Category: Entertainment

By Jane Suttmeier
Photo Editor

Theatre majors performed to honor their greatest achievements as well as make new ones on Mar. 1-2 for Senior Projects in the studio theatre in Chappelear Drama Center.

Seniors Sam Irvine, Joe Lugosch, Madeline Shier, and Leah Reilly performed in one of their last shows here at OWU. Irvine and Lugosch acted in “Rough for Theatre 1” by Samuel Beckett, and Reilly and Shier performed in “Beings in the Love” by senior Andrew Rossi.

It wasn’t just a night of “lasts,” but also a night of firsts.

“Beings in the Love,” which was performed by Shier, Reilly, and freshman Christian Sanford; was written by Rossi, and premiered on Friday.

Rossi has been working on this project since May.

“I spent last summer working on several different ideas. I have been working on this particular play since coming back in the fall,” he said

Sanford, who played Caleb in “Beings in the Love,” liked the Icelandic influences Rossi meshed into the play after his trip to Iceland for a Travel Learning Course.

“It really gave (Reilly) and (Shier) a lot to play with, and I thought that the Icelandic myths were a great place to pull a story from,” he said.

The myths Rossi incorporated were the famous, or rather infamous, “Icelandic trolls,” which around 80% of Icelanders believe in.

“I took a picture of trolls in a town called Akureyri in Northern Iceland,” Rossi said. After I posted the picture on Facebook, (Andrea Kraus) saw it and commented, saying “Write about these!” I was initially reluctant because I tend to write about non – human characters, but an idea popped into my head one day, and the rest is history.”
Senior Andrea Kraus directed “Beings in the Love” as one of her last theatre projects at OWU.

Sanford and the other actors started preparing at the beginning of the spring semester.

“Actors on the whole put in a-lot of work into their shows. They have hours of rehearsal and the hours they put in on their own, memorizing lines, studying the script, and creating a truthful and honest character,” he said.

Rossi says this was a part of his creative mentality as a newfound writer/producer.

“As an actor and a writer, I see two sides of the process. One of the joys of being a writer is seeing what good actors and directors can do with a good script,” he said.
Irvine, who, unlike Rossi, acted in a one-act skit for his senior project “Rough for Theatre 1” with fellow classmate Lugosch, had a harder time choosing what he was going to do.

“I think for (Lugosch) and me it wasn’t a difficult choice. Going into it, we knew we wanted a challenge. It took us awhile to digest the material and really make sense of it but once we did we had so much fun,” Irvine said.

Rossi also said fun was a main component in his Senior Project, which was a love story involving complicated family values, magic and young romance.

“I am immensely happy!” Rossi said. “It is the kind of thrill that only comes from playwriting. I sat in the theater listening to the response of the audience, and every peel of laughter filled me with such joy.

“The best feedback I heard was from people who were both greatly amused by the story, but also moved by it.”

Emotion was present in the audience as well on the faces of the actors.

Irvine and Lugosch played tough roles; Irvine acted as a one-legged homeless man in a wheelchair and Lugosch portrayed a blind man with no one to lead him.

“There is something about Beckett’s work that is so intriguing and difficult to understand. In a world where there is little hope, the characters are constantly distracting themselves from leaving it,” said Irvine.

Sophomore Elaine Young went to both plays and said she enjoyed them both, but for different reasons.

“The performances were really believable and I think that it is cool to see performances that examine the less talked about aspects of society,” she said. “It was a nice balance of dark and uncomfortable without making me want to stop watching,” she said about “Rough for Theatre 1.”

Young, who also went on the trip with Rossi to Iceland, said she could relate more to “Beings in the Love.”

“I think a big part of why the piece was so fun to watch has to do with my knowing the background to the story.

“The costume for (Brynhildur) resembled one of the troll statues we saw while in Akureyri, which was also fun to see. I also thought that the bits of the dialogue that broke the fourth wall were tastefully done and very funny,” she said.

Rossi added many puns into the dialogue in “Beings in the Love,” such as replacing the word “wrong” with “thong” in a comedic scene with love interests “Kristin” (Shier), and “Caleb” (Sanford).

“(Rossi) was really involved in the creative process. He was present at rehearsal and had found everything we were doing to be to his liking,” said Sanford.

Irvine said he is happy with how the “Rough for Theatre 1” turned out, but there was always room for improvements.

