Title: “The Outdoorsy Look”

General Information about Item:

• Material Folklore; Clothing
• English

• United States

Informant Data:

• Mark Taylor is a Dartmouth student in the class of 2020 from outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark attended a prep school which he describes as being on the more relaxed side, and now plans on majoring in neuroscience at Dartmouth. Mark is a rock climber, and is associated with the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, and also instructs skiing in the winter at the Dartmouth Skiway. Mark also engages in several other outdoor-oriented activities, such as slacklining and hiking, and has just begun to lead climbing trips at Dartmouth. Mark grew up in a very outdoorsy family, as both his father and brother (who is currently enrolled as an ’18 at Dartmouth) are also avid climbers and overall outdoors enthusiasts.

Contextual Data:

• I ran across Mark studying in the library, where he planned to remain for a couple of hours but not for an extended session. Mark indicates that this sort of outfit is more or less his every day attire, fitting for most situations that he comes across, whether it be working, climbing or relaxing. The 1902 room in library (where Mark is sitting) contains number of other individuals dressed in a similar fashion as Mark, of whom several I know also to be climbers or participants in other various outdoor pursuits.
• Dartmouth has a history inclination towards the outdoors, it being the first college in the United States with an official outing a club, an institution that the school continues to pride itself highly with today. Given the college’s remote and mountainous location in Northern New England, residents have easy access to top-tier rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, skiing, mountain biking, and any other adventure activity one could think of. The student population reflects this, as a huge number of the student body are actively involved with the school’s outdoors programs or just participate in such activities without affiliation to the school’s groups. Because of the closely-knit nature of outdoor sports communities, it has long been a common trend for individuals who gravitate towards the outdoors to adopt certain styles based on functionality and a distinct ascetic that derives from such clothing choices, and Dartmouth’s outdoors enthusiasts are no exception to that rule.

Item:

• Mark wears a patterned Patagonia fleece over a t-shirt, canvas climbing pants with the ankles rolled up slightly, and worn grey vans.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Informant’s Comments:

• Mark did not have much to add to the discourse, saying that the outfit was relaxed to suit the day’s activities (working and potentially climbing), and more or less reflects the type of attire he wears most days.

Collector’s Comments:

• Mark’s look is reflective of a trend amongst climbers and outdoors enthusiasts in general at Dartmouth, with his long hair, patterned fleece, and canvas pants rolled up all common elements to see among that population on campus. The look matches what many at Dartmouth might categorize as “crunchy”– a term meant to allude to eating granola, a stereotypical snack of outdoorsy people.

Collector’s Name: Eugene Linden

Tags/Keywords:

• Style, Clothing, Outdoors, Climbing, Crunchy