Students Off Duty

A few tracks that are currently on heavy rotation to set the scene:

Fall is—dare I say finally—here and to celebrate, we decided to pretend to be Tommy Hilfiger models.

The correct term and theme of the shoot is actually “Students Off Duty”, because that is a more accurate description of who we really are, but a little imagination never did anyone harm. With that in mind, we attempted to exude as much pep and prep as humanly possible, and ended up looking either like quintessential characters in a John Hughes film or additional members of the Riot Club.

Sigh, The Riot Club (a.k.a. The Bullington Club). We saw it at TIFF a month ago and it has since severely and permanently ingrained itself on our minds. We found ourselves standing taller, refusing to apologize for our dangerous exploits (crossing at Yonge/Dundas with less than three seconds on the timer, eating oat fudge bars in lieu of a proper dinner and of course perfecting our bitch stares for upcoming Model UN conferences, because #peoplelikeusdontapologize), and constantly asking ourselves, WWAD? What Would Alistair Do?

The influence this movie has had on our lives is filthy…rich, spoiled and rotten. But it helped us get into character for the shoot.

With the help of our good, and unapologetically gorgeous, friend, Francis, we scoured the U of T campus in search of the perfect, Oxford-esque backgrounds. And what we found was comparable. Stained glass windows, aged steps and ivy-covered walls all have a way of ingesting you with nostalgia of a time past when school was an endeavor of pride and class. But, alas, like air travel, students today seem content to learn in leggings and study in sweatpants.

There aren’t many lessons to take away from The Riot Club. One should never hate poor people, or beat people up, or offer people $27,000 for sexual exploits. But if there’s one thing that we—seriously—took away from that hour and 40 minutes, it was that Oxford is beautiful and also our dream school.

Strolls through the lush campus, surrounded by centuries of history, cramming for our Globalization and World Policies exam and of course the plethora of sweater-and-collar combinations. Life would be perfect. At least the life we’ve conjured up in our minds where we become Rhodes Scholars, master in International Affairs, land jobs at the UN and fall in love with an English lord and his cousin.

And with that, we bring you our newest, latest and greatest photoshoot to kick off the new season and the re-launch of our blog. We hope you enjoy it! And remember, if you think you’re posh, you are posh. Perception is everything, and we know Alistair would agree with that.