“Nothing is ever perfect,” Irvine said. “I will say I am extremely proud of the work that we showed to the campus and I am even more proud to perform with a dear friend,” said Irvine.

Like Irvine, Rossi said he is thrilled with the work of the actors he chose and how “Beings in the Love” premiered.

“I learned a lot about these characters by watching and listening to the actors throughout the process, and it helped develop the characters more than I ever could,” Rossi said.

Although Rossi said he does not plan on pursuing play writing as a full-time career, he will keep it as a past time in his years to come after OWU.

“I will keep writing plays my whole life, and may try to do it professionally in the future. But for right now, I have my whole life ahead of me and I want to get the most out of the great opportunities I have,” he said.

By Sara Jane Sheehan
Transcript Correspondent

Performers and an audience members filled the Milligan Hub for Campus Programming Board’s (CPB) annual OWU’s Got Talent on March 2.

The CPB provided free food and glow stickers for students to enjoy as they watched their peers perform.

CPB brought in a music comedy duo called Dakaboom, made up of Paul Peglar and Ben McLain to host the event. According to the Dakaboom website, each has respectively performed on “Glee” and “The Sing-Off.”

Their act featured popular songs with different comedic twists. At one point McLain took a member from the audience and serenaded her to the song “Maria” from the musical “West Side Story.” There was much laughter from the audience during their performances.

Sophomore Marta Del Cid said that she thought Dakaboom were funny and were not what she was expecting.

“I definitely thought that they added excitement and comedy throughout the show,” she said.

The stage lighting was also unique to the show—different colored lights were used throughout.

“We got a lighting company to light up the stage specifically for this event,” said sophomore Kelly Rand, vice president of CPB. “We wanted to give Dakaboom and the performers a really nice stage.”

Members of CPB said that they were happy about the turnout. They said they know that they were competing with the basketball game, but they were still happy with the amount of people who showed up.

Before the show started, members of the audience and performers were asked to be a part of a “Harlem Shake” video with CPB’s mascot, the Pink Gorilla. Those who participated gathered on stage and danced to the music as the video was filmed.

Eight acts performed a variety of music styles in the talent show.

The Jaywalkers, OWU’s all-male a cappella group, were the first to perform. They sang three songs: “Starships” by Nicki Minjai, the “Pokemon” theme song and “The Kids Aren’t Alright” by The Offspring.

Senior Angel Spencer sang “The Story” by Brandi Carlile after the Jaywalkers. Freshman Nicholas Fonseca rapped “The Recipe” by Kendrick Lamar; then Junior Eddy Zhao played the guitar and sang Queen’s “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

The second half of the show started with The Sig Experience, a band composed of sophomore Austin Daniels on guitar and vocals and sophomore Patrick Zmina on drums. They performed Staind’s “It’s Been Awhile”.

Freshman Alexander Paquet performed next. He played guitar and sang an original song of his album called “Winter Bus”.

Juniors Kati Sweigard and Cara Slotkin, performing as Kati and Cara, followed Paquet. They sang “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” by Lulu and the Lampshades, and “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink.

The show ended with a performance from OWU’s women’s a cappella group, Pitch Black.

They sang three songs: a mash-up of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and “Dancing on my Own,” a medley of different songs and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

Voting began after the last performance—members of CPB handed out two slips of paper for people to write down their two favorite performances of the night.

Dakaboom entertained some more before they announced the winner of the talent show.

The Sig Experience came in third place, the Jaywalkers got second and Pitch Black placed first.

By Sara Jane Sheehan
Transcript Correspondent

Emotions ran deep at the Feb. 23 performance of “Breathing Underwater,” the result of a week-long workshop with performance artist Tim Miller.

According to a note from Miller in the program, “This week-long performance workshop I have led here at OWU has been a charged exploration into creating original performance work from our lives, dreams, obsessions, social visions, memories and desires.”

“Breathing Underwater” was an interactive show that heavily included audience participation.

Members of the performance let few people into the Chappelear Drama Center’s main stage at a time.

Audience members were asked to go up onto the stage as they entered the auditorium. Half the stage was lit up in blue and the other in red.

Once they were on stage, Miller read statements to the audience, such as, “If you have ever been heartbroken go to the red side, if you haven’t go to the blue side.”
People silently moved from side to side according to which statement applied to them.

