Warren Wilson Students Have a Problem with Cosplaying as Poor

Becca Boynton | September 20, 2023


Cargo pants with mysterious brown staining and shirts with so many holes you can’t find the one for your head— Warren Wilson College (WWC) style is unique. The majority of students opt for comfortable, used clothing and no shoes rather than the “normal” fashion choices of college students. 

This trendy styling preference, generally known to students as “Wilson-core,” is a fad worth losing. 

Students at WWC have become intermeshed with a farm school aesthetic, despite a majority of students not working on the school’s farm. There’s nothing morally wrong with how one decides to dress— whether that be in a sack or in ripped jeans and a sweater. However, let’s not base our aesthetic on the dynamism of blue-collar workers who make less annual income than your dad did last week.

WWC students romanticize the lives of the working class but lack the life experience and knowledge to truly understand what it means to be in the working class. We can pretend we are worried about the financial distress of our country and repost as many GoFundMe’s on our Instagram stories as we want, but that does not distract from your renovated house in upstate New York and trips to Hawaii last summer. 

Please understand this is not a generalization of all students on campus. I am not claiming every person who attends WWC comes from an affluent family— but if the shoe fits. 

Here are some facts about WWC— More specifically, the individuals who occupy the campus;

Like most private colleges in the United States, WWC is a campus not composed of a majority of low-income students. In reality, the median family income for a student attending WWC is $82,500, over five thousand more than the average American family. Furthermore, 39 percent of students come from families in the top 20 percent of wealth in the United States. The annual income required to be considered in the 20th percentile is $130,545.

The economic gap between students, mainly out-of-state and in-state students, is vast, yet students turn a blind eye to this crucial fact. 

A not-so-hidden fact about WWC is that 73.4 percent of students are white— Further adding to the privileges we obtain. It is also crucial for students to recognize that we are living and adding to the rapid gentrification of Asheville. 

Asheville has a poverty level above the national average— 13.5% to be exact. Unfortunately, universities and colleges only add more to the gentrification of cities. Columbia University, for example, is a large part of the gentrification of Harlem, with upper and middle-class families moving to Morningside Heights because of their attraction to the prestige that comes with higher education. 

Asheville and Swannanoa are no different. In 2003, the Beacon Mill— a company fundamental to the steady growth of Swannanoa— burned to the ground. While Swannanoa is gradually rebuilding from this tragedy, its economic status has never recovered entirely.

Swannanoa is a town wrecked with poverty. According to the U.S. Census, Swannanoa has a poverty rate of 22 percent. With the increase in the price of living and the decline in available jobs, the rapid development of Swannanoa and Asheville is not creating positive economic change.

The growth of Swannanoa not only leads to the neglect of existing residents but also runs the risk of destroying farmland for housing. The more “outsiders” moving to Swannanoa create a demand for housing in a location where land is already more diminutive than the average town. This leads to companies buying and demolishing farmland.

Buncombe County’s farm acreage has shrunk significantly. From 2002 to 2012 farm acreage shrank 25 percent. Not to mention the substantial increase in land price. 

Asheville is listed second of 10 cities to be undergoing gentrification the fastest. What will they do when they run out of available lots to plant million-dollar penthouses in? Easy. Demolish farms in nearby towns to free up some space! 

No matter how much we attempt to aid our community, we cannot erase the negative effects that we are contributing to. People who move to Buncombe County, especially those with excess wealth, indirectly impact the economic status of their area. 

I feel most people forget the social status that comes with wealth, especially when you come from it. 

It does not alter anything whether your parents pay for your life or not. An upbringing in comfortable wealth still provides you with opportunity. The money one receives now and further down their life, whether that be none or an excess, does not obliterate the benefits and liberties that come with a wealthy upbringing. 

Individuals raised in homes with high annual incomes have more opportunities, better education, and an increased chance of earning a higher annual income than those raised in lower-class households. 

The average WWC student comes from wealth. It does not matter that your family are hippy, herb-loving communists with a blooming fig tree in their backyard, you nonetheless attain more privileges than the plurality of Americans. 

Take a stroll around campus and note the brands you see the most. How many times did you count Carhartt? The jackets and pants have become an almost unofficial uniform for WWC students. 

Workwear as fashion is not exclusive to the small community of WWC, but it dominates the closets of students campus-wide. However, work attire is not a trend but a necessity for those working blue-collar jobs. 

Work attire can be traced to the beginning of civilization. In the Middle Ages workers were required to wear badges or clothing that aligned them with a specific employer or job. In Europe, court liveries became the first work uniform required for servants. While to work in a noble house was an honor at the time, “the uniform” still holds great ties to the working class. 

Don’t shoot me, I own my fair share of Carhartt jackets and Dickies pants. I want to emphasize that the brand is not the issue, it’s the glamorization of workwear and the lifestyle attached to it. 

The original purpose of modern workwear was to protect workers operating heavy machinery. Individuals, even farmers and laborers, needed their clothing tailored and made from scratch, an expensive feat. Work attire grew mainstream among workers when brands such as Dickies and Levi’s designed ready-to-wear articles that were durable and tough. The term blue-collar originates from the rugged blue jeans worn by farmers and other workers. 

Carhartt was created by Hamilton Carhartt when he drove away from his wholesale furniture business and invested his time in creating men’s workwear, specifically oriented around railroad workers. Carhartt focused his business on the needs of the underpaid, overworked workers of the prosperous railroad industry in 1898. 

A significant number of the employees were immigrants of Chinese descent, who experienced abuse, racism, and legal exclusion. 

Now, these are merely historical facts I want you to be aware of. Is it the reason your clothing is morally ambiguous? No. 

…However, there has been a mass demand increase in workwear clothing since 2022. Global demand for attire leaves raw materials faint and production costs high. Simple canvas pants have increased by $25 over 25 years

While students at WWC chose to wear torn-up, stained clothing, roughly 40 percent of Americans cannot afford basic needs, let alone clothing. The link between clothing selection and poverty may seem far-fetched to some, but in reality, the relation is much closer than most think. 

Students at WWC have the option and set a clear intention to dress in ripped shirts and stained jeans. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are sending their children to school in the same attire, only because those are the best clothes they can afford. 

Clothing is a visible sign of poverty, and while a bulk of WWC students have never brushed below the middle class, they play dress up in the morning to pretend to be from a life they wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. 

I am not claiming that there is not one person on WWC campus that does acknowledge their wealth. I know a few who do— good for you. I am simply stating that it is plain weird to fake poverty. 

Nobody is on a higher ground than their peers because they engage in the “Wilson culture,” a culture full of robbed trends. 

Now let’s stop shaming our peers for participating in fast fashion when the clothing allows them to emulate high-end brands you have the option to not associate with. 

I will leave you with this – WWC students have made it their identity to be “quirky.” We do not dress like the average college student and we have bonfires in cowpie-filled pastures. However, the collective “aesthetic” of the school is merely stolen fads from marginalized communities that over half of the student population does not belong to. 

Editors note:

Statistics regarding Warren Wilson College are from 2017 and are not current.

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