CURRENTLY STALKING: CAMILLE MICHELOTTI
Camille Michelotti is a collector. In addition to the collections of posters and records that fill her room, Michelotti is a collector in the romantic sense – an amalgam of archetypes, an energetic personality who staunchly refuses to fit into just one box. Michelotti, who describes herself as, “a bit of a hoarder,” is a multi-hyphenate and proud of it.
A junior studying RTVF, Michelotti can often be found either in the WNUR studio, where she acts as music director for the Rock Show, or in a thrift shop, where her obsession with iconic rockers from decades past meets her fascination with style.
Although this affinity for old clothes is in part fueled by Michelotti’s thrifty nature and love of old things, it is also fueled by another one of her passions – veganism.
“I love animals,” said Michelotti. “I’m vegan for animal rights reasons, I feel really strongly about that. I like when I find something that is cute and vegan, to represent that through my style. You can wear stuff that looks good and it’s not harming animals as well.”
Michelotti hopes to stay close to her hometown of Chicago after graduation, even if she isn’t totally sure what she plans to do yet. Michelotti, as in all areas of her life, is not content to choose just one profession. With any luck, she won’t have to. STITCH sat down with Michelotti to learn more about her style go-tos, her favorite thrifting finds, and her Arctic Monkeys-inspired alter ego.
What is your DJ style?
Just like my personal style and my room, I’m kind of a mess. I love being spontaneous with it. The Rock Show plays one of the most extensive ranges of music within each programming block, which is really unique to our show. You can kind of do whatever you want with it. I’ll go in a half hour before my show and start picking out stuff for the show. I really like classic rock, garage rock, more grungy stuff. I like playing upbeat stuff.
Doing my rock show is one of my favorite parts of the week. The studio is tucked away in Louis Hall. It’s kind of dark and you can’t really see it and you walk in and it’s this escape. While I’m there, I’m always in a good mood, so I’m always playing upbeat stuff. I’ll pick a couple things out to start and see where it takes me within the show and go pull other pieces. Figure it out as I go along.
How would you describe your personal style?
Kind of like the rest of my life: a messy collection. In a good way I hope. I have a lot of different facets of my personality. I do a lot of different things. My style reflects that. Some days I’m completely dressed down and wearing really neutral colors, and some days I like to dress up and put on lipstick and wear bright colors and patterns. It’s kind of all over the place.
It is just sort of go with the flow. I’m not the type of person who would lay out an outfit the night before. Sometimes I pick out my most fun outfits if I’m low on laundry and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this thing in the back of my closet that I haven’t worn in so long. Let’s see what I can do with this.’ I’ll put it with a pair of pants that I haven’t worn in a while or that I never thought to put with the shirt. It’s definitely a spontaneous process for me.
Do you think that music influences your style?
A lot of musicians that I love are icons. I like a lot of old music: people like Lou Reed, Nico, Mick Jagger—these totally iconic people. I’m not trying to say that my style is iconic, but I like to have a look. Musicians a lot of times would go for a look. I like to do that, but it’ll go day by day. I don’t like to have a specific look; I like to emulate them all.
I do it in a similar way to the way I decide what kind of music I want to listen to. I want it to fit my mood. If I’m bummed out, I want to listen to bummed out music. In the same way, if I’m feeling a comfy day, I’ll throw on a lot of layers and a lot of neutral stuff. Just bundle up. If I’m feeling chipper that day, I’ll put on something nicer and more colorful. I like to wear lipstick a lot. I have every color of lipstick and a lot of times the lipstick I wear depends on what mood I’m in. If I’m in a more chilled out mood I’ll wear darker lipstick, and if I’m in a zippy mood I’ll wear something bright and fun.
If you had to describe your style with a song, what song would it be?
Arabella by The Arctic Monkeys
The way he describes her is so glamorous, but cool at the same time. She’s edgy but she’s got style. That’s how I aspire to be. It has actually influenced my style a lot. There’s a part where he says she wears a cheetah print coat. I have a cheetah print coat. I got it not because of the song, but I saw the coat and I was like, “Oh my god, Arabella’s coat!” The more I wore the coat, the more cheetah print I ended up collecting. That’s another one of my collections is my cheetah print items. I have a cheetah print robe, wallet, bedspread, cheetah print clothes all over the place. That one line really hit home for me.
What are your go-to items?
Red lipstick for sure. If I’m feeling like I don’t have something put together, I just throw on some red lipstick. I’ve been wearing black combat boots for a long time, and I’ve always loved Doc Martens, but they used to make them just in leather, so I never bought them. They just started making a vegan style, so I asked for them for Christmas. I don’t think I’ve taken them off since then. The black boots for sure are a staple. The cheetah print in general is a big staple.
Tell me about thrifting.
I don’t really pay too much attention to brands and I don’t really go new clothing shopping a lot. What I love most about a thrift shop is that it’s a bunch of random things, and that’s kind of how my style is. So I find a lot more than I would find at any one new clothing store. I go for the stuff that interests me most and is intriguing. It helps if it’s cheap. I like a vintage look or an old-school type of look. So I’ll look for things that look like they’re from a different time.
What is the greatest thing you’ve ever found at a thrift shop?
It was actually at an antique store. I found my senior prom dress. I think it was handmade, it didn’t have any tags on it. But it was really well made. It was black on the bottom with these ornate cream-colored designs going down it and then it had this all lace cream top with a collar. Just really different. It didn’t look like much on the hanger, but when I put it on and got it tailored, it was a cool find. That was my favorite find.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Somewhere listening to something. This creative process of curating things and putting things together and being creative with music and voice and making a product out of that—that’s where I see myself. Whether that’s at a music station as a programming director or working on a soundtrack for a film. Using music and sound creatively. I also see myself in Chicago. I’m from the Chicagoland area. I love the city. I love this area. I hope to stick around. I’d like to travel a little bit but I feel like I will always gravitate back to Chicago.
I think it all comes back to the way I see my style and my personality. I feel like a lot of other big cities have the image or the thing that they’re known for. Chicago is an eclectic mix of a lot of different types of stuff. All of the neighborhoods are different. There’s a great music scene. I feel like it’s not trying to be anything. It just is itself. It is its own city. It’s not a very glamorous city, but it’s got glamour to it. It’s not a dirty city, but it’s got some dirty parts. It’s got a little bit of everything, and a lot of unique pockets to it. I want to spend a lot of time exploring those.