“The beginning part was especially intense for me,” said sophomore Katie Butt, who attended the performance.

“It was interesting to see those who identified with the statements,” she said.

The last scenario split the room into men and women.

The audience was asked to sit around the performers as they lined up in the middle of the stage, starting together and then breaking out into their own stories.

A variety of subjects was portrayed on the stage—from religion to sexuality and self-identity, nothing was off-limits. The audience watched each performance in silence.

“It was deeply emotional and hard to watch in the best possible way,” Butt said.

After the 18 performances, everyone on stage got up and joined hands.

The performers closed with a single line similar to the introduction. Everyone then applauded and embraced each other, supporting one another for sharing such personal stories.

Junior Anthony Lamoureux, one of the performers, said he learned a lot from the experience, and that it made him grow as an individual.

“I was able to validate myself as a performer,” he said.

“I was always concerned with comparing my work and my abilities to others having just got into the game of performing myself, however, he (Miller) taught me that everything I do, though it may not be great, it doesn’t mean the piece itself isn’t valid, and a gift to myself.”

Lamoureux said he hoped the audience understood each performance was a reflection of the performer’s life and how their stories helped them become who they are today.
Sophomore Ryan Haddad said he felt the experience empowered him as an individual, but the most rewarding aspect of his participation in the “Breathing Underwater” process was the strengthened relationships with his fellow performers.

“In the theatre, we’re all like a family, but even as close as we are, we all learned things about each other that we hadn’t known before,” Haddad said.

“We shared our greatest joys, heartbreaks, fears, and triumphs with one another, and it was a privilege to deepen so many friendships in a single week.

“As a performer, I learned what trust truly means, and I was able to let go and expose my vulnerabilities because I knew the rest of the ensemble would be there to support me.”

By Matthew Shriver
Transcript Contributor

Alex Paquet is a 19-year-old freshman music major at OWU. He co-hosts the OWU radio show Infrequent Frequencies on Saturday evenings.

He’s currently pledging Chi Phi. He hosts a monthly open-mic night at Choffey’s Coffees and Confections in downtown Delaware.

Paquet leads a busy life, so it’s a wonder that he was able to record his debut album “Stay Quiet, Stay Ahead” in the midst of it all.

Paquet records and performs under the moniker Field Sleeper. He began playing guitar in the seventh grade, but it wasn’t until about two years ago he started writing the songs that appear on “Stay Quiet”—the first song he wrote would be “Winter Bus,” the album’s final track.

The songs weren’t finished until about a month and a half before he started recording, beginning with the song “Olentangy.”

“There’s a long spread of time as far as the origin of each song goes,” Paquet said.

Despite having no prior studio experience before recording his debut album as Field Sleeper, Paquet researched the topic heavily before embarking. He also said his experiences performing his songs helped greatly.

“I have experience with live sound for concerts, which has more similarities than one may initially realize,” he said. “It’s all about finding a ‘space’ for each voice/instrument; the listener should be able to clearly identify each track.”

Paquet began recording during the summer of 2012 and worked a bit during each break until winter, when the bulk of the recording took place.

Paquet’s music is quiet and calming. The lyrics are personal and the vocals are deep and soothing. “It’s easier to talk to yourself surrounded only by air,” he croons on “Skeletons.”

The album simultaneously chills the spine and comforts the soul. It’s the kind of album you want to listen to once on a cold walk, and then again inside, bundled up and warm, with a cup of coffee. Overall, the album evokes powerful emotions through its quiet melodies while staying subtlety ahead of its peers.

Paquet says he draws he influences from artists like The Antlers, The National and Bon Iver, and it definitely shows in his music; but he take the styles of his favorite groups and contorts them into something entirely his own.

Paquet’s live shows are just as, if not more, intimate than his recorded output.

He has performed at several open-mics at OWU and in Delaware. He opened for Columbus artist Dolfish in Peale Chapel in January and is planning a similar show with The Saturday Giant soon.

He plans on setting up shows at Beehive Books and Kafe Kerouac in Columbus, as well.

Paquet plans to re-record “Stay Quiet” in May at Old Son Studios in Columbus, but until then you can stream for free, or purchase the digital album at fieldsleeper.bandcamp.com.

By Jane Suttmeier
Photography Editor

United States poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Tretheway’s Feb. 20 reading served as a lesson for the Ohio Wesleyan community on the racial injustices that still exist in modern society.

