The Secret Sequoyah Fashion Club
At last year’s Sequoyah prom, everyone wore a dress or suit and tie, except for Humanities Teacher Craig Schuetze. He dressed as a flower and wore his dog’s sunflower hat around his neck. Schuetze is the founder of the Sequoyah Fashion Club.
As of this past November, the Sequoyah Fashion Club only had three members. Currently, it is down to two. The club hopes to expand, although getting in won’t be easy. “I think part of it is there needs to be some sort of mystique, some sort of inner circle or initiation aspect,” noted Atticus Affleck ’26, the club’s other member, who was wearing jeans and a half-unbuttoned shirt at the time of the interview.
“It should be a well-curated group, but [I’m] definitely into new members.” One such opportunity to prove yourself worthy of joining the group happened on October 24th when the group organized a lost-and-found fashion walk.
In their first meeting, they discussed clothes and the difference between style and fashion. “Fashion is temporary, but style is forever,” Affleck explained. Craig Schuetze, who was wearing a colorful floral-printed shirt during the interview, clarified, “Style never goes out of fashion.”
The club agreed that each of their styles is constantly changing. “As soon as people think that they understand your style, you got to throw ’em a curve ball,” Affleck said.
The one thing that Affleck isn’t going to change is his aversion to shirts. “Yeah, it’s sort of a mysterious part of my mysterious persona. I don’t mess with the shirts.” He even attempted to take his school photo shirtless. “It’s not that I don’t like shirts. It’s just that I like my chest,” Affleck said.
“Atticus is really the one holding down the shirtless vibe of our club, pushing that line between school-appropriate and inappropriate,” Schuetze said.
“There is no line,” Affleck replied.
The fashion club agreed that Sequoyahns aren’t the best dressers, with Affleck observing, “Sequoyahns dress ‘bad.’” The club members think that much of the problem is that Sequoyahns aren’t being themselves. People tend to go to extremes; “[Sequoyahans] either wake up and wear whatever they were sleeping in, or they overthink it,” said Schuetze. Affleck thinks that it’s time for the culture to move away from messy, fluffy hair: “I’ve been looking into slicking back the hair. I want to bring combs and gel back, people. They like their fluffy sea salt. I like to go the opposite way. I think combed, styled, gelled hair is going to come back in. I think that’s cool.” Although the club agreed that Sequoyahns don’t put enough effort into their fashion, they had trouble thinking of a school that dresses better than Sequoyah. Eventually, they landed on Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. “They [LACHSA] might dress better, but I don’t like the Lachsa kids. They all have big egos. They’re pretentious,” said Affleck.
Sequoayahns, however, are conservative about what fashion choices they approve of. Affleck said that he’s gotten negative comments on his outfit choices numerous times. “Too many to name,” he said. Schuetze recalled being in graduate school and grabbing old clothes off the street and wearing them. Eventually, he decided to put effort into choosing his outfits at thrift stores. “I went up to my friend one day who was an anthropologist of fashion from Puerto Rico. We were both 24, and I was like… ‘I’m really into fashion now. Look.’ And she looked at me, and she goes, ‘No, you are into costumes.’”
Many Sequoyahns have fallen victim to dress coding, yet the Sequoyah Fashion Club has managed to avoid it. Affleck said that he’s never gotten dress-coded. The most trouble he’s gotten in is simply being told by Schuetze to wear a shirt. “Although, I have gotten talked to a lot about cultural appropriation,” he said. On the whole, Fashion Club members advised keeping your style varied and not wearing outfits that are too tame or too out there. However, that doesn’t mean Affleck is going to start wearing shirts.