I I PLAYING WITH STYLE FRESHMAN DEFENSIVE BACK BREAKS STEREOTYPES WORDS Maggie McD01vell I I PHOTOS Evan S1vearingen When most people heard about fashion merchandising as a major, they pictured runways and expensive designers. What did not immediately come to mind, however, was football. But for freshman Kishawn Matthews (Keke), this was his normal. Matthews, a redshirted defensive back, was also a fashion merchandising major. "I really enjoy working on clothes and just dressing nice, and [it's] just something I fell in love with," Matthews said. "It's something I want to do, a job I want to do to have fun with." According to Matthews, he was part of a growing movement that combined the world of sports with fashion, something that people were starting to take note of, even without a fashion background. Senior wide receiver Lane Rodgers agreed. "I think, actually, sports and fashion is becoming more of a thing," Rodgers said. "There's a lot of football players that will show up before games and the cameras will be on them because they're really big athletes, and they will look very fashionable, not just in a suit." The concept of merging these two worlds opened new job opportunities for people like Matthews who were interested in both playing and styling sports. "I want to be the one that designs the gear for football teams, and I also want to design my own clothes," Matthews said. "I think ~hat maybe one day I can have my own brand of clothes." Professors took notice of this growing trend of male fashion. Rebecca Boaz, professor of fa mily and consumer sciences, taught fashion merchandising major classes including history of fashion. "Throughout the years, men's clothing, especially starting in the 1800s, was just pretty basic and boring," Boaz said. "But now it's more acceptable for a man to wear really cool colorful socks or fun shoes, and I think that it should be that way. They should be able to express themselves and their personality and what they wear just like women do." Boaz also spoke on the waning stigma against men caring about fashion, which used to be an anomaly. "I think that, especially in the last 10 years or so, more men have become interested in fashion," Boaz said. "I think that it's becoming more mainstream and more acceptable for guys to be concerned about fashion or interested in fashion, and why not?" Matthews also had the added pressure of balancing practices and games with the various projects required for fashion merchandising, but insisted he has made time for both his major and football. "I think I'll do fine (balancing the two] because when you are passionate about something, you_always make time for it," Matthews said. I Freshman defensive back Keke Matthews demonstrates his skills not only in football, but also in clothing design. Matthews came to Harding as a freshman in fall 2017 and demonstrated that stereotypes were meant to be broken by showing his design skills to his friends and football teammates.// Photo by Evan Swearingen "Tl :::0 m (f) I s m z :::::::: .... en """'
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