Tretheway talked about how difficult it was for her to grow up as a child of interracial marriage during a time when she was not recognized and “rendered illegitimate.”
Her home state of Mississippi was the last to ratify the 13th Amendment banning slavery on February 7, 2013, which she said she found disappointing.

Tretheway also mentioned how it was only 15 years ago that Alabama got rid of a rule against miscegenation, or interracial marriage.

Tretheway said she has a specific appreciation for Ohio. She said she “loves being back in the state that made her legal,” in reference to Ohio lifting its anti-miscegenation law in 1887.

Born in Mississippi in 1966 and raised with an interracial background, Tretheway writes of events from the past and the present related to personal memories, war, inequality and race issues.

Tretheway said her life growing up in Mississippi influenced her writing in her books Domestic Work (1999), Thrall (2012) and Native Guard.

“Mississippi has a terrible beauty, its history of violence and injustice, combined with the resilience of the people who are trying to make the best of the history we’ve been given,” she said.

Because her birth was technically illegal in late-1960s Mississippi, Tretheway grew up around a different type of language that inspired her latest book, “Thrall.” Tretheway went on to read from Thrall during her lecture.

If she had been told in her early days that she would one day win a Pulitzer Prize in poetry, Tretheway never would have believed it.

“I didn’t start doing it (poetry) seriously until graduate school,” she said. “I went to graduate school thinking I was going to be a fiction writer.”

Although she never expected to make poetry a career, Tretheway has been writing poems since as early as the third grade.

“In my elementary school the librarian bound some of my poems and put them in the library, and I felt like a poet back then,” she said.

Freshman Emma Merritt said she enjoyed Tretheway’s poems and learned about racial inequality at the reading.

“I didn’t know that Ohio was a proponent of interracial marriages, and it was interesting to get a real story on the matter,” said Merritt. “The (poems) were very moving and you could tell (Tretheway) had a connection to them.”

Senior Alex Crump also took some knowledge from the event.

“I learned what it was like to be the child of an interracial marriage and what challenges came with that for her,” Crump said. “I really enjoyed the stories behind her poems; to me those were almost more captivating than the poems themselves.”

By Emily Hostetler
and Sarah Jane Sheehan
Transcript Correspondents

Red and yellow filled the Benes Room at 5 p.m. on February 9 for the annual Vietnamese Student Association’s Lunar New Year event.

To many Vietnamese students at Ohio Wesleyan, the Lunar New Year is just as important as Christmas is to some American students.

On Feb. 9, the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) gathered students and teachers to celebrate the holiday with music, food and performances.

Freshman Khan Quoc Le, VSA president, said the Lunar New Year celebration is a time for the club’s members to get together.

“Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in Vietnam,” he said. “It’s when people gather together with friends and family to have fun.”

Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet, is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, which differs from the Gregorian calendar—it is separated into 12 months with 30 days per month, according to Vietnam Online.

VSA integrated education into their event by opening the celebration with a documentary about Tet in Vietnam.

Dancing and singing performances by VSA members followed the film—there was a hip-hop dance choreographed by two members of the club that incorporated other students.

Two more performances came after the dance. One song was performed by Freshman Taji Wright sang a song in English and sophomore Thanh Vo joined her in Vietnamese. Finally, the whole club performed a traditional Vietnamese song.

During the rest of the event, the club set up a microphone for open performances. Many attendees performed songs, while one performed poetry.

“It is VSA tradition to organize Lunar New Year as a campus involvement event, and we wish to share a part of our culture to OWU,” Quoc Le said.

According to junior Ha Le, VSA members worked all Friday night and Saturday preparing food.

“All the food cooked for the event is traditional Vietnamese food: sticky rice, braised pork, spring roll and egg roll, and they all appear in traditional Lunar New Year celebration,” Quoc Le said.

Sophomore Mary Ann Lee said she had never been to the Lunar New Year celebration on campus before, but enjoyed the event.

“I really like the Vietnamese food,” she said. “The performances were really cool, especially how they sang in Vietnamese.”

Senior Alan Massouh said he wanted to make sure he got a chance to come to the event before he graduated.
“It was recommended to me by my South Korean friend,” he said. “It’s an excellent cultural experience all around.”

The Benes rooms were decorated in red and yellow, two colors that represent good fortune in Vietnamese culture, according to Vietnam Online.

