Student’s idea thrives on campus: overalls at Mac
Felicia Winfrey ‘25 and friends on Overalls @Mac Day. Photo by Grace Xue ‘23
October 27, 2022
Blue denim, brown corduroy, pink and white floral patterns, flannel jumpsuits … overalls of all kinds of fabrics and designs bloomed all over the campus like autumn flowers. If you were on campus on Oct. 5, you would have noticed a lot of people wearing overalls that day.
It all started with a mysterious poster on campus. A headless doodle wearing a pair of overalls on a light yellow background, with “Overalls@Mac, First Wednesday of Oct” below.
Few people knew who started the campaign initially, but overalls became a phenomenon at Macalester that Wednesday. Interestingly, some students were completely unaware of the event but wore overalls Wednesday anyway. Many were surprised and amused by the coincidence.
“I didn’t know this [was] a thing!” Jojo Zhang ’24 said. “But I am happy I chose this outfit today.”
Zhang wore navy denim overalls, with a white short-sleeved shirt underneath. She deliberately put one side of the shoulder straps down so you could see the wool-pink flower decoration on her T-shirt.
The organizer of this event, Felicia Winfrey ’25, wore white denim overalls with sunglasses. Her friends walking with her that day were all in overalls as well.
“Overalls@Mac!,” they shouted to each other.
Winfrey was inspired by a senior overalls event back in high school, where people wore overalls for homecoming and decorated them together.
“I think Mac needs more goofy and fun traditions,” Winfrey said. “Me and my friend were talking about how we should wear overalls on the same day, and then I was like, what if we just did it as a campus [event] … And it worked!”
Seeing so many people wearing overalls on that day was a fulfilling moment for Winfrey.
“When I first went to Cafe Mac, it was like, oh my gosh, there’s so many people [wearing overalls] … and I didn’t know most of them … it was just so cool!” she said.
“It’s something that there’s a lot of different styles, but you can always recognize overalls,” Winfrey continued.
She hopes Overalls@Mac can become a monthly tradition on campus, and more initiatives might also be on the way, like Fedora Friday. Stay alert for any more themed posters popping up around campus.
