disk belt and black platform wedge flip-flops complemented the outfit. She completed the outfit with a black heart necklace, and her signature stacks of silver jewelry. 

Young woman poses in an off the shoulder top paired with a skirt and platform sandals.
Jada’s summer look features an off-the-shoulder top, a printed skirt, and platform sandals.

“I love wearing this [shirt] during the summertime because it has little holes in it, so it’s really breathable. And although it’s a long sleeve, it doesn’t feel like it’s a long sleeve,” said Jada, “I love clothes I can flow in and breathe in,” she added.

Jada said she put the outfit together based on the fabric textures: a light, flowy skirt, and a breathable knit shirt for hot summer weather.

Knits are a favorite of Jada’s for summer and fall because the material allows a garment to be breathable in warm weather and a cozy base layer in the cold. Plus they are fun to layer in with other cozy fall textures.

“I love mixing different materials and such. I love knits when it comes to fall time,” she said.

For her fall look, Jada swapped her skirt and belt for her favorite thrifted bootcut jeans from Dallas paired with a fluffy heart-shaped shoulder bag and knee-high Converse boots. 

Woman in three poses wears jeans, an off the shoulder top and sneakers.
Jada trades her summer skirt for fall jeans, pairing them with sneakers and a black tote.

The pieces Jada chose for this outfit layer together nicely because their similarly dark muted tones coordinate well, and the different textures of their fabrics add a fabulous layer of dimension to the look. The embellishments on her shirt and jeans include cascading draped layers making them pair in an exciting way. 

She knows how to coordinate details without getting matchy-matchy..  

“Fall is my season,” Jada said, “although I love summer, although I love my jorts and stuff like that, I find myself still wearing long sleeves in the summertime – like hoodies and stuff – so I feel like fall is when I can really thrive,” she finished.

After being called emo when she was younger she now embraces the label and enjoys letting that side shine in the fall.

In this outfit, she represents her Dallas roots with her bootcut jeans (a Dallas staple) and James Avery Ring (a Texas jeweler).  

“When I wear certain pieces that have different designs like, swirls and stuff, people are like, ‘Oh, that’s something I’d never seen before,’ And it’s like, yeah, I’m representing where I’m from, like, the culture,” said Jada.