It is also traditional to hand out gifts to friends and family members to ensure good fate for the rest of the year.

“We also handed out red envelope(s) at reception, which is an activity adapted from Vietnamese tradition of handing out lucky money in red envelope(s),” Quoc Lee said.

According to the Lunar Calendar and Vietnamese culture, 2013 represents the year of the snake—a year of love, peace and prosperity for many.

“This is a time of celebration at the end of the year,” Le said. “We always wish for luck, prosperity, health, success and love.”

Le also said her family speaks with a monk who predicts what the year may hold for their family.

“It’s something very important to us and we just want to share a part of our culture,” Le said. “I used to miss not being home for it, but you get used to it.”

Nguyen said VSA will be doing events to promote awareness of Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used in the Vietnam War, in the spring.

By Brian Cook
Transcript Correspondent

Students have already started to splurge for their loved ones on Valentine’s Day. Tonight, they will likely spend even more.

Restaurants in the greater Columbus area stand to receive a boost in revenue for Valentine’s Day, with much of the money coming from students on dates.

Despite Columbus’s diverse options, sophomore Brian Williams said Delaware is a great place to celebrate, too.

“There are several nice restaurants in town that would serve my needs adequately enough,” he said.

Williams said he does not have a car and would not like to rely on someone else to drive him and his date to a restaurant closer to Columbus.

Junior Cory Poulton, however, said he felt a dinner in Columbus would be a better experience.

“I like going to the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that have been around forever,” he said. “It’s not that Delaware doesn’t have those restaurants, but I’ve been to a lot of them already. I think a newer experience would be more fun.”

Poulton said he bought tickets for the Ohio State basketball game on Valentine’s Day, so he will spend the night there with his girlfriend instead of going out to dinner. However, he said, they will likely go out for dinner at some point during the week.

Junior Madeline Miguel said she will not go out to eat on Valentine’s Day, but the restaurant options in town have nothing to do with the decision.

“My boyfriend is currently in Ireland doing the Cork Program that OWU has,” Miguel said. “So I’ll be Skype dating him instead of going out to dinner.”

According to a study published by TIME Magazine last year, the average American will spend $126.03 on gifts, food and other amenities for Valentine’s Day.

Poulton said his total tab will not quite equal the American average, but would not be shocked to hit triple digits.

According to the same study, about 220,000 wedding proposals will occur on Valentine’s Day, which account for about 10 percent of the annual total.

On the other end of the spectrum, the survey said there is typically a 40-percent increase in requests for divorce lawyers around mid-February.

By Emily Lunstroth
Transcript Columnist

High tops first became popular back when Converse All Stars were the only athletic shoe available. Now everyone not only wears converse, but different brands of high tops as well.

High tops are no longer reserved for skaters, basketball players or authentic hipsters. You can even walk around our campus and realize that wearing converse/tennis shoes or any type of athletic shoe is no longer about being lazy or wanting to be comfortable but is part of a style- a fashion statement.

In the past few months high tops have taken on a new rise in the fashion world. Up until now Nike and other athletic companies were the only brands to really offer high tops. Because of this they were sold at a middle price point in a wide range of colors and styles.

Street styles, like high tops, often take over the fashion world and work their way into high-end brands, as well as more affordable brands. You can now find high tops (even with a wedge) ranging from $20 to $300. Before this trend started, the shoe was only available in the middle price range; but now anyone has access, and the options are endless when it comes to style and quality.

The trend started in the streets with the true skaters and hipsters, but is now worn by celebrities and trendsetters. Does that mean it is for everyone? Honestly, no.

When I started seeing this shoe (in the black with a small hidden wedge) I was intrigued but knew ‘ha you could never pull that off’. I was right, an unnamed friend and I talked about how we loved the look on others but could admit we were not “cool” enough to wear them.

To put that little voice to rest in the back of our heads that said ‘oh come on yes you could’ we went to Target and tried them on. I can now say with confidence not everyone can pull them off, not everyone can pull off every trend.

By Taylor Stout
Transcript Reporter

The saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and the work of artist Aurora Robson is no exception.

Robson uses plastic taken from the waste stream and junk mail as her mediums for her artwork.

Last Wednesday, Robson spoke at Ohio Wesleyan about her work; her latest collaborative project, Project Vortex; and her exhibit in Columbus.

