MaKenzie Godso is in a time warp.
Sitting in a classroom on campus, she wears a black ruffled shirt with an open back, patterned with yellow, red, green and white ribbons and dots. Her high-waisted red and white vertical-striped skirt and black belt with a silver buckle tie the look together in a way that would be daunting to anyone else, but not to her.
Her unique style pulls from many decades and is easily recognizable as purely MaKenzie. The mass communication senior’s thick, white-rimmed glasses adorned with small black flowers are a mainstay, but the rest changes every day.
“I have a ton of clothes, and usually I buy things without anything in mind,” Godso said. “I just think they are cool pieces and then I put them with something else.”
The trendsetter’s confidence is obvious as she walks through campus with her head held high.
The large array of clothing she mentions is inspired by fashion colors, patterns and trends of the ’80s. Her style is inimitable, and she’s got the personality to match. She is bubbly and confident, but she hasn’t always been that way.
Her unique sense of style arose out of a need to stand out in an all-girl’s Catholic school where she could have easily blended in.
“When I was younger I wanted to blend in and wear what everyone else did,” Godso said. “Around my sophomore year in high school, the clothing was born out of an intense need to stand out, like ‘I’m going to be different, I’m going to make people look.’”
These days, her fashion sense has become admittedly less dramatic, but still has a unique flair. Godso cites Etsy, local thrift stores and her workplace, Time Warp, as the places she frequents most to stock her wardrobe.
However, not every outfit works all the time, even for the time traveling fashionista.
“Sometimes I’ll think of an outfit in my head, and then I put it on and realize it is awful,” she said. “But that’s part of it.”
Godso loves the fact that someone else in another time wore what she was wearing and delights in knowing that after she’s done with it, someone else will wear and style the piece in a certain way, she said.
“It doesn’t contribute to the society of waste that we have, and I like that,” Godso said.
It’s such a large part of who she is now that it’s second nature. Godso plans her outfits the night before, but does not put as much into it as some would think. It is mostly based on her keen fashion sense.
One thing is certain: Godso is in the fashion game for good.
“I would love to do something with fashion in my future,” Godso said.
Her main piece of advice is simple: wear what makes you feel good, even if that means repeating outfits. Fashion is about doing what makes you happy and expresses who you are, she said.
She certainly lives by her own advice.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story listed MaKenzie Godso’s name as Mackenzie Godso. The Daily Reveille regrets this error.
