While we practically tote mini-computers in our pockets and video chat with loved ones across the world, a certain part of our civilization has seriously fallen behind: young men’s style. Say what you will about Nike T-shirts, basketball shorts and sneakers, but one has to admit they lack in the prestige of that of trousers, blazers and oxfords from a different era. Comfort has simply replaced style, and with this exchange it seems we have lost a generation of the fashion-smart.

Yet even in the darkest hour of sock-and-sandal combos, there is hope with a number of Wenatchee High School male students bringing back the class, and among them is senior Marco Granados.

In a striped sweater, cuffed jeans, black leather shoes and a silver watch, Granados said his sense of style goes back to elementary school. “My mom told me that when I was little, I think like eight, I started telling her what to wear,” he said.

Fast forward to today, and he dresses himself in anything from cardigans, boots, T-shirts, bracelets, etc., to create looks that are edgy one day and elegant the next. “Somehow, I always end up figuring out how to wear something in a way that I like,” Granados said.

Unlike many who turn to magazines and blogs for inspiration, his outfits are simply his own creations, and if anything, they are based off of what he is watching on TV. Though dressing to the nines is second nature to him, being a fop hasn’t always been easy.

“[My style] made me feel not accepted and left out,” Granados said. “I would try to dress my best, and I would leave the house and notice a lot of guys and people looking at me, and I looked at them, and they were just wearing whatever.”

Discouraged by constantly being bullied for standing out, he recalls a time where he would only wear hoodies and jeans to middle school. As the years went by, Granados began to embrace the attention created from his clothes.

“It was just growing up and accepting myself,” he said. “Seeing how my friends accepted me, and it didn’t matter if people I didn’t know looked at me weird because I didn’t know them, so why does it matter?”

Part of this process was coming out about his sexuality towards the end of freshman year. “My eighth grade year I was bullied a lot, and then my freshman year I was in the library, and I walked by these group of guys and they started laughing,” Granados said. “I went up to them, and I was like, ‘If you have something to say, you better say it in my face.’ And then I just walked away, and they stayed quiet. I was just so mad, I burst.”

Now, he no longer throws away his sketches of clothing designs as he did in eighth grade and is the first to tell you his dreams of becoming a fashion designer.

“My dream is to be big, Vera Wang status,” Granados said. “I want actresses, actors, singers, all of them wearing my clothes on the red carpet, wearing it out. I want them to be saying he made it.”

He plans to stay in Wenatchee for two years after graduation and then transfer to the Fashion Institute of Design Merchandising in Los Angeles. Once done with schooling, he hopes to move back to Washington, probably to the Seattle area, to start his brand in women’s clothing and grow from there.

“I want my things to be different, to be new, to be noticed, yet elegant and classy,” Granados said. “Something Michelle Obama would wear and then something Nicki Minaj would wear.”

In the meantime, Granados serves as the president of the Red Cross Club at WHS for his second year and works at, naturally, a clothing store, Old Navy. What he may be most famous for, though, is sharing his style wisdom with peers, for he is not one to lie when asked, “How do I look?” His best friend, senior Jennifer Perez, can attest to this, having said his critiques are the reason why she has warmed up to dresses and heels.

“People who say looks don’t matter are wrong. If looks didn’t matter, executives, the president, all of them, wouldn’t be wearing their suits every day,” Granados said. “If you look professional, if you look the part, if you look however you want to be [treated], people are going to take you seriously.”