Lori M. Adelman ’08 looks anything but ready when she answers the door in her pink bathrobe. But the relative lack of dress belies her actual state of preparedness. Party make-up on and party-state in mind, Adelmen is only one quick outfit change away from the start of her night.
The rap music she blares in the background is routinely punctuated by knocks on the door, and the common room gradually fills with more and more of Adelman’s friends. Teetering in a pair of black wedge shoes, Adelman checks the time via iPhone before neatly dropping the gadget into a shiny, gold clutch.
It’s 7:16 p.m. on one of her last Friday nights at Harvard, and if the pictures peppering her bedroom wall are any indication, it won’t be long before the night is filled with more Kodak moments to commemorate her collegiate career.
I watch as the iTunes visualizer explodes with arcs of color corresponding to M.I.A.’s “No one on the corner has swag like us.” Rocking jet-black tights, hoop earrings with the circumference of a small apple, and a tight top streaked with bands of pink and orange, Adelman is the epitome of “swag.”
The destination for this do-up? Eleganza 2008. “I obviously need to step my fashion game up,” she explains. “There’s a lot of beautiful people at Eleganza. Just trying to fit in. Also it’s springtime. Rock the colors.” Rock the colors? Check. Rock the party? Next step.
A poster of The Roots, a somewhat underground R&B group, hangs on the wall while a larger poster of Bob Marley is framed by separate photos of various other rappers. The poster serves as a memento from a concert she attended the year before. “I saw The Roots live in concert last year, and afterwards, me and a bunch of my friends went to the afterparty with them,” Adelman says.
If memories of afterparties with Grammy-winning artists are any indication of Adelman’s social style, it’s safe to say she likes a good time. One might think she would be frustrated by Harvard’s more modest party scene, but Adelman characteristically keeps her cool. “Stressful about your social life—that’s something I’ll never be,” she laughs. “Have a little faith.”
The clock reads 7:42 p.m., and it’s time for us to head across the Charles to Eleganza. Adelman tucks a flask conveniently into her clutch and steps out into the crisp night. Faithful as she is, Adelman knows as well as anyone that sometimes all the Harvard scene requires is a little assistance.
When we arrive at the Bright Hockey Center, a large catwalk has replaced the ice in preparation for Eleganza, a student-run fashion show and one of Harvard’s most well-attended events of the year. Even from the bleachers, you can smell the sweat of some of Harvard’s hottest as they strut their stuff through the Bright.
Adelman is in her element in the VIP section, surrounded by members of the Association of Black Harvard Women and Eleganza organizers. At 8:30 p.m., the show begins, and social butterfly Adelman must take her seat. “I heart Eleganza. I’ve been going since pre-frosh year,” she recalls.
Mere weeks away from becoming a Harvard graduate, Adelman appreciates that her days of partying are dwindling. “I’ll miss that sort of freedom that comes with partying in the college scene,” she says.
But here, tonight, it’s just another Harvard Friday, and as far as Adelman is concerned, the end is far from sight. The young professional party scene may be her future, but Eleganza is her present, and right now, Adelman just wants to work her shoes.
