In true post-holiday fashion, Choaties trudged back to campus, bringing with them a bevy of new fads that they hoped would catch fire on campus.

With the extension of Choate’s Indian summer into winter, students can still be seen riding scooters, but will this obsession ever end? The warm weather has brought out several new fads on campus. Despite several frigid days in January, the weather has not yet approached snow-boots-and-puffy-coat conditions, and ever adaptive, stylish female Choaties have found a fashionable solution to the weather conundrum. Seen on many girls trekking across campus is the fur or sheep-lined hoodie. Though hoodies have been around forever, they have been reinvented for the winter as coats. Brands and style vary among wearers, but the most desirable hoodie remains Marc by Marc Jacobs’ faux sheep-lined. With its big buttons and stripes, it combines style and function; unlike many of the moment coats and vests, this one keeps its wearers warm and looking good. Says devotee Kate Walton ‘07 of the rising trend: “I think that they’re (Marc by Marc Jacobs hoodies) popular because they’re both luxurious and casual so that you can look put together without much effort. The faux fur hood is also extremely practical for cold Choate days while the thin body makes great for layering.”

While the girls at Choate obsess over being fashionably warm, the boys have created a new trend with the “Choate Goon Squad” t-shirt seen adorning many of the campus’ most avid sports fans. The shirt is a camouflage long sleeve t-shirt with the words “Choate Goon Squad” emblazoned on the front and “Get Gully” on the back, along with a number on both sides. Conor McDonough ‘07, the student credited with the invention of this fad, described the shirt’s mysterious origin: “The Goon Squad shirts are individually numbered and designed for…the ‘superfan’…Mike Mackie ‘07 had a similar style of shirt done for the basketball team, and Ron Coleman ‘07 and I liked them enough to bring them to the general public.” When asked about the significance of the “Get Gully” slogan, McDonough commented, “’Get Gully’ is a slogan with an extraordinarily vague definition. It can mean ‘get pumped,’ ‘get angry,’ ‘get gangsta’…Its ambiguous definition is symbolic for the Choate superfan experience; we come to the game and ‘get gully’ in whatever way we want. The recent Andover hockey game—minus the inappropriate chants—was really representative of ‘Get Gully.’” Perhaps an aspect of the t-shirt’s appeal is that they are numbered, so each t-shirt is unique. According to McDonough, there are currently only twenty-nine shirts in circulation, meaning that those who have the shirts are not going to see them on four hundred other students. The “Choate Goon Squad” t-shirt is this winter’s hottest ticket on campus, and its creators, McDonough and Coleman, in coordination with Hillside Sports, are already considering a second batch.

Finally, what would be post-holiday Choate without the torrent of gifts for students to flash around campus? This winter, many Choaties returned to campus with the perennial holiday favorite, the new cell phone. But many students haven’t been whipping out just any phones; this term, PDA devices like the Blackberry, the Sidekick, and the Q have been taking precedence over plain old LG’s. One factor that makes these phones more appealing is the anytime, anywhere e-mail access, meaning Choaties can whip out their phones post history test—out of sight, of course—and check their CHIP while waiting for classmates to finish. Other students use their PDA phones to keep in touch with friends, or even to manage a business away from home. Andrew Silberstein ‘08 commented on his Sidekick by saying, “The Sidekick is both functional and stylish. It lets me keep in 24/7 contact with my clients so that I am never out of touch or unavailable. Also, its appearance is more youthful and teen targeted than, say, the Blackberry or the Treo.” Alice Berman ‘09—who has had both a Sidekick and a Blackberry in her repertoire—agreed with Andrew and named the keyboard on the Blackberry as her favorite function: “They are both lovely…I have a Blackberry now and it’s really easy to use…I like having the keyboard. Hitting all those keys (on a regular phone) so many times really annoyed me.” Not all Choaties are pleased with the quality of their phones, however. Lily Haydock ‘07, who uses the recently released Motorola Q, said “I really don’t like my phone…I lost it and tried to get a different one, but because of insurance I had to get the Q again…It’s like using an old, slow computer.” Despite the influx of new phones after Christmas, most Choaties are probably regretting their new devices with the release of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone. Slated for a summer 2007 debut on Cingular, the phone packages both an iPod and a fully functional phone, replete with video voicemail capability and revolutionary touch sensitive technology. Looks like many students will be green—or rather, gold and blue with envy come this summer.

Winter term has brought with it a variety of new fads. Will these trends outlive the snow and remain popular through the spring term? Trend-obsessed Choaties can only wait and see.