By: Daiyu Tang
Welcome back to one of our series in the Citizens of Hathian style series where we find interesting people around Hathian (or in this case Columtreal) and see what makes them tick. Today we’re featuring a new student, one with a little more tailoring and a lot less ‘pull out palace’ vibes. Perhaps the campus is in luck with an actual, honest-to-God, eligible batchelor; or then again maybe the more style and money the less depth? Let’s find out…
Marco
There are some people who arrive in Hathian looking as though the city has already won and Wilbur is dancing on their grave already. They step off the metaphorical (and oft literal) bus with the wrong shoes, the wrong expression, and the look of someone destined to lose both their wallet and their optimism within a week of Hathian’s ‘tender’ embrace. Marco DeRossi is not one of those people, although he should probably stick to Columtreal, because if he stays in Hathian for a long time, he might not have any of those expensive things left…
When I first saw him, he was approaching me at the Observer with every move suggesting that he knew how to walk, but also that he knew his shoes didn’t want to stand in most (all?) of the Hathian streets. It suggested either bravery, naivety, or the kind of upbringing that teaches a man the world will generally move around him if he keeps smiling long enough. In Marco’s case it is perhaps all three; hard to tell dear readers, but the way he brushed off the loss of a Rolex on his first visit to Hathian he will either stay so monied as to not mind, or he’ll change. Preferably not his abs. He doesn’t need to change those!
Anyway, he introduced himself with an accent from Milan and had all the manners of an old-world flirt or what might have been called a gentlemen before the term ‘pick-up-artist’ was invented. He also carried the sort of polished good looks that would make half of Columtreal suddenly discover a deep and (in-fucking- sincere) interest in European tailoring even if they are just cheerleaders where tailoring means, how little fabric does your ass need to stay out of jail.
By the time he sat for photographs with me, dressed as he was in a camel suit with a black shirt left open just enough at the throat to suggest that he knew precisely what effect he has on a room, the impression had only settled further. Marco does not simply wear clothes. He presents himself.
Still, lets be honest readers, pretty faces are not in short supply on campus. Yes, there is a deficit of attractive men and I might say a real deficit of attractive men who aren’t just keeping score of pearl-necklaces. So that means the more (most?) interesting question is whether there is a mind, a philosophy, and perhaps even a little substance underneath all that careful presentation. So, naturally, I asked. What else was I meant to do? Ask him to take his shirt off for a photo? Later babes, hold that thought!
From Milan to Columtreal
Marco told the Observer that he is from Milan and has not come to Columtreal merely to play at university life or to play at life while pretending to study.
“I was sent here by my father,” he explained. “My uncle has a heart problem and needs to retire… so I’m here so I can run the business side of Dad’s fashion empire.”
That is, perhaps, not how most students introduce their major, but Marco is not trying especially hard to sound like most students. There is something faintly refreshing about that. As for why Columtreal, he seemed less certain. According to Marco, his father had been told it was a good school, and so here he is: a Milan-bred fashion heir deposited in a city better known for gunfire, bad decisions and cheap slogans about how the Hopper PD can save your ass than couture.
Dress How You Wish to be Scene/Seen
His motto? “Dress how you want the world to perceive you.”
Well most of us are fucked then. I mean I dress like I made half my stuff myself (truth) and I dress with a desire to project Goth DNGAF. Does it work dear readers? If so, now I feel cheap. Thanks Marco.
It is the sort of sentence that could sound empty from the wrong mouth. From his, sitting composed in that soft camel tailoring and looking as though he had been assembled by a patient team of stylists, it landed rather better. Marco’s view of fashion is not simply that it should flatter. It should reveal.
“I really want to help people find out who they are through clothing,” he said. “Really find what makes them tick.” Well, if it was Hathian, (or the Batman film) a bomb sewed inside them? Thankfully, this is CU.
He spoke repeatedly of self-expression, empowerment, and of refusing to push people out for dressing differently. “This year is about empowerment,” he said. “Let’s have people expressing themselves and not being pushed out for it.”
There is, of course, a difference between saying one believes in expression and proving one can survive the reality of it on this campus. He’ll either stay a fashionista or live to see himself become a XXX webcam model on Bourbon. Bets dear readers?
Consent and Campus Rot
I let the conversation drift to a campus topic. On the subject of campus sexuality, public humiliation, and the University’s general inability to distinguish freedom from rot, he returned more than once to the idea that “it’s all about consent at the end of the day.”
Quite so. He wasn’t ‘aware’ of the DEA Frat, nor some of the less ‘nice’ things that had been seen on campus. Perhaps he was, but was too much a politician to answer. Or perhaps he truly hadn’t and we’ll see his stripes (not just of his suit) soon enough.
In Totality?
So what, (who?) exactly, is Marco DeRossi?
At present, he is a handsome new arrival from Milan with a family fashion pedigree, a talent for being looked at, and enough charm to make introductions easy. He is a little slippery when pushed, a little bold when unwatched and replayed on CCTV – (my arse isn’t that amazing to look at), and just self-aware enough to know that both qualities can be useful. And yes, this topless shot will cause several of Columtreal’s more excitable residents to need to sit down with a cold drink. But beneath the smile, the grooming, there may genuinely be someone who wants to make the campus more stylish, more expressive, and a little less ashamed of its own strangeness.
For now, Columtreal has gained a new fashion student. Hathian, meanwhile, has gained a man in a very good suit who may yet prove either a reformer, a flirt, a peacock, or some elegant combination of all three. Frankly dear readers , I have covered worse things and as for uncovered? Here’s that pic I promised…