The lecture was sponsored by The Arts Castle, the Ross Art Museum and the Ohio Wesleyan Sustainability Task Force with funds from PNC Arts Alive.

According to Justin Kronewetter, director of the Ross Art Museum, Wednesday wasn’t the first time Robson’s work has been recognized on campus.

“In 2008, we had several of her works on display as part of an exhibit called ‘Discarded to Distinctive,’” Kronewetter said. “And that exhibition featured work that had been created literally out of discarded objects.”

Robson’s work with plastic is in conjunction with an attempt to intercept the waste stream and create awareness among her audience about waste and plastic debris. Part of the process when using waste is cleaning the debris before it can be put into a piece.

“Most skilled people who help me in my studio or myself could clean about 100 bottles a day,” Robson said.

“And we need to get them perfect so that there’s absolutely no grime or germs or residue, like you’re ready to sculpt with.”

Throughout Robson’s career she estimates having used over 75,000 plastic bottles and 100,000 bottle caps.

“I also like to use excess packaging in addition to plastic debris,” Robson said. “I guess I like to take anything that is on a downward, negative trajectory and try to as practice, as a person, as an artist, and to be honest sometimes I fail miserably – but try to see if I can redirect it with art.”

Robson’s pieces vary in shape, size and color. Some have a tranquil, elegant appeal, while others have a darker message.

“What I was thinking about with these dark pieces was this issue of our relationship to matter and our relationship to what we call waste,” Robson said.

“When we throw something away there really is no ‘away.’ Every single ‘away’ is somebody’s home. They might be microscopic and seem insignificant, but this is the only planet teeming up with life that we’ve discovered this far.”

One of Robson’s first dark pieces is “Belch,” which was completed in 2009 and is made with approximately 6,000 plastic bottles.
“I was trying to draw people’s attention to the issue of plastic debris getting into our oceans and water and the idea of Belch is that it’s something you try to throw away, you try to bury it and it comes up,” she said.

Robson’s latest project, Project Vortex, was founded in 2009 as a collaboration among a group of international artists, designers and architects who are interested in intercepting the waste stream through their work. Robson is its founder.

The project is in collaboration with a water cleanup organization that collects plastic debris from rivers, lakes and ocean shores.
The collected will be used in Project Vortex, and all of its proceeds will be donated to the cleanup organization.

Robson’s work has also had a local impact in Delaware. The Arts Castle is in the process of putting together a series of events centered around the same goals as Robson’s.

“We have lots planned for upcoming months centered around recycling and reducing waste,” said Diane Hodges, executive director at the Arts Castle. “We will have lectures, workshops, exhibits (and) productions. We have a show lined up called ‘Greenerella,’ which is a play off of Cinderella, but has to do with going green.”

Robson’s work will be on display at the Franklin Park Conservatory until April 28.

The Conservatory also hosts “Cocktails at the Conservatory,” at which Robson’s piece featuring solar-powered LED lights will be lit up for observers.

By Emily Lunstroth
Transcript Columnist

Since the seasons have officially changed and winter is upon us, the switch from summer and fall clothing must make the move to winter wear. Yes, heavy sweaters and hats are now needed, but that doesn’t mean you have to abandon your favorite gingham oxford or lightweight tee—you just have to layer!

If you are not naturally a cold weather person, layering can be intimidating—how much do you layer? Do you take it all off when you get inside? What do you do with it once you take it off? Let’s break it down item by item.

Start with a basic tank top. It will keep you extra warm and protect from any wind that may sneak through the shirt. Next is a button-down—patterned, colored, anything goes—because then you are going to put a sweater over it.

This can be any type of sweater. Just about every style looks quite cute with an Oxford underneath. But a note: if you think you’re going to want to take off layers, put on a sweater that is not as fitted and easier to get on and off.

Pull both sleeves so they are even on your wrists and then roll them together with the Oxford exposed.

There is a lot of creative freedom here—mixing colors and patterns is fun and allows you to sneak in a little more color on those super grey days.

The last item is a scarf—the chunkier the better in my book, because it will cover your entire neck and keep you protected from the harsh Ohio winds. From there you have a few more options, if you wish: a hat, vest, gloves, ear warmers and all those extra little things that depend on just how cold it is outside.

We’ve covered the top up until now. What about your legs? You can wear this layering combo with just about anything—skirt and tights, jeans and leggings, all of any color.